Socca Recipe - Love and Lemons (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep socca from sticking? ›

Socca Recipe Tips

It's essential that your skillet is hot when you add the socca batter, so put your pan in the oven as soon as you turn it on. If your skillet is too cool, the socca will stick to it, and the edges and bottom won't crisp up as they bake. Don't cut the soaking time short.

Dry roasting the chickpea flour before use will get rid of the bitter taste and bring out more of its nutty flavor as well as a hint of natural sweetness.

A traditional delight hailing from the south of France (Nice, to be exact), socca is a chickpea flour pancake, or flatbread, often served informally as street food. Chickpea flour, sometimes called gram flour, garbanzo flour, or besan, can be found in ethnic grocery stores or health food shops.

When stored in a cool, dry and dark place, an unopened pack of chickpea flour can last up to 1 year past the printed date on the package. However, once opened, it should be used within 6 months for best quality. If you've frozen your chickpea flour, it can last for an impressive 2 years.

I usually use dried chickpeas here to make my flour, however, for increased nutritional value you can sprout and then dry the chickpeas before grinding them into flour. To do this, add a cup of chickpeas to a large jar, loosely cover with some cloth and soak 12 to 24 hours, then rinse well.

I much prefer the nutty, crisp chickpea flour coating to other flour-based batters, and those who cannot tolerate wheat will be very happy with it.

By adding baking soda, you are increasing the pH of the water and making it more alkaline. This helps break down the pectin in the chickpeas which softens their skins better and faster. This is especially important when you are making hummus and want the creamiest consistency possible.

The chickpeas are sautéed with baking soda for a few minutes, before dumping in the water to simmer the chickpeas. The baking soda makes the water more alkaline, which softens the chickpeas more quickly by weakening their pectic bonds.

Chickpeas flour will cause you digestive discomfort if you have already experienced it with whole chickpeas. When consuming take it in smaller quantities and have plenty of water as it will helps ease digestion and avoid unwanted symptoms like bloating, cramps and gas.

Farinata (Italian: [fariˈnaːta]), farinata di ceci, torta di ceci, fainé, fainá, socca, cecìna or cade is a type of thin, unleavened pancake or crêpe made from chickpea flour.

What is the difference between garbanzo flour and chickpea? ›

Besan flour, gram flour, and garbanzo bean flour are all chickpea flours; they're just made from different varieties of chickpeas. Chickpea flour or garbanzo bean flour is milled using whole white chickpeas (garbanzo beans). Besan or gram flour is made by grinding split brown chickpeas (chana dal) into a fine powder.

The difference between socca and panisse is in the cooking method. "They're really quite different," says Rosa Jackson, a Canadian expat, food writer, and owner of Les Petit* Farcis, a cooking studio in the Old Town of Nice. "Socca is baked in the oven, and panisse is cooked first in a saucepan then fried."

Wheat-based refined flours usually can be used past the expiration date (up to a year at your house), especially if it's been stored in a cool, dry place. 2 You'll want to be careful about self-rising flour, though, as the baking powder that's mixed into the flour can lose its effectiveness over time.

Like other types of flours, chickpea flour and besan should be stored in a sealed container to keep out moisture in a cool place. It stays fresh for upto 6 months, and longer if refrigerated.

The bottom line

Chickpea flour is full of healthy nutrients. It's a great alternative to refined wheat flour, as it's lower in carbs and calories yet richer in protein and fiber. Research suggests that it may have antioxidant potential and could decrease levels of the harmful compound acrylamide in processed foods.

Finally, the key to a perfect protein pancake has to be the pan. It has to be non-stick (changing your pans regularly is a real game-changer) and lightly greased with oil.

I soak dried garbanzo beans/chickpeas overnight, rinse well, then cook beans in Instant Pot. Beans come out tender.

Chickpea flour's binding power makes it an excellent gluten-free alternative for holding together oven-fried cakes, croquettes, and fritters, including our Zucchini Fritters.

It holds up to being boiled in water better than other bean pastas, maintaining the bite of an al dente noodle. (Here's a caveat: only buy the small shapes. The spaghetti and long-strand varieties of Banza get soft and fall apart. Stick with the elbows, penne, rigatoni, rotini, etc.)