I love Indian food for two main reasons. First of all the use of so many spices, it makes the food taste so good and also adds health benefits. To list a few… ginger, turmeric, cardamom, curry, coriander…that aid as anti-inflammatory, digestion, antioxidant, grastointestinal issues and so on. And second because there are sooo many delicious vegetarian/vegan dishes…Indian cuisine is famous for its dhal or other legume plates.
Today I made such a simple yet nutritious and very colorful lunch.
Chickpea flour in Italy is used to make “farinata” which looks a bit like a flat focaccia. But making these crepes is so simple and so quick and can be used as an alternative to bread.
Palak is indian for spinach. Usually indians serve Palak with paneer wich is Spinach with homemade firm cheese. It’s very good but having just the spinach is also good (and vegan!).
for the Palak:
-1 big bag of fresh spinach (mine was picked an hour before from the farmer, yay!)
-2 cm piece ginger
-1 garlic clove
-1 tsp cumin powder
-1 tsp curry powder
-2 tbls extra virgin olive oil
-juice of 1/2 lemon
for the Chickpea Crepes (makes 4):
-120 gr/1 cup chickpea flour
-270 ml water
-1 tbls extra virgin olive oil
-1 tsp turmeric powder
-1 tsp salt
Start by washing the spinach and picking the leaves. Then put in a big pot, cover and you’ll see that in just a couple of minutes the volume will decrease so much. Using a hand blender or a mixer blend the spinach with its remaining water from cooking it. In a pan heat the olive oil with the grated ginger and minced garlic, after 2 minutes add the cumin and curry powder and some salt, after 2 minutes add the spinach and heat up for another couple of minutes. Serve with lemon juice.
For the crepes, pour the flour into a bowl and with a fork make sure there are no clumps, add 1 tbls olive oil, 1 tsp turmeric powder and 1 tsp salt; then gradually add the water while mixing with the fork. You will need to have a runny sauce/cream, like when you make pancakes.
Heat a non stick pan and add 1 tsp of olive oil to make sure it won’t stick. Add 1-2 spoons of chickpea mixture, spread out to form a thin layer and cook for a couple of minutes on each side.
Amber Bewick 