George and I share a lot in common. One such thing is we don’t like getting comfortable with being comfortable. As such, we tend to shy away from most routines. We do make a few exceptions and one is Friday dinner.
A couple of years ago, we joined a farm co-op. In addition to random salads, one of our favorite ways to use the remaining vegetables at the end of the week was on pizza.
Over the years, we’ve experimented with pizza doughs. From traditional yeast-based recipes, to our own sourdough, we pretty much always switched it up. During Ellie’s early weeks, we stumbled upon a recipe that is very in tune with our pared down way of living and made getting “pizza” on the table a breeze – even with a newborn.
Enter Socca. Socca is typically described as a pancake or crepe made of garbanzo bean/chickpea flour, water and olive oil. It’s thought to originate in France or Italy. In addition to being nutritious and delicious, it’s super easy.
Many recipes out there call for adding seasoning to the batter. We prefer to add flavor pops via the toppings and stick to a simple 1:1 ratio of garbanzo bean flour to water. We add the olive oil straight to a hot cast iron pan to prevent sticking.
We’ve found we like the thickness of 1 cup of garbanzo bean flour mixed with 1 cup of water. This produces a crispy crust with a touch of light doughiness to it in our cast iron pan measures ~9” in diameter. This can be adjusted for your pan size and preference.
Following is the rough recipe that we enjoy.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup chickpea/garbanzo bean flour
- 1 cup water
- ~2 tablespoons olive oil
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Heat cast iron/ovenproof pan on the stovetop over medium-high heat.
- Mix flour and water with a whisk.
- Once the pan starts to steam/smoke, turn the stovetop off, add the olive oil and swirl it around to cover the surface.
- Add the batter to the pan and swirl it around to cover the surface.
- Cook the batter in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Add veggies/toppings galore and then cook an additional 10-20 minutes, until your toppings are cooked to your preference.
- Enjoy!
George has opened my eyes to playing with flavor. One of my favorite surprise toppings he’s added in is fresh, chopped ginger. I would have never thought to pair that with the likes of homemade tomato sauce, yellow bell pepper, mushrooms, spinach, onion, basil, garlic and olives, but holy yum!
We try to mix up the toppings, though during plating, we usually always add avocado for a healthy source of fat. Since the crust is made of garbanzo bean flour, we have a built-in source of protein in addition to carbohydrate. We also like to add nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes for additional flavor.
Happy Friday!