In summertime, I crave simple, nourishing foods. Fresh, and vibrant and blessedly easy to prepare. And while in wintertime, I favor hardy stews and roasts, in summer I want for something decidedly lighter.
Lately, I’ve leaned heavily on socca, a thin flatbread traditionally served in the south of France (it goes by the name farinata in Italy). Like the best of foods, socca is wonderfully simple to prepare and contains only a handful of uncomplicated, nourishing ingredients: chickpea flour, olive oil, salt and water.
Its light, but nutty flavor, pairs well with the robust flavors of summer: ripe tomatoes, fresh herbs, roasted garlic and even more olive oil. Sometimes I’ll serve it as a light lunch, like today, and other times I serve it as an appetizer before I bringing out the main dish and ample sidedishes for dinner party guests.
About Chickpeas
Chickpeas are as central to socca, as good flour is to wholesome artisan breads. Chickpeas are rich in chickpeas, folate, and thiamin as well as minerals like phosphorus, iron, zinc, and manganese. Of course, the minerals in chickpeas like the minerals in other pulses and in grains and nuts, are better absorbed when the chickpeas are prepared properly through sprouting, soaking or sour leavening. These traditional processes render the minerals found in pulses, grains, nuts and seeds more bioavailable.
Why Soaking and Sprouting Chickpeas Matters
Chickpeas, like all nuts and seeds, grains and pulses, contain food phytate. Food phytate can bind minerals, and prevent their full absorption. And, chickpeas, like other pulses, can be difficult to digest. The process of soaking, sprouting or souring can help to not only make the minerals they do contain more bioavailable, but that process also renders the bean easier to digest.
Sprouting, coupled with soaking or souring, can be particularly helpful in mitigating the effects of food phytate while ensuring the beans are easy to digest which is why I tend to work with sprouted chickpea flour (though this recipe also works with regular chickpea flour as well). More importantly, soaking the chickpea flour overnight, whether it is sprouted or not, also gives the final flatbread a wonderful, faint, tartness that complements the naturally earthy, nutty flavor of the chickpeas.
Socca (Simple, Gluten-free Chickpea Flatbread Print
Cook time: Total time: Serves: 2 flatbreads Simple and tart with a pleasant nuttiness, socca is a traditional flatbread made of chickpea flour and olive oil, popular in the south of France. Its sister, farinata, is made the same way in Italy. Socca makes an excellent, easy appetizer, and a fantastic base for a variety of toppings including anchovies, olives, sauteed vegetables, fresh herbs, tomatoes and olive oil. Ingredients - 1 cup chickpea flour, preferably sprouted (buy it here)
- 1 medium lemon, juiced
- 1¼ cups water
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for greasing the pan
- ½ teaspoon unrefined sea salt
Instructions - Dump the chickpea flour into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir in the lemon juice and water. Cover the bowl, and allow it to rest at room temperature at least 12 and up to 24 hours.
- Set a 10-inch cast iron skillet in the oven, and heat the broiler.
- Whisk in olive oil and salt, until it forms a thin, smooth batter.
- When the skillet is nice and hot, swirl a glug of olive oil in the bottom of the skillet until it's completely coated, then pour in half the batter, swirling it if necessary so that it coats the bottom of the skillet. Broil the socca until its edges turn crisp, and it begins to blister - about 7 minutes.
- Gently remove the socca from the pan, continue with the remaining half of the batter. Cut into squares and serve with more olive oil, fresh herbs, tomatoes, anchovies, olives or whatever you happen to like.
| Socca (Simple, Gluten-free Chickpea Flatbread | Print |
- 1 cup chickpea flour, preferably sprouted (buy it here)
- 1 medium lemon, juiced
- 1¼ cups water
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for greasing the pan
- ½ teaspoon unrefined sea salt
- Dump the chickpea flour into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir in the lemon juice and water. Cover the bowl, and allow it to rest at room temperature at least 12 and up to 24 hours.
- Set a 10-inch cast iron skillet in the oven, and heat the broiler.
- Whisk in olive oil and salt, until it forms a thin, smooth batter.
- When the skillet is nice and hot, swirl a glug of olive oil in the bottom of the skillet until it's completely coated, then pour in half the batter, swirling it if necessary so that it coats the bottom of the skillet. Broil the socca until its edges turn crisp, and it begins to blister - about 7 minutes.
- Gently remove the socca from the pan, continue with the remaining half of the batter. Cut into squares and serve with more olive oil, fresh herbs, tomatoes, anchovies, olives or whatever you happen to like.
What Olive Oil do you use for this? Extra Virgin?
Thank you!
Yes, I only use EVOO in my recipes. In case I fail to clarify.
This is great. I’ve got some chickpea flour I’ve been needing to use up. Thanks!
Sounds wonderful. Have you ever used coconut oil in place of olive (in light of the health benefits of coconut and the chemical degradation of olive oil when heated)? Seems like it could work with coconut but I’m curious if you’ve tried it.
EVOO is high in monounsaturated fats and is suitable for applications like this, but not prolonged or extended high heat.
this sounds yummy! i don’t have chickpea flour at the moment but would like to get some. in the meantime would this work with spelt flour? was thinking of turning the flatbread into pita chips, which my son loves.
thanks!
No, Socca needs to be made with chickpea flour.
What is the difference between sprouted chick pea floor and began flour?
How well does this store? Like, could I make it in the evening for a picnic lunch the next day?
Is there an alternate pan to cook it in? I don’t have a cast iron skillet….
I also don’t have a cast iron skillet. I’ve made this on a griddle like pancakes and I thought it came out well.
I just went to your recommended place, Blue Mountain Organics, as I was going to order the sprouted chickpea flour which was reasonably priced at $4.38 for 8 oz. However, the shipping for this item was $12.83. Wow! Way too expensive for me – 3x as much as the flour!
Can other pulses be used for this recipe? I have never done well with chickpeas, but I do fine with navy pea beans or brown lentils. And could one start with the beans/lentils whole, grind to flour, and then proceed?
Hmm. I’ve never tried chickpea flour, because I don’t like the taste of just regular chickpeas, but maybe the chickpea flour doesn’t have as strong of a flavor?
I bought a ton of gram (chickpea) flour at the Indian grocery to make pudlas which are savory vegetable pancakes. I have some left and would love to try this recipe.
I made this today with Red’s chickpea and fava flour because I could not find chickpea flour in the market and I didnt want to wait for it to come by mail. I loved it. I think I added too much oil in the pan and may go to spray it next time. I added a little cilantro, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, flax seed on top and then broiled it for a few more minutes to melt it in good. Delicious.
One question….why do you have to leave the flour mixture overnight in a bowl? I thought the lemon was a nice flavor but just did not understand the relevance of leaving it for awhile.
How on earth are you guys getting this out of the pan??? Both of my tries were flops. I used an enameled oven. Also there’s a big difference between lo and hi broil. Which do I use?
No matter what I cook this in it sticks to the pan, I first used an enameled iron frying pan and then used a non-stick pan and even that didn’t work. I used the olive oil but what a mess. What can I do to keep it from sticking?
I used a cast iron skillet and had to use A LOT of olive oil to fully coat the pan in order to prevent sticking. The socca didn’t quite slide out of the skillet, but after edging around the sides I managed to get it out. Wasn’t that pretty, but it worked.
I cooked it on “high” broil and it actually took a bit longer to cook….more like 12-13 minutes to get brown. The final product was tasty — I enjoyed it. My ten-year old….mmmmm, not so much!
Socca sold in france as a street food is typically just sold plain and you dose it with Salt and Cumin ….
you can also find Chic Pea Flour also called Gram Flour in Indian /Asia markets
I see some folks are also using waffle irons. . .I have a batter I’m about to try that way. (I’m trying to see what it’s like after only resting an hour or so, and then will try an overnight batter to see the difference.) I’d added chopped fresh rosemary per the suggestions of another recipe for socca.
Hi, I am in Australia (& English by birth) but have no idea what is meant by the ‘broiler’. I understand to get the frypan hot but not sure what happens after that. I think a broiler is where you put something over hot water? If the socca was simply fried in the pan, then it wouldn’t be in the oven….?
I’m going to soak my flour overnight, & think about it in the morning 🙂
A broiler is a heat element over the item on an oven rack below it- the top element in the oven. And I made this recipe tonight, it was excellent! I will be making this very often too. The sprouting, or soaking of the flour overnight will alleviate the gassy-ness of the legume very well, for those who may think to avoid making this because of the chickpea flour. I am confident I will have no such bloating in the morning.
thank you
Ok, I think I have to heat the pan in the oven & then put it under the ‘grill’ to broil it (ie what we would call grill it). That makes sense as the direct heat from the grill (broiler) would bake it & make it blister. So you need to use a vessel that will happily get hot & go under the grill, ie cast iron…the one thing I don’t have anymore. Might rethink soaking the flour for the moment, till I can work that out.
Sounds delicious though!
This is s a great recipe! What happens if you leave the batter soaking too long if something got in the way of cooking as planned – say 48 hours? Mine seems very think and watery. It had started to separate as well. Should it be tossed out or will it be fine?
Avocado oil is a mono fat high heat point not as heavy as olive going to give it a try.
Hi, you typed chickpeas have lots of chickpeas near the top, before listing their nutrients.
Thanks.
I had only regular chickpea flour but followed the recipe faithfully otherwise using a cast iron skillet heated smoking hot. The ‘batter’ was very runny. It stuck badly. Pulled it out at about 3 minutes as the top was blistered and dark brown. It had stuck badly and the middle was gummy – almost runny. Put it back in another 2-3 minutes; it was black on the edges. It was delicious folded with the gummy side in. How can I improve what I did? Why was the batter so runny? Are the proportions correct – equal amounts of flour and water plus the lemon juice and oil?
I have made socca a couple of times and I think that the amount of liquid in the suggested recipe is too much. I think total for water and lemon should be about the same–or a little less–than the amount of flour. I have also used my oven rather than the broiler for the first stage. I preheated the oven and cast iron pan to 450 deg, then put enough flax seed oil in the pan to coat it. Then poured the batter in, and cooked it for about 10 minutes–then turned the broiler on at the end for a couple of minutes. Worked wonderfully. I haven’t tried lemon, but will next time. I also put a tsp of italian herbs in, and about a quarter cup of chopped green onions (just the green part), and think its great. Afterward, I put a little more flax seed oil in the pan and put it back in the oven while it cools down to do a little re-seasoning. Good luck!