Another recipe inspired by Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules, is this delicious, veg-forward breakfast. I LOVE having lots of vegetables for breakfast. Sautéed mushrooms, kale, and tomatoes on toast is probably my favourite. So when I re-visited ‘Summer Kitchens’, one of Olia’s brilliant books, and saw this puffed broccoli omelette I knew I had to make a plant based twist.
We have just added chickpea flour to our grocery section. It’s one of my favourite pantry ingredients, so useful for making fritters, socca bread, bhajis, vegan tortillas or quiches and egg free omelettes. To make it puffy, I just used bread soda activated with some apple cider vinegar. The results were delicious and I’ll be recreating this veggie breakfast over and over again using different seasonal vegetables. Of course it would be wonderful with our purple sprouting broccoli and I’m going to use leeks next time for sure! Don’t forget to tag us in your re-creations, we love to see the spin you put on our recipes.
Liz x
Ingredients (serves 2)
- 1/2 mug of gram flour
- 1/2 mug of water
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- black pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- sliced broccoli to cover frying pan
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Start with the batter. The longer the chickpea flour has to re-hydrate, the better texture – you could even make the batter the night before and leave it covered overnight at room temperature to lightly ferment. Whisk together the flour, water, vinegar, salt and pepper. Wait to add the baking soda just before frying.
- In a frying pan which has a lid, fry the broccoli with the olive oil, salt and pepper until just starting to take on some colour. Then spread the broccoli evenly over the base of the pan and turn the heat down to medium.
- Add the baking soda to the chickpea flour batter and whisk it in – the batter should immediately start to fluff up. Quickly pour it over the broccoli and put the lid on the frying pan. This will ensure a crispy bottom and a fluffy, steamed top to your omelette.
- After 3-5 minutes or so, the batter should be cooked through. You can test it by touching the top of the omelette, your finger should come off dry without batter.
- Slice it into wedges and serve warm. It’s delicious with some juicy sliced tomatoes alongside too.
Raw unpeeled beetroot, same for carrots, same for apple, same for ginger, celery. Add some apple cider vinegar and a little date syrup. My Tefal food grater broke so I now throw them all into the food processor with blade attachment. This is delicious with anything and everything.
Thank you. I saw the recipe in Summer Kitchens too and decided maybe it was too egg dependent for me to try to adapt. I used to make egg souffle omelettes a lot nearly 50 years ago but couldn’t think how to make a vegetarian/vegan equivalent.I shall try this recipe this week. I even have some sauteed mushrooms and part of a can of sweetcorn in the fridge. And some leeks! I use chickpea flour quite a lot and make fritters and farinata (less time consuming than frying the mix as socca) but it is difficult to find an organic chickpea flour. Great to be able to get it from you. Maybe it could be used, either on its own or with silken tofu, to make Middle Eastern Kookoo/Eggeh?
Lovely! Always good to use what you have. I have used chickpea flour to make Kuku Sabzi? Maybe that’s the same thing? Very very herby, bright green omelette with walnuts and barberries?
The leek, mushroom and sweetcorn were a delicious combination in the omelette, which worked brilliantly.
I think Kuku is another name for Kookoo or Eggeh. Depending on what country or region a version comes from. That Sabzi version is one I never came across before I gave up eggs though I have heard the name since. It sounds fabulous. I must give it a go. Maybe pomegranate seeds in place of barberries? I might also try getting dried barberries then reconstituting them.