Chickpea Chorizo Pancakes
Makes 8 pancakes
Takes: 15 mins to 30 mins
These perfect little snacks are packed full of flavour. The smokiness of the chorizo works wonderfully with the toasted spices and you can leave it out if you want to make a veggie version. Great for little canapés or even as a starter, and you can make them in advance and just fry them when you need them.
Ingredients
240g cooked chickpeas, drained
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ red onion, finely sliced
½ carrot, julienned
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
½ teaspoon root ginger, finely chopped
1 fresh chilli, seeds removed, finely sliced
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
75g cooked chorizo, cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon fresh dill, roughly chopped
good handful breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
juice of ½ lime or lemon
sea salt & black pepper, to taste
Method
Mash the chickpeas in a large bowl until broken. It doesn’t matter if some are still whole.
Toast the spices by heating a heavy based frying pan on medium heat. Add the cumin seeds, coriander seeds and fennel seeds and move them around until you can smell their aromas. Coarsely grind in a pestle & mortar.
In the same frying pan gently heat half the vegetable oil and fry the red onions, carrots, garlic, ginger, fresh chilli, turmeric and chorizo. Grind over a generous amount of black pepper.
Sauté for a few minutes and add to the mashed chickpeas.
Stir through the toasted spices, fresh coriander, fresh dill, breadcrumbs, beaten egg and lime/lemon juice.
Season with a little salt.
Gently heat the remaining oil in the same frying pan. Take around a golf ball size amount of chickpeas mixture in your hands and roll into a ball before flattening slightly to resemble small pancakes.
Start frying them for a few minutes on each side, before flipping over. They should be golden brown.
Serve with some yoghurt and an little extra sprinkling of sea salt.
