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Chickpea Tofu

This one is sort of like a polenta, but seems to be firmer - and, of course, it uses chickpeas.  We've modified our version from Jennifer Schmidt's.

The Ingredients:
  • 1 cup chickpea flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • at least 1/4 spice (we used ground ginger)
  • 3 cups water (divided)
  • Cooking spray or a neutral oil.

The Process:

Grease a pan or baking dish with the neutral oil.  An 8x8 is about right, but you can go smaller for thicker pieces or larger for thinner ones.

Put 1 1/2 cups water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

While your water is getting to its boil, combine chickpea flour, salt, and spice in a bowl.  Mix in 1 1/2 cups water and whisk until smooth.

Reduce heat on the saucepan to medium-high.  Add in the chickpea and water mixture, stirring constantly. 

Continue stirring until the mixture thickens.  (Schmidt claims this will take 8 minutes.  It took more like 15.  Also, if you stop stirring, your tofu mix will bubble and spit at you.)

Your mixture should be glossy and thicker than custard: you can test it by drizzling some on top of itself.  If the mix doesn't immediately reincorporate that drizzle, it's about ready.

Pour mixture into your greased pan and allow to sit for at least an hour.  It will get increasingly firm over time.  It will *not* get to a firm tofu consistency.

Cut it and use it like you would ordinary tofu.


Pro Tips:

This is a pretty basic base recipe also.  We used a bit of ginger this time, and the taste is slightly nutty and super mild.  Next time I'm putting more spices in it.  Garlic, onion powder, etc.

Apparently if you have dried chickpeas, you can run them through a food process and make your own chickpea flour.  Also a good strategy if you can't get chickpea flour.

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