Today, I am sharing my leek and mushroom farinata slices made with chickpea flour. This is a very delicious variation. Instead of frying, as in traditional farinata, we are going to bake it to perfection in the oven! These slices are completely vegan and gluten-free, as you’d expect with all my recipes.

If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know I often use chickpea flour in my recipes. Chickpea flour is also called garbanzo bean flour (USA), gram flour or besan flour. This is an ideal ingredient in gluten-free baking for a couple of reasons…

Chickpea flour allows the slices and patties to hold together like a dream.
It also brings in a healthy dose of protein to your meal in place of animal products.

How to serve leek and mushroom farinata

Delicious served hot with lunch or brunch

They are best served hot, straight out of the oven if you can. They work well as part of brunch, lunch or dinner too. I serve them along with salad, hummus for lunch or smoky black beans and turmeric potato patties with a side of avocado for brunch.

Leek and mushroom slices in your lunchbox

Leek and mushroom farinata slices can also enjoyed cold as a lunchbox snack! I love to take them hiking with me.

What is farinata?

You might be wondering what farinata is. It originally is a simple fried pancake, flatbread or slice made with chickpea or gram flour. Farinata is the Italian name, although it is popular worldwide where it is known by other names, along with a myriad of ingredient variations. It’s called socca and cecina in France. Meanwhile, in Uruguay and Argentina is very popular and is called fainá.

Why is chickpea flour a good gluten-free flour?

If you have tried baking with gluten-free flours you’ll know that one of the biggest challenges is finding flour with good binding properties. Gluten-free flours generally don’t bind together well. This is where chickpea flour really shines!

Chickpea flour is an excellent binder. This means in slices like this, you can toss in lots of extra things, in this case leeks and mushrooms. And you’ll find the chickpea flour will bind everything together extremely well!

Does chickpea flour leave an aftertaste?

People often say chickpea flour has an interesting taste or that it leaves an aftertaste. Not everyone likes this. However, I find this is only the case if you make super plain farinata with chickpea flour, salt and water. If you add in the extra ingredients such pepper and cumin seeds or herbs and spices, you’ll find that the flavours balance out nicely.

Baked leek and mushroom farinata slices

Name: Baked leek and mushroom farinata slices
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: dairy free, gluten free, vegan, healthy
Ingredients: 2 large leeks; 100g mushrooms; Dash of oil; 200g chickpea flour (gram/besan/garbanzo bean flour); 300ml water; 1 teaspoon sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black or white pepper; 1 teaspoon cumin seeds; ¼ teaspoon chilli (from a jar or equivalent); ½ red pepper (optional)

Yield: 8 slices

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

An easy leek and mushroom slice. It serves hot or cold. Gluten-free, vegan. Made with chickpea flour, also called gram flour, besan flour or garbanzo bean flour.

Ingredients

2 large leeks
100g mushrooms
Dash of oil
200g chickpea flour (gram/besan/garbanzo bean flour)
300ml water
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon black or white pepper
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon chilli (from a jar or equivalent)
½ red pepper (optional)

Instructions

Watch my YouTube video below for a quick visual guide on how to make this.
Chop your leeks into small pieces.
Slice your mushrooms.
Saute the chopped leek and mushroom in hot oil in a frying pan for a few minutes until they soften. Once cooked take off the heat and put to the side.
Mix the chickpea flour, water, salt, pepper, chilli and cumin seeds together thoroughly to create a batter. It’s easiest to do this in a bullet blender or with a hand blender, which takes a few seconds. If you do it by hand then make sure that you get all of the lumps of flour mixed in.
Add the cooked leek and mushroom to the batter, mixing in thoroughly.
Pour into a baking tray that you’ve lined with parchment paper (baking paper). A tray that is 20 cm x 30 cm (8 in x 12 in) or less is ideal. If it’s much smaller, then increase the baking time by 5 minutes.
If you want to add sweet pepper then chop or slice it and decorate on the top.
Bake in a preheated oven at around 190C (375F) for approximately 25 minutes.
Take out, flip upside down and peel off the parchment paper.
Slice immediately if you want to serve it hot.
It can also be served cold and will keep in the fridge in a sealed container for a few days. You can even freeze it if you leave off the peppers (peppers don’t freeze well).
Let me know how you get on in the comments below.