Chickpea Cake with Fava Leaves and Arugula Salad

9 Reviews
ADD YOUR REVIEW
Photo: Annabelle Breakey; Styling: Kevin Crafts
Total Time
1 Hour
Yield
Serves 6
By Sean Baker and Sean Baker
May 2011
RECIPE BY Sunset

At Gather Restaurant in Berkeley, CA, Sean Baker serves the chickpea cake with the salad plus seasonal additions like stinging nettles, braised black trumpet mushrooms, and pine-nut salsa.

Ingredients

  • CHICKPEA CAKE
  • About 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 qt. reduced-sodium vegetable broth
  • 1 2/3 cups chickpea (garbanzo) flour*
  • 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast*
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
  • 2 cups lightly packed fava leaves or baby spinach*
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • ARUGULA SALAD
  • 1 qt. lightly packed baby arugula
  • 1/2 cup fennel fronds
  • 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • Fennel and Orange Dressing

Nutritional Information

  • Calories 395
  • Caloriesfromfat 61%
  • Protein 9.2g
  • Fat 28g
  • Satfat 3.9g
  • Carbohydrate 30g
  • Fiber 6.2g
  • Sodium 987mg
  • Cholesterol 0.0mg

How to Make It

Step 1

Make chickpea cake: Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a large, wide pot over medium heat. Cook onion, stirring often, until translucent, about 7 minutes. Add broth and heat until simmering. Sprinkle in chickpea flour and yeast, whisking until smooth.

Step 2

Transfer mixture to a food processor. Purée until as smooth as baby food. Stir in thyme, fava leaves, and salt. Pour into a greased 9- by 13-in. baking dish. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap on top and use your hand to level mixture. Chill until cold, at least 1 1/2 hours and up to 2 days.

Step 3

Invert cake onto a cutting board. Cut into 12 squares, then cut each square again diagonally to make 24 triangles.

Step 4

Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Working in batches, brown triangles, turning once, 8 minutes total; add oil as needed. Set on 6 plates.

Step 5

Make salad: Toss arugula, fennel fronds, parsley, and half the vinaigrette in a bowl. Spoon salad over chickpea triangles and serve remaining dressing on the side.

Step 6

*Find chickpea flour and nutritional yeast at natural-food stores or well-stocked grocery stores. Find fava leaves at farmers' markets; if using spinach leaves instead, increase chickpea flour to 2 cups.

Step 7

Note: Nutritional analysis is per serving with 3 tbsp. dressing. Total time does not include chilling time.

Gather Restaurant, Berkeley, CA

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Ratings & Reviews

Christy2000's Review

Katey501
September 01, 2013
N/A

greenarkie's Review

greenarkie
September 22, 2011
I followed the recipe directly and it came out just fine with a firm, if somewhat gummy, texture to the cakes. I froze the extra for a quick weeknight supper.

cjohnston2005's Review

cookfortherapy
July 21, 2011
Recipe worked well with no changes except chicken broth substituted for veggie broth. Will make again for personal use, and will serve to vegan guests in the future (with veggie broth, of course). Perhaps others used wrong flour or didn't heat it enough? My liquid was quite hot (between a simmer and a true boil), and I took some time to add the flour in portions, so it did cook for a few minutes.

Mortimera73's Review

Christy2000
July 14, 2011
N/A

sfnorris's Review

Mortimera73
July 11, 2011
Not sure why the others ended up with a soupy texture. The flour does it all and the nutritional yeast adds a cheesy flavor - but you can't rush it. Very similar method to making polenta with a similar texture. Mine turned out fabulously. I used a blend of garbanzo and fava flour (all they had at the store), nutritional yeast and veggie broth. You shouldn't rush it. Make sure your broth is hot before whisking in the flour. I also found it started to firm up almost immediately when I poured it from my food processor into my sheet-pan. NOTE: I used a rimmed baking pan instead of a 9x13 because I wanted them thinner for more "crispy" to cake ratio. I also sliced them into stead-fry sized rectangles vs. triangles because I wanted chickpea fries, not triangles (more crispy area too)! I used sunflower oil to fry them in (higher smoke factor than olive oil)

cookfortherapy's Review

cjohnston2005
June 04, 2011
What an EXPENSIVE MESS!!!!! I paid a lot of money for the ingredients and have baby soup! There must be a step missing - I reread and reread the instructions on the recipe - one person had success after she dramatically altered the recipe - I don't believe it was successful. Doesn't Sunset try these recipes first?

Katey501's Review

sfnorris
May 18, 2011
I made a couple of changes to the recipe using a tablespoon of shredded mozzarella for the nutritional yeast and chicken broth instead of vegetable broth because I didn't have either. I also incorporated some of the spinach in the chickpea puree. I think they came out fabulously and had no trouble with the puree firming up before browning the cakes. I would definitely make this again.

jCabot's Review

jCabot
May 06, 2011
Missing a key ingredient for binding the recipe together. eggs? flax? Should be called chickpea slop

evazack's Review

evazack
April 28, 2011
This came out very soupy. Not sure if proportion of liquid to flour is correct, if pureeing it changes the consistency or if it needs to be cooked for 5 minutes like most chickpea flour recipes before it can set up. Plan to make crepes using the unset batter.