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.
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.
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.
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)
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?
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.
Missing a key ingredient for binding the recipe together. eggs? flax? Should be called chickpea slop
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.
