Gluten Free Recipe Using Chick Pea Flour:
How To Make Wheat-Free Dumplings.
These are really delicious things: Great for celiacs or other people following wheat free or gluten free diets. The chick pea flour dumplings will give richness and flavour to your winter soups, and provide good protein as well.
They come out well when they are cooked in a vegetable soup which has plenty of clear liquid in it.
These gluten free dumplings are a great protein resource for vegetarians. Of course, you can add a little gravy beef or fish if you wish.
Take one regular cup of chick pea flour, also called besan flour. Put into a clean dry bowl.
Add one free range egg, preferably organic.
Add half a teaspoon of sea salt and two teaspoons of baking powder.
Add enough water to mix – around half a cup or a little more.
If you like, you can add some spices to the dumpling mixture. A little turmeric for colouring, or some chopped fresh chilli, or some chopped fresh coriander, are some additions which you can use to excite the taste buds.
Get your wooden spoon and stir the mixture well, grinding out any lumps of pea flour as you go.
The mixture should resemble a stiffish batter – just thin enough so that you can drop balls of batter into your boiling soup. Be careful not to add too much water in the mixing of it, as it will not hold together if it is too runny.
Get your soup up to simmering point, but not boiling heavily. It should be simmering away gently when you add your dumplings to it.
Use all the mixture up, dropping balls of dough into the soup. Cook for 10 minutes on one side, then turn the dumplings over for 5 minutes or so.
Serve the soup with the dumplings.
You can experiment with using the same recipe above, but fried in olive oil instead of being boiled as dumplings.
You can make the batter slightly more runny, and put slices of zucchini, or aubergine, or slices of onion with it. Take a piece of your chosen vegetable, surrounded with a spoonful of the pea flour batter,and pop it into the hot oil. Fry until brown. Turn over and cook on the other side.
Eat while hot.
Delicious.