breaded chickpea tofu fingers
20 servings — 90 minutes
Was in the mood for some baked veggie fingers, didn't have tofu, but what we did have was a jar full of chickpea flour. Burmese tofu is made with chickpea flour, one of our staple foods. We first learned about this kind of tofu by reading The Burmese Kitchen by Aung Thein. The process for making this kind of tofu is usually much longer, if you're interested in making it the correct way the process is described at length on this page(which was copied digitally from The Burmese Kitchen). Our recipe suggests a quick way to make chickpea tofu, which was inspired by this recipe. We prepared a batch of spicy, green scallion 'chickpea tofu' and coated it with breadcrumbs.
The lemon juice adds flavor to the crumbs, no need for eggs or flour.
We served these with sambal oelek, it's spicy but works well with the dish. We've been pairing this condiment with a lot of foods lately, we are sure these would also be good with a sweet mustard dip
Left-over breading will keep for weeks if stored in an airtight container.
Besan flour. In this recipe I use chickpea flour, ground from whole dry chickpeas(garbanzo beans), besan/gram flour comes from ground brown chickpeas(sometimes peas too) and usually comes out finer, smoother when ground into flour. If using besan(gram) flour, remove 60 ml of water, or add 1/4 cup of flour. It's also possible to make chickpea tofu by soaking the beans, to blend them and to use that to make the batter(cooked, of course).
Thicker chickpea tofu.. If you prefer a firmer chickpea tofu, use 450 ml of vegetable broth instead of 500 ml.
vegetable bouillon500 ml
chickpea flour125 g
salt1.25 g
ground turmeric2.5 g
chili pepper flakes4 g
scallions2 stalks
chickpea tofu
- Mix 125g (1 cup) of chickpea flour with 1.25 g (1/4 tsp) of salt, 2.5 g (1/2 tsp) of ground turmeric and 4 g (1 tsp) of chili pepper flakes. Stir in 250 ml (1 cup) of vegetable broth(or water) and stir until the mixture is lump-free, reserve mixture for later.
- Add the rest of the vegetable bouillon(250 ml | 1 cup) to a pot and bring to a rolling boil.
- Lower the heat to medium, pour in the chickpea flour mixture from the first step and whisk continuously for 5-10 minutes until the mixture has thickened.
- Remove from heat, fold in 2 diced stalks scallions(optional). Pour into a 8x8 baking dish lined with a baking mat. Smooth out top with the back of a wooden spoon.
- Let cool and set for 1 hour, then refrigerate for a little while longer before cutting. Cut into strips.
fresh bread5 slices
breading
- Take 5 slices of bread, and tear them into small bits using your fingers. It's easier to do that with a food processor, but not necessary.
- Preheat your oven at 150 °C (300 °F). Lay the crumbs down in a thin layer over a baking sheet, laying them out this way ensures even browning. Bake the bread bits for 5 minutes. After that time, shake them around the tray, and bake them for an additional 5 minutes. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don't burn! Let cool.
nutritional yeast15 g
lemon juice50 ml
breading mix
- Preheat oven to 220 °C (425 °F).
- Mix 150 g (1 cup) of dried breadcrumbs with 15 g (1/4 cup) of nutritional yeast. Spread out thinly onto a plate.
- Pour 45 ml (3 tbsp) of lemon juice in a separate plate.
- Take a slice of the chickpea tofu and dip into the lemon juice, making sure all sides are covered, then dip into the breading mix. Make sure all sides are well coated.
- Place on baking sheet lined a baking mat, season with black pepper and salt. Spray lightly with olive oil.
- Bake for 15 minutes, flip, bake for another 15 minutes. Serve with dipping sauce of choice!