Chickpea Flour Pancakes with Spinach and Scallions

These mini chickpea pancakes are made with chickpea flour, rosemary, scallions, spinach, and lemon for a delicious appetizer, lunch, or dinner. They're made thicker by the addition of a little baking powder. Instructions include making this pancake as small thick pancakes.

It's also a great high protein appetizer for your next party with a dollop of sour cream. These pancakes are vegan without the sour cream topping.

Jump to Recipe

Want to make this recipe perfectly the first time? I want to help with that. So, check out this Table of Contents to see which sections of this post will help you the most.

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes 
• 🤓 What is Chickpea Flour?
• 🔪 Recommended Equipment
• 🎯 Why This Recipe Works
• 👩‍🍳 Tips for Success
• 👩‍🍳 What can I do if the batter runs out when removing the rings?
• 🧊 Can I make this dish ahead?
• 💡Ideas for Possible Variations
• 🌱 Garnish Options
• 🍽 Side Dish Ideas 
• Mini Chickpea Flour Pancakes with Spinach and Scallions

Chickpea pancakes are popular all through the Mediterranean and remind me of crepes. The first time I had this dish was in the Liguria region of Italy where it's called farinata on menus. It's served in large, shallow pans straight from wood-fired ovens. Baking it that way gives the farinata a slightly smoky flavor and crispy edges.

When the pan arrived at our table, we tore it into pieces, and ate it with our fingers. It was one of the best things I had while I was in the region. 

For more chickpea pancake recipes, check out this basic chickpea pancake recipe made the way I had it in Liguria minus the wood-fired oven.

Chickpea pancakes are also popular in the south of France where they're called socca. The ones I've had there are thicker than their Italian sibling but essentially the same dish.

This recipe shows a way to make mini chickpea pancakes with scallions and spinach but you can also make it as one big pancake. 

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

• Chickpea pancakes are vegan, gluten-free, and a great way to get plant-based protein.
• Since chickpea flour is a gluten-free flour, there's no risk of over-mixing and ending up with tough pancakes. Chickpea pancakes are very tender. 
• They're ready in under 30 minutes with only 15 minutes of prep, so this is a great quick dinner or lunch.
• These savory pancakes are versatile for adding different ingredients or toppings.

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🤓 What is Chickpea Flour?

As mentioned above when you look for chickpea flour on your grocery shelves, you may see garbanzo besan flour or gram flour. Are they all the same? 

Yes and no. They are all made by grinding dried chickpeas, but there are subtle differences. 

Chickpea flour, garbanzo flour, and garbanzo bean flour are all milled whole white chickpeas (garbanzo beans). Gram flour and besan flour is made by grinding split brown chickpeas. You can substitute any of them for each other but gram and besan flours are more finely ground than chickpea/garbanzo flours.

Chickpea flour is gluten-free and very common in Mediterranean cooking and is also sometimes used as a thickener for soups.

It can be used as a binder to replace eggs in baking because of its high protein content. To replace one egg, mix equal parts of chickpea flour and warm water together to form a thick mixture.

🎯 Why This Recipe Works

• The combination of baking powder and cake rings to limit the spread of the pancakes promote a thick pancake.
• When making one large pancake, the baking powder, even though it's a very small amount, makes the pancake puffy and lighter.
• Adding both scallions and spinach make these pancakes a little heartier and meal-worthy.
• Rosemary is a perfect and traditional flavor to add to any chickpea pancakes.

👩‍🍳 Tips for Success

• Allow a little crust to form on the surfaces of the pancakes before flipping them. It adds a lot of flavor to the pancake(s).
• If using baking rings to make smaller pancakes, be sure not to over-fill the rings with batter. If you over-fill them, they will be too thick and when you remove the rings, and some batter will run out in the pan. If you cook them long enough to ensure they will be stable, the bottoms may be too browned.
• The mini pancakes need to cook for a few minutes before removing the cake rings. Look for tiny bubbles on the tops of the pancakes and a firming up of the batter around the edges. Very quickly after this, the tops will become more cooked. This is when you flip them.
• You can oil the cake rings before arranging them in the skillet if you want but I haven't found that to be necessary.
• When making one large pancake, you must use an oven-safe pan so that you can finish the pancake under the broiler. A large chickpea pancake cannot be flipped.

👩‍🍳 What can I do if the batter runs out when removing the rings?

Very simple.

• Spread the batter around the small pancakes in the skillet to make one large pancake. Cook over medium heat until bubbles appear on the top of the batter (just like when making traditional pancakes).
• Slide the pan under the broiler for 2 - 3 minutes, until the pancake is firm.
• Run a spatula around the rim of the pan and transfer to a serving plate. These pancakes are very tender and tear easily. Just go with it for a rustic dish. It will still be delicious!

🧊 Can I make this dish ahead?

There are at least 3 options for making these pancake ahead:

• Whisk together the warm water, chickpea flour, minced rosemary, salt, and pepper. Cover tightly and keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Since this mixture needs to sit for 15 minutes to allow the flour to completely absorb the water, this saves a little time.
• Completely make the batter ahead of time, tightly cover, and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
• Make the pancakes ahead of time and re-warm on the stove or in the microwave oven when ready to serve them.

💡Ideas for Possible Variations

• Swap out the rosemary for other herbs. Oregano, basil, and thyme are all good choices.
• Use shallots in place of the scallions. 
• Make one large pancake instead of 5 small ones.
• Shred butternut squash and fold it into the batter in place of spinach.

🌱 Garnish Options

• Add a few drops of sriracha to sour cream or Greek yogurt for a slightly spicy topping.
• Serve these like blinis with caviar. There is a fabulous seaweed-based vegan caviar I highly recommend called Zeroe Caviar. It's delicious!

🍽 Side Dish Ideas 

Any roasted vegetable dish is great with this in the fall and winter months. In summer, I make a large kale salad with avocado slices.