Today’s unique recipe produces a nutritious, egg free pancake for your baby that makes a wonderful, gummable finger food!
This recipe calls for chickpea (or garbanzo bean) flour, a gluten-free flour that’s commonly used in Indian cuisine and which you’ll usually find sold in ethnic food stores as ‘gram flour’. Also known as besan, chickpea flour is a great source of protein!
Chickpea pancakes are also known as ‘socca’ in Mediterranean cuisine, and are particularly popular in France – but our not-so-traditional version contains shredded carrots, making them nice and colourful and a creative way to include more veggies in your baby’s diet!
To Make Chickpea and Carrot Pancakes You Will Need…
2 small carrots, peeled (if not organic) and grated
4 oz (1 cup) chickpea flour
6 to 8 fl oz (3/4 to 1 cup) water
1 tbsp chopped, fresh parsley (optional)
olive oil
Pour boiling water over the grated carrots and soak for 10 minutes to soften them. Drain, then blot with a paper towel.
Blend the chickpea flour with 6 fl oz (3/4 cup) of the water (you can do this in a food processor) , then stir in the grated carrots and parsley. You should be aiming for a smooth, relatively thin batter – the carrots will provide some moisture, so you may not need any more water, but if the mixture seems a little too thick, then stir in up to 2 fl oz (1/4 cup) more.
Heat a little olive oil in a non stick frying pan, ensuring that the surface of the pan is covered.
Using a ladle, put around a quarter of the batter mixture into the pan, tilting the pan to spread it around.
Cook for around 3 mins, until the underside is turning brown, then flip or turn with a spatula and cook for a few minutes on the other side.
Repeat the process with the rest of the batter until you have four pancakes (which you can share with baby or freeze for future use).
Fold – or cut into manageable pieces – and serve warm. These taste good with an applesauce topping, but they are great by themselves, too!
TIP: You can vary this recipe by using shredded squash or sweet potato in place of the carrots.
More baby food recipes with carrots
How To Make Chickpea Flour at Home | The Homemade Baby Food Recipes Blog
Monday 12th of April 2010
[...] writing our post about Chickpea and Carrot Pancakes last week, we received two messages from visitors who were unable to find chickpea flour in their [...]