Pudla (chickpea pancakes) with Tofu Bacon

Yes you read right!

It was my weird idea of a good breaky combo.

It's been a while since I last made tofu bacon and I don't think I blogged the recipe so heres the recipe. I friggin love this stuff:

Tofu Bacon (original recipe from veg web) I had to tweak the proportions though by adding about double the soy sauce, liquid smoke and nooch:


    1 package (about 1lb. or 450grams) extra-firm silken tofu
    2 tablespoons soy sauce   
    1 teaspoon liquid smoke
    2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
    1 tablespoon oil for cooking

Directions:

The cooking times seem really important for this bacon to turn out--if the tofu isn't cooked enough it isn't chewy/crispy.

Slice the tofu into strips just under 1/4 inch thick.  Place the oil in a frying pan, and lay the tofu strips in the pan.  Cook the tofu for 10 minutes on one side over low-medium heat before you try to flip the strips--this way, they won't break apart.  Then flip them, and cook for another 10 minutes.

Mix the soy sauce and liquid smoke in a separate dish.  Remove the tofu pan from the heat (after the total of 20 minutes it just cooked) and pour the soy sauce mixture over it.  Shake the pan around to make sure the tofu is thoroughly coated on both sides; put pan back on burner.  Immediately sprinkle the tofu with the nutritional yeast (I only coat one side of the strips, and that seems to be plenty).  Let it cook a minute or so until almost all the sauce cooks off; flip the strips and give it another minute.

Eat & enjoy!  I never plain far enough ahead to marinate tofu or tempeh, and this works really well.  It's slightly on the salty side, but the chewiness, texture, and taste is just right.

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 22 mins

So crispy, smokey and salty. I think it's my fav way to eat tofu. Wish I made a double batch to snack on!

I've been curious about these indian chickpea pancakes or Pudla since I read about them on Green Gourmet Giraffe. The man in the indian grocery store asked me why I was buying chickpea flour and I explained that it was to make pudla but he didn't understand, so I'm not sure how it is pronounced.  Like Johanna I followed Nourish Me's posted recipe which is originally from a Madhur Jaffrey's cookbook .

Pudla (chickpea pancakes) with ginger and crushed peas - feeds 2-3

 I left out the chilli, spring onions and tomatoes but they were still delicious.

1 cup of frozen, shelled green peas
2 cups of chickpea flour (besan/gram)
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
Good pinch of ground turmeric
Good pinch of chilli powder
1 teaspoon of sea salt
2 cups of water
A large thumb of ginger
4 spring onions, finely sliced
A little olive oil, for frying

Cook the peas, in their frozen state, in boiling water according to the packet instructions and drain well. Lightly crush with either a fork or a potato masher.

Sift the chickpea flour, spices and salt into a roomy bowl. Make a well and slowly trickle the water into the centre, whisking in a little of the dry mixture from the sides as you go. There must be no lumps. Lumps are bad. Grate the ginger and squeeze the resulting juice into the mixture, whisk well and stir through the peas and spring onions. Rest, at room temperature, for 30 minutes.

Warm a frying pan over a medium-high heat and drizzle in a little oil. When hot, pour in a ladle of the mixture and cook for 2 minutes. They should be golden underneath. Drizzle the uncooked side with another dribble of oil before flipping and cooking for a further 2 minutes. Eat hot, straight from the pan.

I ended up having some issues getting it smooth because I didn't read the recipe probably so I used my kitchen aid. I was really pleased with them though, they didn't stick and I didn't have any issues flipping them and they made a great g/f breaky option. I think they would be great with a nice curry.

This one was slightly undercooked in the centre but stilled tasted great:




And together:

I liked the combination, although it was definitely missing some sauce or maybe just some tomatoes in the pancakes.  Also, we ate it with hands like a burrito. Toby added tomato sauce but chutney would have been better. I was trying to stay away from acidic sauce so just enjoyed it plain. They were both easy to make but it took me almost 2 hours to make everything due to the tweaking of the tofu and the issues getting the pancake batter smooth.

But will defintely experiment with the pudla again and I think tofu bacon would make the perfect snack for traveling.