Panelle
One of my favourite ways to eat homemade chickpea tofu is this little twist. Panelle, in essence, is Burmese tofu spread out thinly and fried into crispy fritters with a soft filling. They are a traditional Sicilian street food from Palermo, where they are served in a bun with nothing else but a squeeze of lemon juice.
Ingredients
Panelle
- 200 g dried chickpeas
- 10 g parsley
- 8 sourdough burger baps
- vegetable oil for frying
- 1 lemon for serving
Gremolata
- 50 g parsley
- 10 g mint
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 red chilli
- 1 lemon (zest & juice)
- 4 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Soak the chickpeas overnight in 3x the amount of water
- The next day, to make the panelle remove most of the parsley stalks and finely chop the leaves. Line a large baking tray with a baking sheet. Drain the chickpeas and pulse them in a food processor to break down slightly. Then add 500 ml of water and blend until smooth.
- Pour the blended chickpeas into a sauce pan and whisk in 1 tsp of salt. Turn on the heat bring the mixture to a boil while whisking it constantly to avoid it from sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan. When it comes to a boil, lower the temperature to a simmer and keep whisking until it begins to thicken (1-2 min). Then turn off the heat and stir in all of the parsley.
- Pour the mixture onto the lined baking tray and spread it out with a spoon until you have a thin sheet. Let it cool entirely (30 min), then cut it into roughly 7 cm x 7 cm squares.
- For the gremolata, twist off the leafy bit of the parsley, pick the mint leaves and add both to a small bowl of a food processor. Peel the garlic, trim and deseed the chilli. Roughly chop both and add them to the processor as well along with 1/4 tsp salt. Then pulse until finely chopped. Grate in the zest of the lemon, followed by 3 tbsp of lemon juice and olive oil and stir to mix through.
- Heat the oil to 170 degrees celsius. Then fry 4-5 squares at a time for around 4 minutes until they are golden brown. Place a few paper towels on a cooling rack. Once the panelle are cooked, let them drain off any excess oil on the paper towels. Continue with the rest until all the squares are fried. Then serve in the baps with a sprinkle of sea salt, an extra squeeze of lemon juice and the gremolata.
Notes
Tip: If you have a spare tomato, cut it into slices and add them to the baps.