20130609-104440.jpgThis is a neat way of making those calories count at breakfast. With two kids about to head into teenagery – one recently just got there – (and little DNA assistance for them to gain some altitude), I try to pack as much protein into their meals as I can!

Everyone is familiar with garbanzo beans, better known as chickpeas or in their mushed-up luscious form as hummus. My family has seen the humble garbanzo bean in its meals over centuries, millenia, even. They would turn up on the table for breakfast (ground up and put to task in various forms of griddled Indian pancakes), lunch (perhaps as a channa masala, with tomatoes), tea (as kadala, a snack popped into the mouth that’s baked or sauteed with chilis, lemon juice, ginger, sometimes coconut shavings) or dinner (perhaps in a curry with chicken.)

I used garbanzo bean flour this morning, together with soy flour, to pack some protein punch into these pancakes. As I normally make pancake or waffle batter free hand (without using recipes), please take a look at the batter to see if you need a teeny bit more flour, for example. Go easy on the cup of milk at first, just to make sure you get a nice, thick batter that is still pourable.

These babies were served with stewed berries and maple cream.

Here’s what you need.

  • eggs, 3
  • garbanzo bean flour, 1/3 cup
  • soy flour, 1/3 cup
  • unbleached flour, 1/3 cup
  • zest of an orange
  • almond essence, a few drops
  • milk, 1 cup (add more if batter’s too thick)
  • baking flour, 1 tsp

Mix all the above together.

Prepare your griddle. I like to drizzle a few drops of olive oil on it and spread it with a pastry brush

Pour a ladleful of the batter on it, flip when the underside is golden

  1. Remove when the second side is golden.
  2. Voila!
  3. Stew whatever fruit you have with a teeny bit of water, 1/2 a tablespoonful of maple syrup, till it looks, well, stewed
  4. For the maple cream, whip together cream and 1/2 tablespoon of maple syrup. The flavor this imparts on the cream is incredible (use the more richly flavored, nuttier and thicker grade B syrup)
  5. Serve and watch it all vanish!