Crispy Veg Puffs- gluten free

Dip them in your favourite chutney!

Do you ever crave spicy savouries like pakoras but wish they didn't have to be fried? Look no further, my friends...

One of the best things about blogging as opposed to writing a formal cookbook is that you can publish your experiments, your works in progress, and come up with all sorts of off-the-wall ideas that probably wouldn't get past a publisher. Don't get me wrong; we'd still be thrilled to get The Yogi Vegans into print (publishers out there, take note ;) ), but here on the blog we can get, well, just that little bit more creative. This recipe definitely falls into the "creative" category, if not for ingredients then for using a redundant cake-pop maker we found in the bottom drawer. Don't worry if you don't have a cake-pop maker; these crispy and protein-laden balls of delight can also be cooked in the oven. They won't come out spherical, but they will be just as delicious. We know; we've tried. We didn't think we would come up with post-able results the very first time we made these but we loved their crispy outsides and cake-y insides and the satisfying way you can dunk them in chutney... so here they are!

We teamed them with a spicy tomato chutney and some stir-fried vegetables.

This recipe made about 20. One portion is about six- that's cake-pop size; just under an ice cream scoopful per ball.

Ingredients:

175g gram flour (aka chickpea/ garbanzo flour)

90g peas, sweetcorn or a mix of both (we only had peas when we made them)

90g peanuts, ground (use a blender or even a coffee/ spice grinder)

1 1/2 tsps salt

1 tsp powdered turmeric

1 1/2 tsps baking powder*      *make sure it is gluten free if that's what you want; not all brands are.)

masala/curry powder/ a spice mix of your choice to your taste; at least 1 tsp (we used tava fry masala)

water for mixing

• Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
• Stir in the peas/ sweetcorn.
• Gradually add water until your mixture is the consistency of cake batter.
• Using an ice cream scoop spoon the mix into the sections of a cake- pop maker and cook for about 15 minutes. If you are using the oven, place in blobs on an oiled baking tray and cook for about 15 minutes at 200C, turning halfway through. (Of course, you could always deep-fry them, but for us the whole point was getting a crispy, pakora-like savoury that didn't have to be fried.)
• While they are cooking, you could whip up your favourite chutney; we used a tin of chopped tomatoes, some spices, fresh ginger, raw sugar and tamarind to create our own in minutes. If you would like a recipe, though, there's one for date and tamarind chutney here.