Focaccia (yeast and gluten free)
- 300g gluten-free brown flour (I use Doves Farm GF brown bread mix)
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp Himalayan pink salt
- 1 tbsp fresh rosemary or sage
- 250ml milk (or vegan milk)
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 eggs separated into white and yolks
Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan). Line a 20cm x 20cm baking tray with a non stick liner.
Roughly chop the rosemary. Crack the eggs and separate into whites and yolks. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and 2 tsp of fresh rosemary in a large mixing bowl.
Take out a separate large mixing bowl and add the egg yolks, milk, and olive oil. Beat the wet ingredients with an electric mixer on low-speed until bubbly. Alternatively, you can beat the wet ingredients by hand with a whisk. Add the egg yolk-milk-olive oil mixture to the dry ingredients. Stir until smooth.
Pour the egg whites into a medium mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low-medium speed (or a whisk) to form medium peaks (the egg white mixture should hold it’s shape but doesn’t need to be stiff).
Gently fold the egg whites into the focaccia batter until just combined. Be careful not to over mix – the air in the egg whites help make the bread fluffy without yeast.
Pour the focaccia batter into the lined baking dish, press fingertips into the batter to create dimples and drizzle some more olive oil over the top and into the holes and sprinkle with the remaining chopped rosemary. Insert the baking dish into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
I like to top this with gently fried onions and peppers, try mushrooms and courgettes too.
Some crumbled feta cheese and halved cherry tomatoes makes it a great alternative to pizza.
Chickpea farinata (or Baked onion bhaji)
- 150g chick pea flour
- ½ tsp Himalayan pink salt
- 250ml water
- extra virgin olive oil
- freshly ground black pepper
Herb variation: Sauté thinly sliced onion with chopped rosemary in olive oil.
Indian variation: Sauté thinly sliced onion and crushed garlic with 1tsp whole cumin and 1tsp nigella seed. Add 1 tsp ground turmeric.
Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan). Line a 30cm x 20cm baking tray with a non stick liner.
Sieve the flour in a bowl and add salt. Stir in the water (a hand whisk is good for this) and leave for at least 4 hours, stirring occasionally.
Pour into the baking tray and drizzle oil oil and pepper over the top. Bake for 30 minutes or until the edges are golden
For the variations, sauté the onion and other flavours in a separate frying pan and spread on to the chickpea batter in the tin before baking.