I have been looking for this recipe for quite a few years. When my family and I were on the macrobiotic diet, this was one of their favorite meals. The recipe has actually been sitting right in front of me in a very old cookbook, Lima Ohsawa’s Just Cooking. Curiosity had me browse through it once again, and not only did I rediscover this wonderful recipe but the next one as well!

Ingredients:

Oil for deep frying

1 cup unbleached white flour

1 cup water, approximately

1 teaspoom sea salt

2 cups cooked chick peas

1 cup minced onion

Directions: Fill a heavy skillet or deep fryer with 3 inches of oil and heat to 360* F. (If you don’t have a thermometer, oil is ready when a single, test chickpea sizzles in the oil.) Combine the flour with enough water to form a rather thick batter. Add salt and stir in the chickpeas and minced onions. Drop into the hot oil by the spoonful, and deep fry until golden and crisp. Drain on paper towels.

Chickpea Croquettes

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons neutral oil

1 small onion minced, 1 small carrot grated

3 cups of cooked chickpeas mashed

1 teaspoon of sea salt

2-3 rounded tablespoons of unbleached flour

Oil for deep frying

1-2 eggs beaten

2-3 cups of bread crumbs

Directions: Heat a heavy skillet and coat with 2 tablespoons of oil. Saute the onion over medium heat, stirring gently for 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Add the carrots, then the chickpeas, mixing the ingredients together, and season with the sea salt. Transfer to a large bowl and add enough of the flour to hold the mixture together. Form into about 10 croquettes.

Note: After I sauteed the onion and the carrot, I used my food processor to roughly puree the un-mashed chickpeas with the vegetables. (Pulse until it is a fairly uniform texture, careful to stop before it turns into too smooth a puree. You want it to form into patties that hold their shape.) Transfer the “mash” to a clean bowl, adding the salt and flour, and mixing it all together to form the croquettes.

Coat the croquettes with flour, dip in beaten egg, then roll in breadcrumbs. Pan fry in hot oil and brown on both sides until golden and crisp. Drain on paper towels.