Cooking

Chickpea Muffins with Sundried Tomatoes or Peas

Lately I’ve been creating recipes to make snacks that keep well at room temperature, are nutritious, tasty, and easy to transport. These savory muffins made with chickpea flour (garbanzo bean flour) certainly fit the bill. Chickpea flour is very high in protein (22%) and fiber (10%). To flavor the muffins I use parmigiano reggiano, dried oregano, and either sundried tomatoes or peas. Each of these muffins has 185 kcalories, with 15 grams of protein, 15 grams of carbs, 3 grams of fiber, and only 7 grams of fat. The calories are about a third each from protein, carbs, and fat, which is the right balance if you have a desk job and don’t do a lot of cardio exercising (because for that you would need more carbs). I am eating them in between meals to gain lean weight, but you could just as easily use them as meal replacement to lose weight. For any diet it is important that the food is delicious and not a lot of hassle. These muffins are easy to bake and you can bake a batch of them in the weekend for the rest of the week. Here’s how.

I started making them with sundried tomatoes, but thanks to Paola I discovered I like them even better with peas.

Ingredients

For 6 muffins (you can easily double the recipe for 12)

150 grams (1 cup) chickpea flour

150 grams (2/3 cup) skyr or low-fat quark

3 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

1 Tbsp dried oregano (optional)

50 grams (1.8 oz) sundried tomatoes, minced, or 100 grams (2/3 cup) peas plus 1/4 tsp salt

50 grams (1.8 oz) grated parmigiano reggiano

freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

Combine the dry ingredients (chickpea flour, grated parmigiano, baking powder, pepper, and salt, if using) in a bowl. Add the oregano if using. (I now usually make them without for a more mellow flavor.)

The sundried tomatoes are already very salty, so do not use any salt when you use them.

Stir to mix.

Combine the wet ingredients (eggs and skyr) in a bowl.

Stir to mix.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Stir to mix.

If using sundried tomatoes: you can either use them from a jar or completely dry (in which case they may need to be reconstituted in water first). In either case, pat them dry and mince them.

If using peas: blanch them for a couple of minutes (the microwave is great for this). If they were frozen, they may already have been blanched. Unless you grow your own peas, frozen peas are actually better quality than ‘fresh’ peas, because they are at their best when frozen right after they have been picked. After picking they quickly lose flavor.

Fold the sundried tomatoes or peas into the batter.

Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups.

Fill the cups with the batter.

Bake at 180C/350F until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

Take them out of the tin to cool. The muffins will keep for several days at room temperature and at least a week in the refrigerator (bring to room temperature or nuke for 10 seconds in the microwave before eating). Every morning I take some from the fridge, wrap them in cling film, and bring them to work.

21 thoughts on “Chickpea Muffins with Sundried Tomatoes or Peas”

  4. Thank you a million times for affirming how important carbohydrates are in this crazy, and that includes nutritional, world! Rarely make muffins but methinks this recipe of yours will go right to the top of ‘your list’ in my kitchen ‘! With tomatoes, if I may 🙂 !

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  12. Thank you. I was tempted to try making the sundried tomato version of these today because I was reminded that I have had some gram flour knocking about for a while. I was grateful for your introduction to Skyr which really is delicious and it would seem to be very easy to culture at home. (I usually avoid fat-free stuff like the plague being a country child at heart.) They were really nice and it will be well worth repeating the experiment. I think though I will try extra sundried tomatoes next time. Also the muffins stuck to the paper cups so perhaps I will try greasing them.

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    1. Thanks for reporting back, always great to hear from you. I thought it was already on the salty side with the amount of sundried tomatoes I used, but that probably depends on the saltiness of the sundried tomatoes. The sticking is also a bit less if you add two tablespoons of olive oil to the batter.

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      1. Yes, thanks, obviously my sundried tomatoes are not very salty and thanks for the the olive oil tip. We have gluten intolerant family members so I will try the peas as well. I am trying a recipe for fermenting Skyr. The skimmed milk needs to be at 95deg for 10 mins without deviation before cooling and adding some from the pot as a starter. So another use for the sous vide bath. I remember my mother used to boil full fat milk to remove the cream for strawberries, scones etc and I suppose the Icelanders do something similar. I find it difficult to go to the checkout with my bottle of skimmed milk which is no cheaper and has a lot of the goodness taken out.

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  13. Pingback: Red Lentil Muffins with Indian Spices – Stefan's Gourmet Blog

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