I had my first chickpea fry last summer at the Cava Tapas and Wine Bar in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Swoon!

Chef Gregg Sesler paired his perfectly rectangular prisms with spicy harissa and tart yogurt. While I savored the mix of flavors, I imagined that it took a large staff many hours to engineer these crunchy architectural wonders… and a commercial deep fryer. In the past, whenever I’ve tried to recreate a restaurant dish, I’ve only been disappointed.

It turns out chickpea fries are actually doable for home cooks. Unlike falafel or hummus, chickpea fries require neither a deep fryer nor a food processor. The secret ingredient is chickpea flour, available online and in Indian markets as besan or gram flour. The process is nearly identical to making polenta, except much, much faster. We’re talking just a few minutes on the stove.

And like polenta, there are endless variations on the basic recipe. You could simply toss them with some sea salt and kick back with a beer. Alternatively, you could mix extra flavor into the batter, top them with a bruschetta topping, serve them with a splash of malt vinegar. Or take inspiration from pomme frites; those Belgian fry guys know what they’re doing.

For a lower fat version, skip the deep frying and pan fry in a non-stick pan with only a modest amount of oil. You could also leave the oil out of the mix; the recipe still works.

Please note that you could make chickpea fries like Mark Bittman, The Minimalist, with only four ingredients: chickpea flour, water, salt and pepper. But what can I say? I detest beany flavor and I LOVE garlic, so the following is my master recipe, inspired by Sesler and informed by various internet recipes, including Mark Bittman’s, and Steven Raichlen’s versions.

As for shapes, you really could go to town here. For my 4-year-old, I used cookie cutters to cut out protein-rich choo choo trains and butterflies.

Chickpea Fries

2 dinner portions or 4 appetizer portions

1 cup chickpea flour
2 cups water
1 clove garlic, peeled and pressed
3/4 teas salt
2 pinches chipotle powder
freshly ground pepper, such as green or black
splash of olive oil

1. Blend everything in a blender until all the lumps are gone. Or put everything into a 2-quart saucepan and blend with an immersion blender until all the lumps are gone. Or whisk by hand and strain until, yes, you guessed it, all the lumps are gone. Trust me, the lumps don’t disappear after cooking.
2. Transfer the mix into a saucepan. Bring it to a boil.
3. Stir frequently while it cooks. Keep an eye on it. Don’t let it burn. Lower the heat if needed. It will slowly thicken and get more and more difficult to stir.
4. After 3-5 minutes, taste test — it should taste cooked and good. At this point, it IS cooked. You could eat it now if you liked.
5. Adjust seasonings to taste.
6. Spread it out on a nonstick or oiled surface like a cookie sheet, a pyrex dish, or a silpat. Smooth it out to about 1/2″ in thickness.
7. Allow to cool and stiffen for an hour or more, overnight in the refrigerator. often, just resting on the counter for an hour can be sufficient.
8. Cut into desired shapes.
9. Pan fry on both sides until browned and crispy, or deep fry at 350 for 2-3 minutes.

Olive Harissa

3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 teas cumin ground
1/2 teas coriander whole or 1/3 teas ground
3 oil-cured olives, pitted
1/2 teas aleppo pepper
freshly ground cubeb pepper
1 small tomato, peeled and crushed
olive oil
lemon juice

1. Throw everything (except the olive oil and juice) into a mortar and pestle and pound. A mini food-processor works too. Or do like Italian grandmothers do with pesto: mince everything finely with a knife.
2. Thin with olive oil and/or lemon juice.