Baked Garlic Flatbread With Pea Hummus, Squash & Hazelnut Hemp Drizzle

If this sounds outrageously good, it’s because it IS. This makes a wonderful sharing plate or a lovely fancy brunch and is, as always packed full of nutritious ingredients.

The base is a lovely springy flatbread made mostly from besan or chickpea flour. It’s very similar to Italian “socca” bread, except I like adding some wholemeal flour into the mix as it makes it a little more bready and soft. It’s still totally delicious if you want to keep this gluten free and leave the second flour out (just substitute for the same amount of chickpea flour).

The names chickpea flour, gram flour and besan tend to be used interchangeabley although they aren’t strictly the same thing. Besan or gram flour is made from split yellow peas or chana dal and chickpea flour is made from ground up chickpeas. They can be used in the same way in cooking and have a very similar taste. You may find though that you need a little more water if using actual chickpea flour and you’ll get a different texture depending on which one you use.

I like to use besan/gram flour. Vegan Richa has a useful post about the difference between the flours if you’d like to go more in depth.

You won’t believe how simple it is to whip up a batch of pea hummus. If you were pushed for time you could definitely just make some of the flatbread and dunk it in the hummus without all the fancy bits.

Hemp is incredibly nutritious. It’s high in essential fatty acids omegas 3 and 6, is a complete protein and supports a healthy immune system to name but a few of the items on its resume. Hemp seed oil, as well as being great for hair and skin has a wonderful and unique flavour which adds a lot of depth to this dish.

There are a few steps to this dish, but I promise it’s worth it!

Ingredients

Flatbread

3/4 cup besan or chickpea flour

1/4 cup wholemeal/spelt flour (or sub more chickpea flour with slightly different results)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic granules

1/2 teaspoon onion granules

2 teaspoons dried chives

1 spring onion finely chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil for the batter

2 tablespoons olive oil for the pan

3 garlic cloves chopped quite small, but I like to keep it a bit chunky

small handful fresh rosemary (or your preferred herbs)

Black pepper to taste

Pea Hummus

1 1/2 cups cooked peas (I use frozen)

2 tablespoons tahini

zest of half a lemon

juice of 1 lemon

1 garlic clove

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

Pan fried squash

1 cup of butternut squash cut into small cubes

1 teaspoon rapeseed oil (or oil of choice) for frying

Pinch of salt

Massaged cavelo nero

Half a bunch of cavelo nero or kale. (We will be using the stalks so don’t discard)

small pinch salt

squeeze of lemon

Hazelnut hemp drizzle

1/4 cup hazelnuts. (I use raw, but if you use toasted, you can skip the step about toasting the hazelnuts in a pan and skip to roughly chopping them.)

A few tablespoons of hemp oil

Small pinch salt

cavelo nero/kale stalks (this will be explained in the method)

Method

Start by making your pea hummus.

I like to use frozen peas. Before using I pour a little hot water on them for literally about a minute, until they are no longer frozen solid, then discard the water.

Add all of the hummus ingredients except the olive oil to a food processor and blend until you have a lovely creamy texture. Then, while the food processor is still on, drizzle in your olive oil. If you want, you could leave the oil out and loosen the hummus with a little water, but the oil does enhance the flavour and texture..

Give your hummus a taste and add a little more lemon if you think it needs it. Put the hummus in the fridge while you make everything else.

In a mixing bowl combine your besan, wholemeal flour, baking powder, salt, garlic granules, onion granules and mix.

Make a small well in the middle and pour in a little of your water. Whisk the water into just enough of the flour to make a wet batter. I like to use a spiral whisk for this but you could use any whisk or a fork. When there are no lumps, add a little more water and incorporate a little more flour from round the outside of the bowl. Continue like this until you have poured in all the water and have a nice smooth batter.

If you have used chickpea flour rather than besan and your batter feels very thick (it should be easily pourable), you could add a little more water. About 1/8th - 1/4 cup should be enough.

Add chives, spring onion and 1 tablespoon of olive oil and mix well.

Allow the batter to rest while you preheat your oven to 200°c (fan 180°c) / 400°f / gas mark 6 and prepare a baking pan. I use a rectangular brownie tin which measures 16cm by 26cm. So something similar would be ideal.

While the oven is heating, prepare your squash and hazelnuts (skip the hazelnuts step if yours are already toasted). You could do both at the same time if you think you can easily keep an eye on both pans. Otherwise do them separately. Read over the next few steps for both and then make a call on this. I won’t judge.

Add the hazelnuts to a pan over a medium heat. You are aiming to toast them to release their wonderful aroma and flavour. Once they really start to heat up, you’ll want to keep shaking them about so that you don’t burn them. At first it will be hard to see whether they have toasted because the skins are dark, but some of the skin will fall away and you’ll see little brown patches appearing and you’ll get that great hazelnut smell.

When your hazelnuts have plenty of golden brown on them and smell great, set them aside to cool, then use your hands to remove the outer skin and roughly chop them up.

For the squash, heat your pan over a medium head and add your rapeseed oil. When the oil is hot, add your squash cubes in a single layer (they should sizzle a bit when they hit the pan) and sprinkle over a pinch of salt.

Leave the squash undisturbed for a few minutes to allow it get lovely and brown, then give the pan a shake so you can aim to brown a different side on each of the cubes. Don’t stress if you don’t get this exact. Cook for a few minutes more, until the squash is beautifully soft and has at least a couple of golden brown sides.

Set this aside.

By now your oven should be hot. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan you will be baking your flatbread in. The oil should cover the base of the pan. Use clean hands to rub some of the oil up the sides as well to ensure your bread doesn’t get stuck.

Put the pan with the olive oil in the oven for 5 minutes to heat up the oil.

When ready, carefully remove the oily pan from the oven and pour in your batter. The hot oil will instantly start to cook the batter a little bit.

Now you can sprinkle over your chopped garlic, rosemary and if you like a pinch of sea salt and a few rounds of black pepper.

Put this back in the oven for 20 minutes.

While this cooks, prepare your cavelo nero or kale by giving it a lovely massage….Let me explain…

First remove the stems. Fold your leaf in half vertically and carefully run your knife down next to the stalk, all the way through the centre of the leaf, this should cleanly separate the stalk while leaving the leaf in a presentable state. Repeat this with each leaf.

Finely chop your stems and set them aside for later.

Your leaves should naturally be cut in half down the middle now you’ve removed them stems. Pop the halves on top of each other and chop them up. I like to go quite thin with the slices. About 2 cm but it’s up to you.

Put the chopped leaves into a mixing bowl with a small pinch of salt (you really don’t need much) and a squeeze of lemon and let off some steam! Use your hands to squeeze and massage everything, a little bit like the way you would squeeze dough or a wet sponge. After a few minutes and when your hands start to ache, the leaves should be nice and soft.

Put your chopped hazelnuts (I like to keep a few aside to sprinkle around the plate), chopped stems, small pinch of salt and your hemp oil into a small bowl and mix. I’ve said “a few” tablespoons of hemp oil, but you’ll need to make a judgement here. You want enough to cover your nuts and stems so adjust accordingly.

When your flatbread is ready, you should be good to start assembling everything. You may want to heat the squash up a little if it’s cold.

I like to cut my flatbread into squares and dress each one individually but you could definitely keep the flatbread as one big piece and add the toppings like a pizza. Either way, do it in this order:

Spread your pea hummus on the flatbread, then dot your squash and leaves around (or put the leaves on top of the squash if making individual slices), finally use a teaspoon to drizzle your hazelnut oil mix on top.

You should now have not only a delicious meal, but a beautiful work of art. Well done!