My tummy did very well out of this Easter weekend, though my waistline may have taken a hit from all of our indulgences. Myself and Niall had some good friends over for lunch on Saturday and served up a slow-roasted shoulder of Pat Whelan’s lamb which we picked up at Avoca Monkstown on Friday. I followed this recipe for Pomegranate marinated lamb and it went down a treat.

We fed six with a 2.6kg piece of lamb and had enough leftover for a lovely supper on Sunday. Instead of making my lamb meatball recipe from myself and Aoife B’s column on Saturday the 7th of April in The Irish Independent’s Weekend magazine, I set to work on making Aoife B’s gram flour flatbreads instead.

Using gram flour, made from ground chickpeas, means that these little beauties are gluten free as well as being vegan friendly. They were a piece of cake to make, too, and were a brilliant accompaniment for our leftover lamb.

The food section also included a review of La Dolce Vita by Paolo Tullio and some very yummy looking cake recipes by Sally Bee.

What you need to make two of Aoife B’s Flatbreads

250g of gram flour

1/4 teaspoon of asafoetida (I didn’t have this and left it out)

1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon of ground gigner

Ground coriander

Ground cumin

Salt 

Pepper

250ml of cold water

1 small onion (I used a red onion for colour)

To make two thin flatbreads (about 6x6inch), you need to preheat an oven to 200 degrees.

In a large bowl, pour in one cup of gram flour. Then add ¼ tsp asafoetida; ¼ tsp garlic powder; ¼ ground ginger; ½ tsp ground coriander; 1tsp ground cumin, and season with salt and pepper.

Whisk, then add one cup of water (use the same cup you used for the flour), and whisk until no large lumps remain. Leave to one side.

Then dice one small onion. Heat a frying pan and sauté the onion for a minute or two in ½ tsp ground cumin and ½ tsp ground coriander. Continue to sauté for around 5 – 7 minutes – it might get dry but that is fine; if needed add a bit of water or a dash of oil. 

Take off the heat, then return to your gram flour mix and add the onion to it. Stir to combine. Pour into a large baking dish that has been floured or has been covered with parchment paper. Pour in a thin layer. If you have a 6×6 dish you will get two thin flat breads. You can use whatever dish you like, but the cooking time will vary and the thickness of the bread will vary depending on which one used.

The bread will be done in around 15 – 20 minutes, when the edges have begun to brown. It can be reheated the next day.

I served my flatbreads with leftover shredded lamb with green leaves, tsatsiki and harissa-spiced yoghurt. And a good dollop of my beetroot hummus. We also enjoyed some leftover pieces of the flatbread dipped in regular hummus – chickpea on chickpea. Nom.

KITCHEN TUNE

You can have a listen to my RTÉ 2xm show, Right Click Radio, from last week if you fancy. It changes from being quite chilled at the start to being rather frantic by the end of it. Perfect for a post-Bank-Holiday-Monday Tuesday methinks.

Categories: Dinner