Onion and Herb Socca

from The Blender Girl cookbook
April 1, 2011

This onion and herb socca from The Blender Girl cookbook is quick and easy and is a fantastic vegan gluten-free flatbread everybody loves.

Onion and Herb Socca

This onion and herb socca from The Blender Girl cookbook is quick and easy and is a fantastic vegan gluten-free flatbread everybody loves.

I first fell in love with socca in Italy about 15 years ago.

Socca is made with chickpea flour, water, olive oil and salt is cheap as chips, and super easy!.

Various incarnations of chickpea flatbread are served in parts of Italy and France along the Ligurian Coast from Nice to Pisa. Each region serves it slightly differently, but they’re usually served up as crispy thin pancakes or crepes. Probably the most famous version is the Socca served in Nice, but it is also known as Farinata or Cecina in Italy.

This traditional street food dates back to about 1860, when it was commonly made in little wagons with built-in ovens. Nowadays, socca is made in a cast-iron skillet or tin-plated copper baking pan and then placed in an open wood-fire oven. The crispy golden crust and slightly smokey flavor is what makes this Socca or Farinata fabulous.

This process is usually replicated (although it is never really as good as the ones you get in France and Italy) by partially frying in a pan and then placing each flat bread in the oven for about 5 minutes, and then flipping it and repeating the process until they are golden brown and crispy.

I must also admit that after endless tries to get my flat breads crispy without sticking to the pan and tearing apart, I decided with frustration to forge my own Socca path and bake one big piece.

This way, the socca slides right out and looks gorgeous as one big wheel of yumminess on a breadboard. You can jazz up this socca with other herbs, lime juice, olives, and chiles. I’ve added some suggestions under the main ingredients list.

Get creative with your fillings; make this socca your own.

Get 100 Delicious Healthy Recipes

My Top 100 Healthy Recipes are in The Blender Girl cookbook.

Other Gluten-Free Breads

Avocado Allergy-Free Bread
Cornbread with Garlic, Rosemary, and Chile
Paleo Flatbread
Flour and Corn Tortillas
Raw Buckwheat Bread

Please let me know what you think of this onion and herb socca in the comments!

Your feedback is really important to me, and it helps me decide which recipes to post next for you.

 

Onion and Herb Socca

This onion and herb socca from The Blender Girl cookbook is quick and easy and is a fantastic vegan gluten-free flatbread everybody loves.

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 4 to 8
Author Tess Masters

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (240ml) lukewarm water
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup (160g) chickpea flour (garbanzo bean flour)
  • Celtic sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup (75g) diced yellow onion
  • 2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic (2 cloves)
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme

Instructions

  1. Pour the water, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the flour, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper into your blender and pulse on low a few times until just combined. You don’t want to over- process. Just get rid of the lumps.
  2. Transfer this mixture to a bowl and let stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 12 hours, until the flour absorbs the water and oil and the mixture has the consistency of heavy cream.
  3. Preheat the oven to 450°F (235°C).
  4. In a shallow frying pan over medium heat, sauté the onion in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 10 minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for 5 minutes more, until the onion and garlic are slightly caramelized. Remove from the heat and stir in the herbs.
  5. Grease a 9- to 10-inch (23 to 25cm) cast-iron frying pan or shallow pie plate with a tiny bit of olive oil. Spoon the onion and herb mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and pour the batter over the top. Stir gently to disperse the onion and herbs throughout the batter.
  6. Bake uncovered for 10 minutes. The socca is done when it pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Brush the top of the socca with a little bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. It should slide right out of the pan.
  7. Cut into wedges and serve. Socca is best eaten as soon as it is made.

Recipe Notes

rosemary option:

Substitute the thyme with 2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary.

lime and cilantro option:

Substitute the thyme with 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro, and add 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice, and 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes.

olive and parsley option:

Substitute the thyme with 1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, and add 1/2 cup chopped Kalamata olives.

Recipe and Photo from The Blender Girl cookbook.

Comments

Comments 49

  1. I have not yet made socca and have been collecting recipes. I love this one! I’m waiting the delivery of my first Vita-Mix and this may be on of the first recipes I try!

    1. Socca is lovely. I used a skillet on the stove, stainless and copper, with rings well sprayed with olive oil, as in normal pancakes. Absolutely delish. Will try sweet with blueberries next. When pancakes are set, remove the rings and turn over and cook through!

  2. Hey could you also just add about 1 cup of finely grated cheese and some garlic to make cheesy garlic bread sounds wonderful with some pasta???

  3. I make mine without a blender. Just mix and let set for 15 minutes and you are on your way. Of course…I wind up with a couple lumps…but it does not affect flavor. Thanks for the savory options!

  4. Welcome Julie! Yes – you can easily make this without a blender and it is fantastic! But hey – I am the Blender girl 🙂

  5. Another winner. Can’t wait for each new recipe to try. This is easy and delicious. And with so few ingredients. This piggy loves it!!!!

    1. You are SO sweet. This recipe is SO simple and delicious isn’t it. As for my cookbook, I am being approached, and will do one in the next couple of years!

  6. I am glad you are all enjoying this flat bread.
    It is SO easy and SO versatile.
    I LOVE your combinations. I will try them!

    1. This bread is very moist if you eat it straight out of the oven. It keeps like that one the same day. It dries out a little (like all gluten free baked goods) the next day. But it is SO delicious and SO easy. Don’t miss making this simple recipe. Can’t wait to hear what you think!

  7. Oh. thankyou! This is such a great family recipe and so handy for parties. I am so glad you all enjoyed it. Thanks for taking the time to leave such a lovely supportive comment. I really appreciate it.

  8. Oh GREAT combination. LOVE that cauliflower soup with this bread. It just goes with everything though. LOVE LOVE LOVE this bread!

    1. Great! So glad you enjoyed it. This bread is so easy, and you can add any veggies you like to mix things up. Enjoy 🙂

  9. I’ve been waiting for a good, simple recipe for socca… I’ve got the onion/garlic/rosemary version in the oven. My house smells incredible right now…. I can’t wait until it comes out! Thanks for sharing 🙂

    1. Great! So glad you enjoyed it. I make this all the time because it’s so easy and so yummy! You can add any herbs and flavours too so the variations are endless to keep things interesting.

  10. I made this with chopped Morroccan olives and fresh Rosemary added in. It was so easy, and sooo good it’s addictive! Thank you so much for this!

  11. going to make this for an event that I am catering topped with portabella hemp seed sliders, spinach, carmalized onions, and red pepper coulis

    1. Ha! You are right. It is an insane amount of garlic. But, when cooked, it’s awesome. Feel free to reduce it significantly to your comfort level, and it’s still delicious.

    1. Sorry Lindi, I don’t do nutritional profiling for the recipes on this site. You can sign up for Nutrition Data for free and use their tool. You can get garbanzo flour at specialty stores like Middle Eastern and Lebanese grocers, online, or you can make you own by grinding dry chickpeas.

  12. I have MS and must live on about 12K a year. Poverty is not so conducive to health! Even though I am fully aware of the benefits of juicing and blender mixes for the body. lol Do you know of any place I can acquire a VitaMix blender for the lowest price possible since I can in no way afford the ones at the store.

    1. I hear you…you could look at used machines on ebay. Sellers can be a bit hit and miss, so read reviews. I have seen good deals there. Costco is the cheapest place I have seen new models. Good luck!

  13. Thank you so much for this recipe, I make it several times a week now, it’s so versatile! I add beans, red peppers and bell pepper to make a Mexican version, tomato sauce, cherry tomato and olives to make it pizza like. My favorite is sun dried tomatoes, olive and vegan mozzarella. You can literally put anything in it! I wanna try an Indian one next…

    1. Oh, I am so pleased you are finding so many different ways to enjoy this bread. Thankyou so much for sharing. I love all of your blends!

  14. I saw this recipe in your cookbook. I have the dry grain container for the vitamix. And I was wondering if I should (a) run just straight dried beans to make the flour (b) soak beans overnight then dehydrate before running it through vitamix. Or (c) soak, sprout, then dehydrate before I run it through vitamix??? I’m so very confused and figure if there is anyone in the world that would know, it would be you.

    1. Yes, you can absolutely make homemade chickpea flour using dried chickpeas in the dry container of your Vitamix. You can just use the chickpeas as is, or you can activate them by soaking them, draining and rinsing, dehydrating them (making sure they’re completely dry), then grinding into an activated flour. I hope this helps.

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