nat's olive & spinach socca

Socca is a delicious chickpea pancake from the south of France, to which I've added of one of my favourite olive varieties here at Mount Zero, the dry-cured Kalamata. It's naturally fermented in dry salt rather than brine, which removes the bitterness from the olive and leaves a rich, roasted olive flavour.

Author

Nat Neal, Mount Zero National Sales Manager

Ingredients

• 1 cup chickpea flour
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 tsp Mount Zero Pink Lake Salt
• 2 tbsp Mount Zero Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, plus extra for frying
• ½ red onion, cut into thin half-moon slices
• 1 tbsp Mount Zero Salt Cured Kalamata Olives, de-pitted and roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 2/3 cup spinach, roughly chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the chickpea flour, water, salt and oil.
3. Cover and let it stand for 1-2 hours (no need to refrigerate).
4. In a small cast iron pan, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.
5. Add in the sliced onions and sauté for 10mins, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
6. Reduce to a low heat and let the onions caramelise for about 20 minutes.
7. Increase the heat in the cast iron pan to high after the onions have caramelised and add in the olives, tomatoes and spinach to the pan with a couple tablespoons of oil.
8. Sauté until the spinach is reduced a bit, then add about two cups of chickpea / water mixture to the pan.
9. Place the entire cast iron pan into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until it browns around the edges.