Curried Chickpea Slice

 

Every time we go to Penzance we always have a quick look in The Granary health food store.  They have a good selection of take out snacks both sweet and savoury.  If we get there early enough in the day then Phil will always buy at least one portion of their curried chickpea slice before it sells out.  Scooby hadn't tried one of these before, but on Saturday when we were down that way, she tried it for the first time and realised what all the fuss was about.   Between us we devoured a slice in a couple of minutes.  When we got home we realised we had all the ingredients to make our own version, attempting to make it as much like the original as we could, as we are not sure that can be improved upon. 

 

It is quite quick to make so we put some in the oven whilst we had it on.  We were very pleased with the results; so much so that we made another batch last night for our lunch boxes.  The pastry isn't exactly the same as the original, being shop bought, but it is still very nice indeed.  I can see us making this every couple of days for a while and with more time on our hands, there would be no excuse not to use homemade shortcrust pastry. 

 

Curried Chickpea Slice

 

3 tbsp oil

2 medium red onions chopped into 1/2" chunks

A few grinds of black pepper

2 tsp medium Madras curry powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp tomato puree

1 400g tin of chickpeas rinsed and drained well

1/2 cup water

1 pack of Jusrol Shortcrust Pastry (500g)

 

1.  Heat the oil in the pan and add the chopped onions.  Fry gently for 8-10 minutes.  It's worth taking the time to cook the onions slowly like this.

 

2.  Add the black pepper, all the spices and the salt and continue to fry gently for a minute on a low heat.

 

3.  Add the tomato puree and mix into the onions and spices keeping the pan on the heat. 

 

4.  Add the chickpeas and mix well to coat them, then start adding the water.  You might not need it all, just enough to stop the mixture sticking on the bottom of the pan.  Simmer for a couple of minutes until the mixture is looking dryish.  No water should be visible in the bottom of the pan.  Then take the pan off the heat.

 

5.  Divide the pastry in half and roll each half out thinly (about 5mm).  Place one half on a greased baking tray and spoon the chickpea mixture on top, spreading evenly across the whole surface.  Cover with the other half of the pastry and pinch together at the edges just to stop any chickpeas from doing a runner. 

 

6.  Bake at about 200 degrees C until golden brown (about 20-25 minutes).

 

Enjoy!