Baked chickpea mousse
Ingredients
- 400 g tinned chickpeas
- 1 small shallot (or onion), finely chopped
- generous knob of butter
- generous pinch of ground cumin
- 1 tsp mild paprika
- small handful of fresh estragon leaves, finely chopped
- 2 egg yolks
- grated Parmesan cheese
- 2-3 tbsp fine bread crumbs (optional; if mixture too thin)
- salt, white pepper
Method
- Preheat oven to 180 °C. Grease a shallow ovenproof dish with soft butter, set aside. In a saucepan melt a knob of butter over moderate heat, add the chopped shallot (or onion) and sweat for a few minutes. Add the chickpeas, estragon, paprika, salt and pepper, and approximately 100 ml water. Bring to a gentle boil and cook until very soft. Remove from heat and blend to a smooth consistency, pass mixture through a fine-meshed sieve. Add two egg yolks, mix well and if mixture is too thin / too runny, add some breadcrumbs to adjust thickness. Divide mixture into small heaps and place into prepared greased dish, sprinkle each heap with Parmesan, bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot, lukewarm or cold.
Variations
If a slight mix of food textures is not a problem, this chickpea mousse is rather nice for stuffing large mushrooms before baking. For this variation, place prepared large mushrooms in greased baking dish and fill with chickpea mousse before baking.