This pan-deep-fried chickpea tofu is golden and crispy on the outside and airy and tender on the inside. The chickpea tofu itself is made with chickpea flour. The recipe was shared in one of my previous blog posts. You can find the full recipe here.
Before you make this recipe, head over to this post and make the chickpea tofu. If you can, make it a day in advance and store it in the fridge overnight. Once the chickpea tofu has been in the fridge for at least a day it becomes firmer and easier to work with. This is a great and creative way to use up chickpea flour you may have hanging around in your kitchen.
One might think that you need a huge pot full of oil to deep fry. Actually, that is not true in this case. My mom found a super cool hack to deep fry without using a huge deep pot and a whole container of coconut oil. Let us be real here, coconut oil is not the cheapest oil in the world. Therefore we have a small pot in the kitchen that is our designated pan for deep frying. As you can see it works very well.
Depending on how much chickpea tofu you are deep-frying, you will have to break up the frying into smaller batches. If you cut your chickpea into large slices you will need to use a frying pan. Overall, it makes deep-frying more manageable for each batch.
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This is a flour coating only. The combination of flour, cornstarch, and spices makes crispy and deliciously deep-fried chickpea tofu. If you do not use all the flour coating in one batch you can put the rest in the fridge in a sandwich bag or container for later use.
Tips on oil temperature: You want to oil to be the perfect temperature so that your finish result is crispy and golden on the outside and airy and tender inside. To achieve this, I would recommend just below medium heat. Every stove is different, so I recommend adjusting your stove`s temperature if you see your oil is too hot or too cold. I set my electric stove between 4 and 6 on the gauge to fry these.
Slow and steady wins the race here. You will have to flip each cube over about 2-3 times to ensure a nice golden-brown outside and airy and cooked inside. Frying these on an even low heat ensures they are perfectly crispy. Rushing to fry these will result in a soft inside that tasted unpleasant. Trust me, I rushed to fry a batch and the result was a way too soft inside for me that I couldn’t swallow the fried cube and I had to spit it out.
Pan-Fried Chickpea Tofu
Ingredients
- 1 block Chickpea Tofu (cut into small cubes)
- 1/2 cup golden white spelt flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp nutritional yeast
Instructions
- Pre-cut your chickpea tofu into small cubes/ Set aside.
- On a plate, combine all the dry ingredients.
- In a small pot, preheat your coconut oil. You should have enough oil in your small pot to cover your chickpea tofu.
- Take each cubes of chickpea tofu and coat the outsides in the seasoned flour mixture.
- Drop carefully into your small pot with hot coconut oil. After 1-2 minutes, turn once you see small air bubbles and each cube is not sticking to the bottom of your pan.
- Deep-fry until golden brown and cripsy on the outside. Turn over 2-3 times and let fry on each side.
- Take out once finished and drain on a brown bag to absorb any excess oil.
- Enjoy while warm. 🙂
My Dad is addicted to this recipe, he literally the #1 fan of chickpea tofu. He has pan-fried chickpea tofu more than 3 times a week. For breakfast in a sandwich or alongside his meal for lunch or dinner. This recipe is very versatile for use in all 3 daily meals.
I have to make sure that each week there is a “bar of gold” sitting in the fridge in a glass container ready for frying. Here is a picture of a sandwich that he made with avocado, tomato, and of course a few slices well of chickpea tofu. Looks seriously delicious right?
Did you give this recipe a try? Let me know what you thought by giving this recipe a rating below in the comments. I sincerely appreciate your feedback and comments.
Thank you for reading this post. Love my recipes? You can find all my other recipes here under the “Eating” category.
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