John Torode's potato cakes and spiced chickpeas

Friday 27 March at 2:17pm

John Torode joins us live from his kitchen at home to show us how to make a tasty meal by simply using leftover potatoes and a tin of chickpeas.

John says, "This is a very versatile recipe - you can adapt it to use any combination of spices or herbs you prefer."

Potato cakes and spicy chickpeas

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the spiced chickpeas

125g dried chickpeas, or 400g tin chickpeas, drained

25ml vegetable oil

½ tsp ground turmeric

Pinch salt

2 - 3 large ripe tomatoes, cut into chunks, or 400g tinned chopped tomatoes

40g piece root ginger, peeled and finely grated

½ tsp chilli powder

Small bunch of fresh coriander, leaves picked

For the potato cakes

2 large potatoes, oven baked

4 tsp garam masala

½ tsp salt

Small handful coriander, chopped

1 - 2 red chillies, seeds removed and finely diced, or ½ tsp dried chilli flakes

1 tbsp plain flour, plus extra for dusting

Flour, for shaping

Vegetable oil, for frying

Method

If you are cooking your own dried chickpeas, soak them in water overnight - place in a large bowl and cover with plenty of cold water - they will soak up lots of water and almost double in size so make sure you cover them with a few inches of water. The next day, drain the chickpeas, place in a large pan and cover with fresh water. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for two hours, or until tender. Leave to cool in their cooking water.
Heat the vegetable oil in a pan until then add the turmeric, salt, tomatoes, ginger, chilli and drained chickpeas. Cook until the tomatoes start to break down. If the mixture is too dry, add some of the chickpea cooking liquid or a little water. Add the coriander leaves once ready to serve.
Peel the cooked potatoes (if you keep the potato peelings you can roast them to make a crispy snack)
Grate the potatoes and divide between two bowls - put one third in a bowl and mix in the garam masala, salt, chopped coriander and chillies. Form into two balls.
Mix the flour into the remaining potato, divide in half and flatten each out. Add a flavoured potato ball to the centre of each, then bring the edge of the discs around and completely encase it - flatten again to make a potato cake shape if necessary.
Heat a few tbsp of oil in a large frying pan, then cook the potato cakes until crisp and golden brown on both sides. Serve with the chickpea curry.