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Make your own Chickpea flour Tofu. 10 min Non soy tofu made with Chickpea flour or Besan / gram flour. Easy Homemade Burmese tofu. Vegan Gluten-free Soy-free Tofu Nut-free Recipe. Pin this post! Jump to Recipe
Burmese (chickpea) tofu is made by cooking split pea flour or chickpea flour and water batter until it thickens and can set. One of the other methods is to soak the split chickpeas, blend and use that batter. I make my chickpea tofu with chickpea flour and with less liquid so it is a sturdier, and quick version of Burmese tofu. This recipe makes about 2.5 to 3 cups cubed tofu which can be stored for a few days refrigerated.
The tofu can also be made with Chickpea flour (which is ground garbanzo beans (white chickpeas), pure besan / gram flour (which is flour of brown chickpeas (kala chana) or split brown chickpeas (chana dal)), or mixed flour besan which can have 2 different types of chickpea / split pea flour, or yellow split pea flour. Each of the flours need different amounts of liquid. Besan (gram flour) is also ground finer than white chickpea flour. Because of these differences, chickpea flour generally makes a thicker batter and needs more water to achieve the similar consistency as besan batter if the recipe was written with besan. Besan will need less liquid to make an equally sturdy tofu as Chickpea flour tofu. The tofu recipe below made with any of the flours, without adjusting the recipe will still be usable wherever needed. Depending on the flour used, the resulting tofu cubes might be soft or firm. Use less water for firmer and more water for softer chickpea tofu.
Chickpea flour is mixed with water to form a smooth batter. The batter thickens into a thick custard like consistency which sets and can be easily sliced. I use these properties of chickpea flour in many recipes, like this nut-free Nacho cheese slice, these chickpea flour pasta noodles and more.
This recipe is adapted from the spiced chickpea tofu in my book. You can use it as a substitute for soy tofu in many recipes. It does well in curries, tossed in dressing, in wraps, salads, also makes a great morning scramble, or egg salad!, breaded tofu etc. It also sticks to the pan like regular tofu while stir frying, if your pan isnt good ;).
Made these Buffalo Tofu Wraps with Chickpea flour tofu tossed in buffalo hot sauce.
More chickpea flour recipes from the blog
- Chickpea flour Pancakes – Indian Chilla
- Veggies in Chickpea flour Sauce- Sindhi Kadhi
- Besan Burfi – Chickpea flour fudge with condensed non dairy milk
- Fluffy chickpea flour Omelet
This tofu might not absorb marinades as quickly. So I generally prefer to flavor the tofu itself while making it. Mix in herbs, spices and flavors into the batter before cooking it. That way the tofu is already infused with a profile depending on where you are using it. I usually add garam masala and cayenne when using in curries and some soy sauce and lemon when adding to asian fusion, some italian herb blend for other uses like a mashed up marinated tofu salad.
Blend the chickpea flour water and spices into a smooth batter. Cook over medium heat. the batter will start to get lumpy after a minute or so.
Keep stirring frequently. The batter will eventually thicken evenly and become custard like.
Cook for another 2 minutes so the chickpea flour is cooked through. You can taste the mix carefully at this point to ensure that the chickpea flour doesnt taste raw and adjust salt if needed. the mixture will also start to come away from the pan.
Transfer the custard to a parchment lined container. Cool for 10 minutes then refrigerate for about an hour.
Remove from parchment, cube and use.
Keep refrigerated for upto 4 days.
Chickpea Flour Tofu Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpea flour/ garbanzo bean flour, , or if using besan, use 1 1/4 cup besan/ gram flour
- 1/2-3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric, optional, for color
- 1/4 tsp cumin or garam masala, optional
- 1 3/4 cup water
Instructions
- Grease a bread pan or line with parchment and keep ready. (9 by 5 rectangle or any similar rectangle or smaller square pan).
- In a bowl whisk all the ingredients under chickpea tofu until there are no lumps, or use a blender..(or you can add the ingredients directly to the pan and whisk to combine). I use a blender for quick and smooth batter.
- Pour the chickpea flour mixture into a deep saucepan. Cook over medium heat. Stir continuously. The mixture will start to get lumpy as the pan heats up (see video) and then thicken evenly and considerably. 4 to 5 mins.
- Once the mixture is evenly thick and stiff, keep cooking for another 2 minutes so the chickpea flour gets cooked through. Also tap the spoon or spatula to drop the mixture stuck to it to the pan. If the mixture is starting to brown, reduce the heat to medium low. You can taste test the mixture at this point carefully, to ensure that there is no raw chickpea flour flavor and adjust salt if needed.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan or parchment and even it out using a spatula or another parchment if needed. Let it cool, then refrigerate for atleast an hour to set.
- Remove the set slab from the pan. Slice into cubes. Store in an airtight container refrigerated for upto 4 days. The tofu can leak some moisture while it sits. drain and use.
Video
Notes
Add nutritional yeast for cheesy flavor or other herbs and flavors of choice. To use in stir fries or curries: Crisp in a tsp of oil until golden on some edges. (see this recipe). Nutrition is for 1 serve
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi Richa,
I made this last night and am now in love!!! This will definitely now be a staple in our household!!! I put the cubes in a kind of spicy spinach sauce roughly based on your Palak Tofu from your Indian Cookbook (I didn’t have spinach so used silverbeet etc). To be honest, there wasn’t lots of ‘tofu’ left to put in the sauce because I kept slicing pieces off all afternoon before deciding what to make it into for dinner….it is truly divine – even plain!!! Thank-you so much for all your amazing recipes…..all that I have made so far have been awesome! 🙂 (if I have already left a message here about this I am sorry – I meant to just after I made it and thought I had but couldn’t find it here so am doing it now (again if already had).
Awesome! Thank you for the wonderful note!
Hi, I tried this recipe turned out well I should think. Please tell me where I went wrong, I think I put it into the fridge before allowing it to cool. I then tried to fry the cubes to add to a veggie stir fry but it broke up, couldn’t get the cubes to remain whole.
Did you toss the cubes in cornstarch? that will help keep them whole. Also chickpea flour behaves differently from regular tofu it doesnt need that much cooking time as it wll soften on longer cooking. So just quickly sear after tossing in starch and use in the sauces, curries etc.
Is there a way to make this recipe from dried chickpeas without a high-speed blender? Could I cook the beans in the water and then puree them? Or puree the beans with the water in the blender?
cooked chickpeas dont set the same way, it will just be a gloopy sticky mess. you can buy chickpea flour online on amazon or elsewhere
Hi Richa!
Thank you for this recipe 🙂
This is so funny because where I am from (Provence, France), we have the exact same recipe that we use for making Panisses, which is actually a recipe originating from Italy. I love to see how many similarities we share with other world’s cooking traditions. This reminds us that we are all linked in this world 🙂
However I had NEVER thought of using my panisse’s recipe as a tofu replacement! Such a clever idea!
Generally I twist this recipe a bit by dividing the liquid amount with half tomato sauce half water, then I add dried thyme and oregano, fresh garlic and sometime chopped dried tomatoes/olives, to finally either pan fry my cut slices or grill them in the oven.
Oh, and just to let you know that panisses freezes very well (only the “dough”, not the final fried ones), if already cut in slices and separated by parchment paper. So I imagine that the chickpea tofu will do perfectly well as well, as this is fundamentally the same kind of recipe.
Thank you again for sharing this clever and mouthwatering idea, I love all the recipes in your blog, you have helped me so much to develop my cook skills!
Thanks! Yes variations of this can be found in so many cuisines around the world. Its amazing!
Hi there,
I noticed that the nutrition is based on 1 serving – it says 1g – however I think it may be a typo as 2g fat per 1g of ‘tofu’ (for example) seems extreme. I assume this 1 serving should actually say 10g?
Thanks
Alison
its actually just 1 serving. Sometimes the widget autocompletes it to grams. updated it
I made this yesterday for your “soy-free tofu stir fry with sunbutter sauce”. It was suprisingly so easy and delicious on its own. I added all the spices from the original recipe plus cayenne and “no-soy”soy sauce. I ended up cooling it for less than an hour and it turned out great! also great idea to use arrowroot starch to make more crispier when pan-frying. thank you richa. love
awesome!
Hi there I made this and it’s in the fridge now! Can’t wait to try it! I have 3 questions. Is it okay to eat this directly from the fridge after it’s set or do you need to reheat it? And how do I know I cooked it long enough? I read online that eating raw chickpea flour is not good and I don’t want to make that mistake. I follow the instructions by mixing it a full 5 minutes and then another minute and a half after that. Was it enough time? By the way all your recipes Rock! You’re awesome!
yes you can eat it directly
I dont think there is an issue with eating raw chickpea flour. probably similar concern as eating raw flour, any flour that it could have some bacteria etc. But here it is getting cooked. The only thing that will happen if it isnt cooked long enough is the raw-ish flavor of the flour
Thanks!!
I came across this recipe and it just looked way to simple to do so of course had to try it. Oh wow I’m just in love with this!! It’s easy to put together and change the flavors easily depending on what you are using it for. It amazing in curries and thick sauces. It holds up well and I just can’t say enough wow about it! Thank you so much for sharing this! Love the vegan Indian cuisine.
This sounds good. I have not tried it but is it okay with a curry sauce? And do not understand the nutritional value i.e. how many carbs per 100g? Hubby is diabetic and we need to watch his carb intake.
Yes it works well in curry sauces.
The serving size is 4 serves. i.e 1/4th of the recipe. You can find the full value by multiplying for 4. and then calculate depending on how much would work as a serving size for you.
Thanks for this wonderful sounding recipe that does not have to sit out for 12 hrs after mixing then another 8 hrs once prepared. I was hoping to use this first for tofu scramble. Do you know if the texture would be good for that (or if I would need a softer variation for that)?
It should work just fine.