Shredded Vegetable Socca

Shredded Vegetable Socca
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Total Time
40 minutes
Rating
4(152)
Notes
Read community notes

Socca is street food in Nice, in the South of France. This Los Angeles version, served at the restaurant Sqirl, makes it a meal by adding shredded vegetables to the chickpea pancake and tops it with greens and creamy labneh. This recipe calls for carrots, winter squash (Sqirl generally uses kabocha) or zucchini — pick one and proceed. Add a fried egg on top to make it heartier, if you'd like. —Oliver Strand

Featured in: Review: The Sqirl Cookbook, “Everything I Want to Eat”

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings
  • 1pound/455 grams zucchini, carrots or winter squash, peeled and coarsely grated on the large holes of a box grater or with the grating attachment of a food processor
  • Fine sea salt
  • ¼teaspoon cumin seeds
  • ¼teaspoon coriander seeds
  • ¼teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 4large eggs
  • 1clove garlic, minced
  • 1tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
  • 2tablespoons chopped fresh mint
  • 3tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  • cup/80 grams chickpea flour
  • Black pepper
  • Pinch of ground cinnamon (use only with winter squash)
  • Pinch of ground ginger (use with squash)
  • 2tablespoons unsalted butter, more as needed
  • ½cup/120 milliliters labneh or whole-milk Greek yogurt
  • 3cups/60 grams spicy salad greens (such as watercress, arugula or baby mustard greens)
  • 1tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

311 calories; 17 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 25 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 6 grams sugars; 15 grams protein; 594 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Toss grated vegetable with big pinches of salt. Put it in a fine-mesh sieve and let drain, squeezing every so often so that the vegetable releases its water, for at least 15 minutes.

  2. Step 2

    Meanwhile, combine cumin, coriander and fennel seeds in a dry skillet over medium-low heat. Toast the spices, shaking the pan often, until fragrant but not burned, about 3 minutes. Using a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder, grind toasted spices to a powder.

  3. Step 3

    Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Add drained vegetable, along with garlic, oregano, mint, cilantro, chickpea flour and toasted spices. Season with ½ teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper, and mix well. If you are using winter squash, stir in cinnamon and ginger. (The pancake batter can be made up to 2 days ahead and stored, covered, in the fridge.)

  4. Step 4

    Melt butter in a large skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium heat. Spoon in two ½ cupfuls of the pancake batter. Use the back of your spoon or a spatula to flatten each to ½-inch thick. Cook, rotating the skillet for even browning, until pancakes are nicely browned, about 4 minutes. Flip, then cook the second side for another few minutes. Transfer pancakes to a plate. Repeat to make 2 more pancakes, adding butter to the skillet if needed.

  5. Step 5

    Season labneh or yogurt with salt to taste. Just before serving, toss greens with lemon juice, oil and salt and pepper. Top each pancake with a dollop of labneh or yogurt and a tangle of greens.

Ratings

4 out of 5
152 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

I agree with the previous comments. This is a fritter recipe not even close to socca which is a chickpea flatbread cooked on a griddle and finished in the oven.

Doesn't matter to me what it's called - socca, fritter, whatever. I made this with zucchini twice in the past 2 weeks, and we loved it!

This is not in any way related to socca. This is closer to a fritter made with chickpea flour.

This actually is an Indian pakora, which is made exactly like this - even the spices which are essentially garam masala. Happy to think this is how pakora is making its way around the world.

Really nice, simple fare. I didn't have any zucchini, so I used butternut squash and carrots. The ginger and cinnamon were a nice touch. Zucchini would give it some nice green flakes. I'd like to try parsnips or beets. I was surprised at how well nonfat Greek yogurt complemented them -- even better than sour cream. The only thing I changed was to make 9 small ones instead of 4 large ones. The recipe definitely would not feed a family of four without some additional side dishes.

Step 3 should read "rest the batter in the fridge for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days." I have made socca many times before and always allowed the batter to hydrate for at least 2 hours, and never had a problem. Against my instincts, I decided to follow the recipe as written and it DESTROYED my stomach and ruined my night's sleep.

Tried this using flax egg and I do not recommend it. One of those meals where we looked at each other and said “ Nope, don’t make this again.”

This dovetails nicely with my latke recipe, originally inspired by okonomi-yaki.

used ground coriander 1tsp dried oregano omitted mint 3 tsp dried cilantro used winter squash

This actually is an Indian pakora, which is made exactly like this - even the spices which are essentially garam masala. Happy to think this is how pakora is making its way around the world.

I've had real socca and I liked these better!

I've never had a regular socca, but I thought these were pretty good. I used sweet potatos, because we have so many from our CSA and I need new ways of eating them! The cakes were fairly dense as others have said, but still tasty, especially with the greens.

Doesn't matter to me what it's called - socca, fritter, whatever. I made this with zucchini twice in the past 2 weeks, and we loved it!

Maybe I didn't do this right, but I didn't particularly like the way it came out: the cakes were dense and there are tastier ways to prepare these vegetables. (I used carrot and zucchini. Never had real socca.)

I made this with shredded raw beets and thought it was great. Usually we use M R Shulman's beet fritter recipe which includes the beet greens. The prep for this recipe was markedly easier plus the pancakes were sturdier, less prone to breaking when flipped. I liked the addition of garbanzo bean flour vs panko in the Shulman recipe. My husband prefers the Shulman recipe, but then, he is not the one cooking it! Beet greens were not wasted, had them steamed as a side dish the next night.

Really nice, simple fare. I didn't have any zucchini, so I used butternut squash and carrots. The ginger and cinnamon were a nice touch. Zucchini would give it some nice green flakes. I'd like to try parsnips or beets. I was surprised at how well nonfat Greek yogurt complemented them -- even better than sour cream. The only thing I changed was to make 9 small ones instead of 4 large ones. The recipe definitely would not feed a family of four without some additional side dishes.

Not at all like what I know as socca. Texture (and flavour) is all wrong. This is more like a pakora or bajji (plus egg). In fact I prefer the egg-less Indian version of these fritters.

Not enough socca flour: this is all egg

I have a chickpea( and other legume) allergy. What about substituting flour?

I agree with the previous comments. This is a fritter recipe not even close to socca which is a chickpea flatbread cooked on a griddle and finished in the oven.

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Credits

Adapted from "Everything I Want to Eat" by Jessica Koslow (Abrams, 2016)

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