Whenever I have the opportunity to eat at a restaurant with an exceptionally talented chef, either here locally or farther away, I always marvel at one primary truth. A truly great chef can take even the most humble sounding dish and make it something spectacular. In December I enjoyed a weekend trip to Chicago (which I instagrammed about incessantly) and as with all of my trips, my primary goal was to eat as much amazing food as possible in the time I had. I never pass up an opportunity to visit Girl and the Goat and as always, the meal was truly superb from start to finish. What especially amazed me this time was that of the six incredible dishes we tried, the humble chickpea fritter with winter veggies was our favorite, even more than the more carnivorous courses. While the details of the other dishes have started to fade, I have not been able to get this one off of my mind and I knew there was only one solution – to recreate it at home.
Thankfully a quick Google search provided the actual recipe for the fritters themselves and the rest was fairly straightforward to figure out on my own. I’m very happy to report that this recreation is incredibly close to what we had at the restaurant and I can’t say enough good things about this dish! I rarely fry things but for the sake of authenticity, I did fry these this time. However, the patties hold up very well and I suspect that pan searing on all sides in a cast iron skillet would have a similar result with less fat required. I may play around with baking the fritters in the future as well and if I have success, I will update this recipe to include that method as well. For now, do not pass go, do not collect $200 – just make this dish!