Herbed Chickpea Oven “Fries” with Avocado-Garlic Aioli

[Chickpea Oven Fries are vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free, soy-free, nut-free, dairy-free, egg-free, yeast-free and perfect for any stage of the anti-candida diet.]

Have you ever heard of “spoonbread“? When I was a kid, it was one of my dad’s favorite weekend breakfasts, and my mother made it often. Basically (in our house, at least), spoonbread was cornmeal cooked cream-of-wheat style, until it began to disintegrate slightly, resembling a thick, mushy, bright yellow concrete mix, soft and gluey and somewhat congealed. Then, Mom would stir in several blobs of cottage cheese (not curdles, but the heavy, dense kind–sometimes also called “farmer’s cheese“). The cheese didn’t serve to soften the gruel, as you’d expect it would, but instead simply contributed a white marbling to the brilliant canary hue, like a big slab of granite being dissolved in urine.  Mmmmm–sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?

Needless to say, I was not a fan of spoonbread.

So it makes perfect sense that I shunned polenta for decades even after I moved out on my own and had the opportunity to sample the professionally-prepared variety in a number of reputable establishments.

When I finally did capitulate and taste it, I quickly realized that polenta wasn’t anything like my mom’s spoonbread. It was firm, with a slightly creamy center–and it tasted good! I started cooking polenta appetizers for dinner parties, and even savored some polenta “fries” with JL and her husband during our dinner at Candle Cafe in New York a few years ago.

Which brings me to today’s recipe.

Of course, polenta fries are lovely, but I know that many people on an anti-candida or low sugar diet don’t “do” corn. And even though I am totally fine eating potatoes (as I mentioned yesterday), it’s sometimes nice to have a different grain-free option when you’re craving something carby.

Enter chickpea fries–a perfect option that won’t mess with your blood sugar.

(Oh, and if you’re interested in other ways to balance blood sugar, I hope you’ll check out the course I’m teaching with my friend and colleague Andrea Nakayama, “You’re Not the Boss of Me: Control Your Blood Sugar So It Doesn’t Control You.” It’s all about balance and how to deal gracefully with cravings along the way. These fries and aioli would be a perfect recipe for that program, too. Early bird pricing ends tonight, so head on over to take a look!).

These fries are ridiculously simple to make (only 3 ingredients!) and are literally foolproof. Paired with the avocado aioli, they’re elevated to the status of a dinner party appetizer–but don’t feel you have to serve them that way. They’ll do just fine alongside some good old-fashioned ketchup (or catsup, depending on your bent), too.

Just please, don’t serve them with cottage cheese.

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