Can’t get enough chickpeas?

Whenever I find myself so fixated on a particular ingredient, recipe after recipe, that it starts to get tiresome (or I start to get embarrassed about it), I try to break free in one of two ways. I’ll widen my focus to include similar things in the same general category. (Enough with all these kale recipes! What about Swiss chard?) Or I’ll go in the other direction, looking even more closely at the object of my fixation to find other forms of it to explore.

I’ve been doing the latter lately with chickpeas. I’ve made no secret of the fact that if I had just one type of legume to cook the rest of my life, I’d pick those. But I have another mouth to feed at home (not to mention readers to satisfy), so I can’t just keep cranking out garbanzo-bean treatments week in and week out. And I already devote plenty of attention to all other kinds of pulses.

The solution: chickpea flour, a way to get my fix while keeping a little variety in the dinner rotation.

My first step in this direction was the classic flatbread called socca in France and farinata in Italy, in various iterations. Soon enough, I saw it celebrated in two cookbooks: “The Chickpea Flour Cookbook” by Camilla V. Saulsbury (Lake Isle Press, 2015) and the more recent “Chickpea Flour Does It All” by Lindsey S. Love (The Experiment, 2016). Both show a wide variety of uses for what is also called garbanzo bean flour, besan and gram flour: in cookies, cakes, brownies; to thicken soups and sauces; as a shortcut to creamy hummus; to make noodles; and more.

Love’s recipe for a simple quiche with a crust that includes almond and chickpea flours (making it gluten-free) drew me in first. It uses olive oil rather than butter, and you press it into a cast-iron skillet, which adds crispness to the nutty-tasting crust — and an air of rusticity to the simple, eggy dish. Nobody eating it would think of chickpeas unless you mentioned them.

The explorations are just beginning. I’ve been on something of a tostada run lately, too, so when I spotted one of Love’s recipes that instructs you in making the crispy fried tortillas with chickpea flour, water, coconut milk and olive oil, I bookmarked it. Part of me is skeptical that it could ever beat a corn tortilla, but the other part of me really wants to believe the title of Love’s book. I’ll know the truth soon enough.

Skillet Spinach And Chive Quiche

6 to 8 servings

A cast-iron skillet creates a particularly crisp crust, but you can use a tart pan if you prefer. (And, if desired, you can use this filling recipe with a conventional pie crust dough.)

MAKE AHEAD: The crust can be baked and refrigerated for up to 3 days before you add the filling and bake the quiche.

Adapted from “Chickpea Flour Does it All,” by Lindsey S. Love (The Experiment, 2016).

• For the crust:

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup (100 grams) almond flour

1 cup (120 grams) chickpea flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 to 2 tablespoons water

• For the filling:

6 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups lightly packed baby spinach, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup plain almond milk (may substitute whole or low-fat milk)

1/4 cup chopped chives

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch cast-iron skillet or tart pan with 1 tablespoon of the oil.

For the crust: Whisk together the almond flour, chickpea flour, baking powder, sea salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of oil and use your hands to work it into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly. Add 1 tablespoon of the water and squeeze the dough; if it feels dry and doesn’t stick together, drizzle in the remaining 1 tablespoon of water and squeeze the dough until it sticks together. Turn the dough out into the skillet, then use your fingers to press it into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Bake the crust until it’s dry to the touch and starting to firm up, 10 minutes. Remove it from the oven; reduce the temperature to 375 degrees.

While the crust is baking, make the filling: Whisk together the eggs, spinach, almond milk, chives, cumin, sea salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Once the crust is ready, pour in the filling mixture and carefully return the skillet to the oven. Bake the quiche until it’s firm and the center is set, 25 to 30 minutes.

Let the quiche cool for 5 minutes, then serve warm.

Per serving (based on 8): 260 calories, 11 g protein, 11 g carbohydrates, 20 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 140 mg cholesterol, 470 mg sodium, 3 g dietary fiber, 2 g sugar