There are some food blog trends I just don’t jump on right away. I fought the green smoothie. Then I made one and wondered what took me so long. Love affair! It took me quite awhile to try overnight oats and when I did I knew why I resisted. They are not at all for me.

Then I heard about socca. A lot. I saw many recipes and clearly this was very easy to make and quite the rage. I simply wasn’t interested. Over the weekend, however, I decided it was time to finally try this “flat bread.” I put out a request on Twitter, asking for favorite socca recipes that required baking (versus stove-top or broiler methods). Katelyn of New Kid on the Vegan Block directed me to her favorite recipe.

I followed Katelyn’s recipe and used a 15-inch cast iron skillet (it’s huge but the only cast iron that I have). The only thing I would change next time is to bake it a few minutes longer and skip the broiler step. As you can see, my broiler is quite uneven and browned it way too much on one side; it was actually a gorgeous golden color straight out of the oven.

One bite of the socca and I got it. It rocks.

Inspired by a tweet from The Spicy Vegan about a fabulous bean and tomato dip she created in the Vita-Mix I decided to whip up a dip/spread for the socca. I had cooked chickpeas in the refrigerator (made the day before, in the pressure cooker, with a little olive oil, garlic, onion and lime juice) and dumped one and a half cups (about the same amount as a full can of chickpeas) into the Vita-Mix. I added a can of diced tomatoes (with juice), two cloves of garlic, a pinch of cumin and the juice of half a lime. I blended it for less than a minute and the result was a very creamy dip / spread.

Next time I will use less tomatoes or more chickpeas, as the tomato flavor was strong when I sampled it from the blender. However, once I spread it on the socca and took a bite, the tomato taste was very tempered. This piece of socca and dip, with a side salad, made for a perfect lunch.

Fully on the socca bandwagon, the next day I decided to try a pizza. The result wasn’t quite socca and it wasn’t quite pizza. It was, however, quite delectable.