A friend has a recipe which used gram flour, chickpea koftas I think. However she cannot get any, what else could she use?

Besan or gram flour is used as a binding agent in koftas, apart from numerous other uses it has. I am sure it can be substituted with arrowroot flour as a binding agent, though I have not used it as far as I can remember.

If she is making chickpea koftas, why does she need gram flour in it?

If she lives in UK, it is easy to order it on line. Open any of my recipes and there is a supplier's name given on it.

mamta

She could use soya flour. I use chickpea flour as a substitution for soy flour for binding. Should also work the other way round.

Catrin

Although besan flour (gram flour) is also called chickpea flour, it is actually made from channa dal, the small chickpea, not the large variety used in Middle Eastern cookery, often referred to as Kabuli channa (meaning from Kabul in Afghanistan). You could try making your own besan flour, but make sure it is the Bengali channa dal you use, and not chickpeas, which will give a different flavour.

Lapis