Green Pancakes
A leafy green twist on the classic...
If you’re a subscriber, you may have seen my post a few weeks ago on making a pesto from tomato leaves. Since then, I’ve made more varieties including a peppery radish top pesto. With a surplus of this mighty green stuff in the fridge, I added a dollop to my eggs one morning, whisked vigorously and made an omelette. Delish!
I thought about using fresh greens in pancakes too. Rather than making a pesto from scratch, I blitzed a handful of chard from the garden and added it to a couple of trial pancake batters.
I ended up going down a rabbit hole to understand the difference between British pancakes (not the same as American pancakes) and French crêpes. I concluded that we use more or less the same recipe for the batter, but French crêpes are larger and thinner, around 1mm thick, and British pancakes are smaller and a little thicker. On this occasion, my batter was too thick to create a thin and crisp crêpe, so it’s a pancake this time around! I’m going to work on making the batter thinner to crack the crêpe. On the plus side, a thicker pancake is a bit more robust, especially if you intend to top or wrap your pancake with other ingredients.
You can create your green pancakes with any leafy green vegetable. Swiss chard, bok choi, spinach, kale etc. I know we don’t think of lettuce or salad leaves as something we ‘cook’, but why not? It could be a great way to use up those last dregs of salad in the fridge. I’m sure I’m not the only person who is guilty of letting them wilt in the bottom drawer of the fridge!
Use a basic pancake batter recipe as your base and add from there. I used plant-based milk in the recipe below, but you can use dairy milk if you prefer. If you use a plant-based alternative, I’d recommend avoiding sweeter varieties such as almond, coconut and even some varieties of oat milk. Soya worked for me but there are so many alternatives available that I’m sure you’ll find the right one.
I served my green pancakes with a slather of herby cream cheese, a simple fennel and cucumber salad and some drops of black olive tapenade.
Ingredients for pancake batter
You’ll need:
100g plain flour
2 large eggs
300ml alternative milk
2 handfuls of chopped leafy greens of your choice (washed and dried)
Rapeseed oil (or your preferred oil) for frying
Salt and pepper
Method
With a food processor
In a food processor, blitz your greens until they’re fine. If they’re too chunky, your pancake won’t form properly when you fry it and will break when you attempt to flip it. Tried and tested so you don’t have to!
To the food processor, add the milk, eggs, a pinch of salt and pepper and pulse until the three ingredients have combined well. Now add the flour, little by little, and pulse until incorporated. Rest the batter for 20 minutes.
Without a food processor
You can follow this method without a food processor, too. Finely chop your leafy greens and set them aside. In a separate bowl, incorporate your eggs, milk, a pinch of salt and pepper and whisk well. Gradually add your flour and whisk until it has incorporated and formed a batter. Now you can add your chopped greens and mix well. Rest the batter for 20 minutes.
Next steps
Heat a large frying pan on a medium heat. With a tissue or cloth, carefully and evenly wipe the surface of the pan with your oil. When the pan is hot, pour half a ladle’s worth of batter into the centre of the pan. Before it sets, rotate the pan in a circular motion to encourage the batter to spread evenly and thinly. Fry on each side for 1 minute or until golden brown.
If like me you only have one decent frying pan, you’ll likely have to fry each pancake one at a time. Stack the pancakes on a plate and place them on a low heat in the oven (50°C) until ready to serve.
Top the pancakes with anything you like. Salads, Greek yoghurt, feta cheese, pickled veg… Use them as wraps for something bigger like smoked salmon.
You can adapt the green pancake method to scrambled eggs or an omelette using only the eggs (forget the four and milk). I’d recommend adding a handful of herbs to your mixture, too.
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Yum bums. Gonna try this! 😍