Cheddar, wild garlic and pasta pancakes

How has your week been? I’m still trying to get the new home sorted while working from home. It has been incredibly busy at work and the working days tend to stretch and overlap more than usual with the private life. I would prefer being able to return to the office soon, but let’s see what happens.

I’ve been cooking a lot this week. Food seems to be the main comfort in these times. I had some leftover pasta and I got the idea to make pancakes from them. My partner was a little bit skeptical when I presented this idea to him, but he ended up happily scoffing few of these away.

I made my usual waffle and pancake batter and mixed the pasta in there. I also added some mature Cheddar and wild garlic. I now have a wild garlic plant growing by the window in my kitchen, so it’s very handy to take some for cooking.

I would recommend using a smaller pasta shape for this recipe. I had wholemeal pasta in animal shapes, unfortunately they aren’t showing in the photos as I would’ve hoped.

Ingredients

1 ½ cup wheat flour

2 tbsp sugar

½ tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ cup oat milk

3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 cups cooked pasta

100 g Cheddar

3-4 wild garlic leaves

Butter for frying

Method

Whisk the wheat flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, oat milk and vegetable oil into a smooth batter.

Mix the pasta, Cheddar and wild garlic into the batter.

Make smallish pancakes and fry them in a pan until golden brown.

Serve with additional butter and/or Cheddar.

This dish will guarantee a comforting breakfast or brunch any day.

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Lentil pancakes with chilli butter & 500!

It's The VegHog's 500^th blog post my friends! Hurrah, hurrah!

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Again I want to thank you all, my lovely readers! Only because of you I've made it to 500! 
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I wanted to post something festive to mark the occasion, but then realised that I've been cooking quite healthy food this winter, which might not be such party food. Then I thought that a cake would be nice anyway, ahem... a pancake, ahem... a savoury pancake... but then again, what could be more me than that? This recipe is for savoury pancakes powered with red lentils and spelt flour for that extra protein and healthy twist with some extra special chilli and lime butter on the top. So here comes the recipe, I hope you enjoy reading it!

The VegHog's Lentil Pancakes

Pancake batter

50 g dried red lentils

110 g spelt flour

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground cumin

2 eggs

150 ml milk

50 g butter

Olive oil for frying

Chilli butter

100 g butter

1 red chilli

½ lime's zest

Method

Make the chilli butter first by mixing the finely chopped chilli and grated lime zest into soft butter. Wrap into a cling film and let rest in the fridge.

Rinse and cook the lentils until done.

Mix the dry ingredients together for the batter.

Add the cooked and cooled lentils, eggs, milk and melted butter and beat it all into an even batter.

Fry the pancakes on both sides in a frying pan in olive oil.

Serve the pancakes straight from the pan with the chilli butter.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Root vegetable pancake

This is one great pancake for this season, and this is a good trick to get your kids eating root vegetables. And this can also be how to get your kids cooking, as the recipe is so easy. Then of course the contents hiding wouldn't work anymore, but the magic word “pancake” might just save you? Well, I'm sure that some kids like root vegetables anyway. I have tested this on bigger kids and they really liked it.

I found the recipe on Valio's pages, but made my own version of it. Have a look below. 

Ingredients

1 parsnip

1 carrot

1 shallot

2 eggs

300 ml milk

2 dl spelt flour

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

150 g Greek yogurt

Method

Grate the root vegetables and chop the shallot finely.

Whisk the eggs and then add the milk, spelt flour, salt and sugar.

Add the grated root vegetables and chopped shallot to the batter. Then add the Greek yogurt.

Pour the batter on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake it at 225C for about 35 minutes.

Let the pancake cool slightly before serving and then cut it into suitable sized squares.

Your VegHog

Zucchini and feta pancakes

The Pancake Day is around the corner, and I would suggest you to try my savoury pancake creation. These pancakes consist of zucchini and feta with a hint of mint, and I found them quite good. I know that most people probably prefer sweet pancakes, but they might not realise how nice savoury ones can be as well. I haven't made any sweet pancakes in ages, so I thought this would do as my Pancake Day contribution.

Here's how to make The VegHog's Zucchini and Feta pancakes.

Ingredients

1 zucchini

1 large vine tomato

100g Greek feta

8 mint leaves

½tsp salt

½tsp chilli flakes

110g self-raising flour

1tbsp baking powder

150ml milk

2 eggs

50g butter

Olive oil for frying

Method

Grate the zucchini and the peel and purée the tomato. Crumble the feta with your hands into small pieces. Melt the butter in a small pan.

Make the batter by whisking the milk, eggs, melted butter, baking powder and flour together. Season it with salt, chilli flakes and mint leaves (those you can chop up a little). Then add the tomato purée, grated zucchini and crumbled feta and mix into an even pancake batter.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan and fry the pancakes on both sides until golden brown with slightly crispy edges.

Serves well as a breakfast or a snack in between. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Green pancakes with lime butter

This January feels like the longest month ever, and I have been quite busy. It's nice to be able to relax with cooking and blogging a bit, and thank goodness it's Saturday. 

I have been looking for inspiration and ideas in my cook books and online, and have been reading Yotam Ottolenghi's vegetarian cookery book Plenty a lot. I have tried quite a few recipes from that book, and none of them have disappointed so far. A recipe that I saw in this book and altered slightly, Crusted harlequin squash wedges, is at the moment my most read post, so it must be a sign.

Also today I decided to try out one of his recipes, and this one is a real winner. Today's recipe is for absolutely fabulous green pancakes with spinach, spring onions and chili. (The recipe is also online here.) You know that I'm quite cautious with spices, so I reduced the chili amount from Ottolenghi's original a bit, and I didn't have any fresh coriander leaves handy either. Otherwise I followed the original instructions pretty closely. If you're planning to cook this, definitely also read through Ottolenghi's recipe and tips.

Lime butter:

100 g butter

1 lime (zest grated and 2 tbsp lime juice)

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp white pepper

1 small garlic clove

¼ tsp chili flakes

This lime butter is a spectacular one! Remember this for the future as well when you need a seasoned butter, and when wouldn't you? Only a couple of simply steps are needed for making it.

Grate the lime zest and press the juice, also chop the garlic. Beat the butter at room temperature and then add the other ingredients to it.

Shape a sausage shape of the butter and let it rest in the fridge. This is that one done, and you can advance to pancake making.

Pancakes:

250 g spinach

110 g self-raising flour

1 tbsp baking powder

2 eggs

50 g butter

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cumin

150 ml milk

6 spring onions

1 green chili

Olive oil for frying

Chop the spring onions and chilies finely, and wilt the spinach in a pan with little water. 

Drain the spinach and chop it small as well.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, eggs, melted butter, salt, cumin and milk into a batter, and then also add the spring onions, chili and spinach and whisk some more.

Heat olive oil in a pan and fry the pancakes for a few minutes on each side until they are crispy and golden brown and cooked fully through.

For serving place some of the lime butter on the top and enjoy this goodness! I love it!

Your VegHog