Join the Veganlovlie Cocoon!
Receive an occasional burst of sunshine and a little flower, recipes, craft projects and FREE resources.

Saturday 11 April 2015

Vegetable Pancakes with Carrot, Spinach and Sweet Potato | Vegan + Gluten-free

Vegetable Pancakes with Carrots, Spinach and Sweet Potato, Vegan, Glutenfree

Half confounded, half amused, for a moment I just stood staring at the three bags of sweet potatoes that had just been delivered to my door. I often order my grocery online when the weather gets a little hostile over here and especially the bulky items like potatoes and non-dairy milk cartons. Otherwise, we do all our groceries on foot. Although, a 20-minute walk (each way) in freezing sub-zero temperatures or even just above zero with wind chill is not always a pleasant trip.

A few weeks ago, I thought I was ordering three sweet potatoes (amongst other grocery items) but I was quite bemused when I got three bags instead. Very strange, as I had put the same order before and received just three sweet potatoes. The store must have had a glitch on their system or the staff misunderstood, which really happens every now and then with online grocery shopping.

Vegetable Pancakes with Carrots, Spinach and Sweet Potato, Vegan, Glutenfree

For the high-carb vegans out there, this would probably have been a normal order but for my case, as much as I love sweet potatoes, I do not consume them in such vast quantities in a short period of time. It is just the two of us here and unless I incorporate the sweet potatoes in recipes, Kevin does not eat a whole lot of them on their own, that is plain baked or steamed.

Creative mode: ON; I knew I had to use them in any way I could! Pre-cooking a few at a time and storing them in the fridge, ready to be used, helped me along the way whenever creativity would strike; it had better struck everyday lest the sweet potatoes would go bad before I'd have a chance to use them up. Starting with sweet potato bread, I moved on to incorporating a little bit in mashed form in sauces. By the way, I remembered a recipe I wanted to try and adapted it to my taste; it came out brilliant. I have now adopted the habit of adding a little sweet potato puree in most sauces and it does a fantastic job both for a touch of sweetness and as a thickener. Steadily, I managed to use up two bags pretty quickly.

Vegetable Pancakes with Carrots, Spinach and Sweet Potato, Vegan, Glutenfree

Well, every cloud has a silver lining and I soon came up with a few new recipes that is worth keeping and re-using. One of them being these vegetable pancakes. Savoury pancakes are quite a regular brunch at the Lovlie Cocoon, especially on weekends. Adding a couple of dollops of sweet potato mash to the batter made a tasty difference. The pancakes turned out fluffier on the inside with just the right hint of sweetness and slightly caramelised on the outside for a satisfying crispiness. Kevin asked for more and we made these pancakes three days in a row and even had them for dinner; I decided it was time to share the recipe.

Vegetable Pancakes with Carrots, Spinach and Sweet Potato, Vegan, Glutenfree

Vegetable Pancakes with Carrots, Spinach and Sweet Potato, Vegan, Glutenfree

Altering the vegetables with what you have on hand, makes this recipe very versatile. In this version, I am using carrots and spinach but feel free to substitute with other vegetables like cabbage, kale, bok choy, any other greens or scallions, anything really.




Vegetable Pancakes with Carrot, Spinach and Sweet Potato | Vegan + Gluten-free
Ingredients (about 10 pancakes depending on what size you make them)
1 cup [100g] chickpea flour (also known as gram flour or besan)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup [180ml] water (adjust at the end if you feel the batter is a little stiff)
1/3 cup [65g] cooked mashed sweet potato
1 cup [50g] coriander leaves (cilantro), finely chopped
2 cups [180g] carrots, grated
1 cup cooked spinach (lightly wilted, from 4 cups [100g] fresh spinach)
Salt to taste
Oil for light brushing when cooking

If you are using fresh spinach, start by wilting them in a skillet. Then cut into small pieces.
In a large mixing bowl, add the chickpea flour, salt, turmeric powder and baking powder. Whisk to combine.
Add the water and whisk well to remove any lumps.
Add the cooked mashed sweet potato and mix well into the batter.
Now add the chopped coriander leaves, cooked spinach and grated carrots.
The consistency of the batter is rather thick with all the vegetable well "glued" together. You may adjust the water with a few more tablespoons if you feel the batter is too stiff.
Heat a non-stick frying pan or skillet on medium. Lightly brush the pan with a little oil.
Laddle some of the batter on the hot pan and spread the batter around to make a rather thin pancake.
Cook for 3 minutes on one side then flip and cook for another 3 minutes. Flip again and cook for a final one minute. Then remove from the pan and place into a serving plate.
Repeat for the rest of the batter.

Notes: You may make larger pancakes if you want to cook up the batch more quickly. Then you may cut them into quarters or even smaller bite size pieces and serve as finger foods or party nibbles.

13 comments:

  1. Awesome recipes.
    Hard to find easy, healhy, vegan and gluten free recipes. Gonna try this one. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. I'm glad you like the recipes. I had a look at your blog. You have some nice Mauritian recipes too. :) I cannot seem to find the comment section on your blog though.

      Delete
  2. I never know what to do with sweet potatoes. I cannot really get into them. But your recipe looks awesome and I'm gonna try it. It's a good way to broaden my horizon:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For a long while, I've been having them just baked or steamed on their own, until I started to incorporate them in a few recipes and thought they work well. So yes, it's definitely an ingredient that can be used in a lot of different ways.

      Delete
  3. Hi there! I'd like to know if I can cook this same recipe without the cooked potato. Should it be the same or will it change drastically? Thanks! And awesome recipe!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, you can make this without the sweet potato. You may need to add a little more water then. Wait until you've added all the vegetables and see if the batter is a little stiff or test by cooking the first pancake and see if you like the texture (then add a few tablespoons of water to the batter if required).

      Delete
  4. I know this would be right up my street. I'm a recent convert to the joys of sweet potato for sauces (vegan mac and cheese with a sweet potato sauce was a real revelation for me!) and I love veggie fritters and pancakes in all their forms. I'm not sure I'd be overjoyed if three bags of sweet potatoes landed on my doorstep, but if it was an excuse to make these pancakes, I wouldn't complain too hard.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Vegan mac and cheese with sweet potato? Wow, I'd love to try this one. I still got a few to use up. Luckily the bags were not extra big. They were about 2kg each but still 6kg of sweet potatoes is quite a lot for me when it's unexpected.

      Delete
  5. Wow, those are some tasty looking veggie pancakes! Awesome job of using up all the sweet potatoes and in such creative ways. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a good opportunity for me to test out some new recipes too. :)

      Delete
  6. Wow, that is one creative dish! I was so surprised when I found you on YouTube, yay! I'm just a lurker, though, since I don't have a YT account. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Youtube Channel is still a rather recent thing. I started a few years ago but then dropped it. But recently I got at it again. Happy lurking! :D

      Delete
  7. That looks amazing, they look like 'eggy' pancakes already! What a clever way to use these sweet potatoes...I want to soak them in a saucy chili sauce already!

    ReplyDelete

Your comments make my heart flutter even if you are just saying hi. Thank you for visiting Veganlovlie! :)

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Share This Post

Share This Post

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...