Friday night rainbow savoury pancakes

Friday night dinners have to be quick and easy, just because it's Friday, really! Rainbow pancakes are ideal as they are super tasty and don't take much time to make.
So what was used from the veg box? One of the carrots (I'm gradually making my way through them), a handful of chard and then the cherry tomatoes, not for the pancakes but roasted on the side - oh and they tasted sublime!

For the sharp eyed, you'll notice there is an interloper in the veg ingredients - I snuck in some sweet potato, not just for the gorgeous colour but to use as a binding agent. Once steamed and puréed, sweet potato goes a little gloopy, and works brilliantly helping to hold everything together in gluten free plant based recipes. They also contribute towards the texture and can be added in surprisingly well to a variety of recipes - anyone tried my sweet potato chocolate brownies.....?
The other key ingredient in the pancakes is the flour - for this particular pancake I've used chickpea flour (otherwise known as besan or gram flour). I first discovered this flour when living in India, and find myself using it more and more, simply because it's amazing! First it has a strong flavour so contributes a savoury taste. It's packed with minerals, particularly magnesium, B vitamins and is a great source of protein and of course fibre. Finally, it's gluten free and really adaptable for all sorts of recipes. Don't try to lick the bowl though, as it tastes pretty foul when raw!
To finish off the dish, I made a spinach and walnut pesto sauce as it needed a little something on the side, and that's what I had in the fridge!
So give this a go - it takes about 20 minutes in total if you already have some sweet potato pureé to hand. Enjoy!
Rainbow savoury pancakes

1 cup chickpea flour/besan/gram flour
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
200ml water
1 medium carrot, grated
2 small sweet potatoes, steamed and mashed
handful chard
handful parsley, chopped
salt and pepper
cherry tomatoes
olive oil
First, heat the oven to 180ºC, place the cherry tomatoes still on their stems into a baking tray with a splash of olive oil and pop in the oven to roast for 15 minutes or so.
Wash the chard and separate the stem and leaves. Finely chop the stem and put to one side. Place the leaves into a frying pan and dry fry for a couple of minutes to remove some of the water. Leave to cool.
Whilst the tomatoes are roasting, make the pancakes. Place the flour, turmeric, baking powder and salt into a bowl and mix together well. Add most of the water to make a thick batter. Stir in the sweet potato, chopped chard stems, chopped chard leaves, grated carrot and parsley and mix together really well until everything is combined. Add a little more water if needed. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat a drop of oil in a pan and dollop 2-3 spoonfuls into the middle, spreading it out to make a large pancake. Cook for a couple of minutes until starting to brown, then flip and cook the other side. Slide out onto a warm plate and repeat until all the mixture is used up.
Cut each pancake into fours, then serve with the roasted tomatoes and some pesto or sauce of choice.

Half term breakfast pancakes

It's half term this week for our region of the UK, a welcome break in the normal routine of chasing teenagers up out of bed, prompting, reminding and miraculously getting them out of the door vaguely on time and conscious! When the kids were little, I loved just spending some relaxing time with them, going out on little excursions and generally chilling out together; now they just enjoy chilling out with their friends and I don't get much of a look in, apart from in the food producing department!
Breakfast on a school day is usually a case of getting something quick and nutritious inside of them; the holidays allow a little more time. This week I made these great wholesome pancakes; they are easy to prepare, but tend to be saved as a weekend or holiday treat as pancakes just seem to take longer to cook than I expect them too. My giant boy teenager, who had already consumed one breakfast, polished off four and said they were the best dairy free pancakes he'd tasted!
What's great about these pancakes is that apart from being dairy free, they're also gluten free, contain no refined sugar or oil and are packed with fibre and nutrients. I've used buckwheat flour which in itself is a fabulous source of plant based protein as well as fibre, manganese and magnesium. Flaxseed, which I've used as an egg replacer, is a fabulous source of omega 3 and cinnamon is just an all round fabulous anti-inflammatory that can help reduce cholesterol, maintain good blood sugar control and just tastes wonderful! And if you use almond milk as your non-dairy milk, you get fantastic amounts of calcium and vitamin E thrown in for good measure.
I've used maple syrup as the sweetening agent which is one of the least refined sugars you can get your hands on; you could use agave syrup or just normal sugar if you don't have any maple syrup to hand, but that reduces the overall favourable nutritional profile of these pancakes. Having said that, the superb amount of fibre in these pancakes should negate the negativities of a little added sugar (unless you are on a specific disease reversing programme). If you don't have buckwheat flour to hand, use wholemeal wheat flour, but add a little less milk as it shouldn't need as much.
Give these a go one lazy morning and see how great a nutrient packed pancake can taste.
Apple and maple pancakes

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
2 1/2 tablespoons water
1 apple grated
125g buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
300mls non-dairy milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon maple syrup
First of all, soak the ground flaxseed in the water for a few minutes - it will become thick and gloopy. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and cinnamon together. In another bowl, mix together the milk, apple and maple syrup, then add in the gloopy flaxseed mix, stirring well. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix well. It should be very thick; add a little extra non-dairy milk if it seems too thick to come off the spoon.
Heat a non-stick frying pan and wipe over with oil.  Add a spoonful of mixture into the pan and cook for a few minutes on each side until brown. Keep warm until the whole batch is cooked, then serve with additional maple syrup, fruit or whatever you like to add to your pancakes. Enjoy!