Savoury Vegan Pancakes! Pancake Day 2018

Oh... My... You guys, I've done it. I've finally done it. After years of trying, trial and error, really gross attempts - I've done it! I've cracked savoury vegan pancakes. They're cheap, easy and oh-so-delicious; not to mention fluffy. As you can probably guess I'm very impressed with myself so, without further ado, on with the recipe! This will also be the debut post for Calamity Kitchen's brand new website - as well as the last post on this blog once it's moved over. It's a brilliant new beginning for us and I'm super excited to get it off the ground.

 Savoury Vegan Pancakes (makes 8)

•  180g plain flour
• 2tbsp chickpea flour (gram flour)
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1 veggie oxo cube
• 200ml non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
• 100ml water
• Frylight cooking spray

 Recommended Filling: Tomato, Mushroom and Cream Cheese

 The filling is always the most important part of pancakes for me, and this one is inspired by one of my favourite childhood meals from my mother: cream cheese and tomato pasta rolled up in pancakes. And yes, it's the glorious carb-fest that you're probably imagining right now.

• 1 small brown onion, sliced
• 2 fat cloves of garlic, minced
• 200g mushrooms (or sub 100g mushrooms & 100g vegan Quorn pieces like I have) 
• 100g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1tsp paprika
• a splash of balsamic vinegar
• 100g chopped tinned tomatoes
• a handful of fresh basil or 2tsp dried
• 1 veggie stock cube, crumbled
• salt and pepper to taste
• Sainsbury's Free From Garlic & Herb cheese spread  or other vegan cream cheese, or hummus! Best to take this out of the fridge while cooking everything else.
• A handful of spinach (optional)

Method for Pancakes

1.  Blend all the ingredients together using an electric whisk, or mix by hand, making sure there are no lumps. Preheat a small non-stick frying pan over low-medium heat and coat with a few sprays of Frylight.
2.  Once the pan is hot, pour out enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan and turn up the heat, swirling it in a circular motion to achieve a nice round pancake. Cook for about a minute but this is very much a cooking by eye sort of meal. 
3.  Keep a close eye on the batter and once it has firmed, use a spatula to flip the pancake, cooking the other side for 1-2 minutes. If the top is looking a little pasty then flip again and cook for another minute. 
4.  Transfer the pancake to piece of kitchen roll on a clean plate and repeat the above steps until you run out of batter.

 To keep the pancakes warm while cooking the filling, there are two options: a) cook the filling first and reheat it before serving, or b) heat your oven to 100ºC and stack the pancakes, separated by sheets of foil or greaseproof paper, on a baking tray and keep them warm in the oven.

 For the Filling

1.  Preheat the oven to 200ºC and arrange the cherry tomatoes on a baking tray. Season with balsamic vinegar, paprika and half of the basil. Roast them for 25 minutes, preparing the rest of the filling while you wait.  
2.  Preheat a medium saucepan and coat with cooking spray or 2tsp vegetable oil. Saute the onions and garlic until translucent, then add the mushrooms (and Quorn pieces if using) and basil, cook for another five minutes or so, then reduce the heat. 
3.  Add the tinned tomatoes and stock cube, and turn the heat back up. You want to keep everything simmering until the liquid has reduced and there's no juice remaining. If there's still a lot of liquid once everything has cooked, simply drain this off; otherwise you'll end up with soggy pancakes - and nobody wants that!

 To assemble

1. Spread a generous layer of cream cheese or hummus onto the pancakes and add a spoonful of the filling, spreading down into an even layer, and add the spinach if using.
2.  Roll up the pancake, serve and enjoy!

 Seriously people, I'm in love. Very impressed with this recipe so I hope you'll enjoy it too. I'll be making a sweet version of this in the next couple of weeks so keep checking back for that one. As I mentioned before, don't forget to check out Calamity Kitchen's new website for all of your yummy vegan goodness. Much love x