Picture this, it is 7a.m on a weekday and mom is still in bed while her perfect kids are all dressed and ready for school and are helping themselves to breakfast by pouring milk and cereal into a bowl ….O.K, O.K, let’s rewind that a little bit to read; and mom is slaving cooking over a hot stove, preparing breakfast while her perfect kids are …

Mom is  the culprit here, totally. Growing up in India I started the day with a hot and savory breakfast. Nothing sweet or cold. My typical breakfast before I hopped onto a bus was freshly made piping hot rice and soup with a side of vegetables at 8 in the morning. I have continued with this savory tradition and if we do have cereal, it is only in addition to something salty. In fact on occasion, surveying  the breakfast chaos in the morning, my kids have asked “Can we just have cereal?”

I usually make this pancake on the weekends. During the week, I make a version of this pancake that has either fresh or frozen corn instead of the spinach. I try as much as possible to avoid using eggs in my cooking. Here buttermilk and baking powder combined, provide the fluff factor that you would get from eggs.

SAVORY SPINACH AND BUTTERMILK PANCAKES [EGGLESS]

 

1 cup, tightly packed baby spinach, washed.

1 cup buttermilk

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt [you may want to use less than this saltaholic]

A couple of pinches of pepper [optional]

1 pinch nutmeg [optional]

1 cup pancake mix [I use Trader Joe’s multigrain pancake flour]

¼ cup fat free cheese [Trader Joe’s fat free crumbled feta]/optional

Butter/ oil/ cooking spray, whatever your choice, whatever amount works for you. I used butter.

Wash the spinach and let it drain. Measure the buttermilk and add the baking soda, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Gently mix so the baking powder can start its leavening action. Now add the pancake mix and incorporate ever so gently and if you see clumps of flour not mixed in, it is O.K. Now chop the spinach finely and add to the batter along with the cheese and mix gently to coat all the spinach. Do not over mix, as this will result in a flat pancake.

                                                                                                                                                              Heat a pan/skillet. Once it is hot, turn down the heat to medium. Add a pat of butter and coat the surface evenly. Pour ¼ cup of batter for each pancake. Put a lid over the pancake.

                                                                                                                                                             I find this keeps the pancake moist while it is cooking. Cook for about a minute and a half till little bubbles appear on surface and the sides begin to firm up.

Add a pat of butter and flip the pancake and put the lid back on for another minute. Remove when the pancake is golden brown.

Serve with tomato ketchup!

Batter makes 4-5 pancakes.

I have frozen some batter and a cooked pancake. Will update you all tomorrow on its freezability!

Update; both the batter and the pancake passed the freezer test!

FOOD NOTES

  • You can skip the cheese altogether [it doesn’t have much flavor] but I add it for the protein value. To the best of my knowledge this is a vegetarian cheese as the label lists ‘enzymes’ on the back. This means that the enzymes are either vegetable or microbial in nature. If the enzymes in the cheese come from an animal source then the label would say ’rennet’. If you do find out otherwise please don’t let me know! My source for fat free cheese is gone!
  • Measure the buttermilk into the mixing bowl and leave it out, so it can come to room temp before you mix the batter. The pancake cooks faster.

Best, S

Sending to fall fest cross blog event started by Margaret Roach of ‘A way to garden’