A Savoury Twist on Pancake Day!

The English dictionary tells us that a pancake is a thin, flat, round cake made from a mixture of flour, milk and egg, fried on both sides but I’m happy to note that cooks around the world, both professional and amateur have been enthusiastically playing around with this loose definition and creating all manner of ways to take pancakes to greater heights of deliciousness!

I’m going savoury this year and have already tried and tested some great recipes posted by some of my all-time favourite food bloggers and cooks whose passion for pancakes is in no way impeded by their resolve to take a healthier approach whilst still delivering dishes that look and taste seriously-good!

 

Angela Coleby from Divalicious Recipes offers up Spinach and Chia Pancakes using coconut flour which are gluten free, low carb, vegetarian (and very, very moreish!)

 

Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest gives us Rava Dosa (Indian Crepes) with Squash and Tomato Chickpea Masala which involve quite a number of ingredients but the whole prepping and cooking procedure doesn’t take long and trust me, if you are entertaining on Pancake Day/Night, there will be plenty of happy faces around the table!

 

Kimberley Hasselbrink at The Year in Food has come up with some fabulously-delicate Chickpea Pancakes with Smoky Roasted Carrots which (and I am more than happy to quote her here) “are addictively good, deeply savoury and nutty”.

Jamie Oliver rarely disappoints and if you haven’t tried his Healthy Cheese and Corn Pancakes with Smoky Bacon and Caramelised Bananas, don’t waste any more time deliberating - breakfast time, lunchtime or any time - these are pukka pancakes!

The Fabulous Scottish Larder

It’s been a pretty darned good week for Scottish produce! First we had Jamie and Jimmy championing the fabulous langoustine (bit like a small lobster or a big prawn but oh so sweet, delicious and nutritious) on their Friday Night Feast  with Jamie, Gennaro and various others creating dishes for us all to sling together in record time  - as long as you badger your local fishmonger to stock them rather than allowing 90% of them to end up on Spanish kitchen tables where they hoover them down with the kind of enthusiasm that we appear to have lost - sad but true!

Join the campaign using the hashtag #Langos

Then within days, black pudding made it into the realm of ‘super' foods - hallelujah, at last, appreciation for this exceptionally-tasty and versatile concoction of meats, onion, oatmeal, barley and aromatic spices. Ask any chef worth his or her credentials and they will tell you that there are no end of ways you can get a bit of black pudding into diners' lives and likely see a smile on their faces!

I don’t have an allegiance to any particular Scottish butcher or manufacturer of black pudding - I believe it’s all about trial and error but in my view it’s got to be Scottish and once you find the one that floats your boat, my advice is to stick with it and get into the kitchen and experiment! My personal favourite from a waistline-preserving perspective is a Warm Salad which was introduced to me by Jo Macsween, the granddaughter of Charlie, who created the first Macsween haggis and black pudding where she uses haggis but it also works extremely well with black pudding! Here’s the recipe (just substitute black pudding for the haggis - or include both for an exceptionally delicious meal that doesn’t in any way scream ‘diet and healthy’ but so is!)

To see more recipes visit my Recipes page.

How do you eat your black pudding? Let me know using the hashtag #DietNotDepravation