Green pancakes

My new favourite cookbook is Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty. I've been reading lots about this vegetarian book on blogs such as Where's the Beef? and Cook Almost Anything, and read his posts on The Guardian website and knew that I had to get my hands on a copy. It's an amazing book that I'm sure even the most dedicated meateater would find it hard to resist. It's not full of lentil/chickpea/bean recipes, rather it puts all sorts of vegetables to amazing and delicious-sounding uses. Once a Waitress has a great post about it.

This is the first recipe that I've cooked from the book, and it definitely won't be the last! I adapted it slightly by using silverbeet instead of spinach, halving the recipe, leaving out the whisked egg white at the end, and I didn't serve it witht the suggested lime butter. The pancakes were very fast and easy to prepare and tasted simply fantastic. The recipe is completely adaptable to any leafy vegetables that you have handy.

Ingredients:
125g silverbeet, washed
55g self-raising flour
1/2 tbs baking powder
1 egg
25g butter, melted
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
75ml milk
50g spring onions, finely sliced
1 green chilli, finely diced
olive oil for frying

Wilt the silverbeet in a frypan with a splash of water.
Remove to drain in a sieve, and when cool, squeeze out as much water as you can with your hands then finely chop.
Put the flour, baking powder, egg, butter, salt, cumin and milk into a bowl and whisk until smooth.
Add the spring onions, chillies and silverbeet and mix in.
Add a dash of olive oil to a non-stick frypan and turn on to medium-high.
Spoon ~2 tablespoons of batter into the frypan and shape into a circle around 1cm thick.
Cook for about 2 mins each side, until golden.
Continue making and cooking pancakes until the batter is all used (I made 3 pancakes, more than enough for one person for dinner)