Pancakes with spicy cauliflower and raita

Was I the only one who was surprised to find that Pancake Day wasn't in February this year, but on March 5th? I was all ready weeks ago with two pancake recipes - one savoury and one sweet - only to find I was a whole month early! Anyway, it's time to share them now so, to start with, here's a delicious one using a combination of gram flour (made with chickpeas) and plain flour that gives the pancakes a lovely nuttiness, plus spices for a really good flavour. They work really well with the mildly curried vegetable filling.

When I started experimenting with different ways of making pancakes I was using a small non-stick frying pan that I already had and it worked well although, being small, it was quite tricky to get the batter spread as thinly in the pan as I'd have liked. In the photo above, the pancakes, while still delicious, are just a little bit too thick. Then, halfway though the testing process, I was sent a crepe pan from Judge's new Radiant range (shown in the photo below) to try out, and I love it! It's just the right size to make it easy to swirl the batter thinly around, it has a shallow lip that makes turning the pancake with a spatula really straightforward (I prefer doing it like that to flipping them, personally) and it works on my induction hob, which not all pans do even in this day and age. So it gets a big thumbs up from me! (If you're interested, it costs £25 from https://www.horwood.co.uk/brands/judge/cookware/radiant)


Pancakes with spicy cauliflower and raita

For the filling:
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tsp ground cumin
Thumb-sized piece fresh root ginger, grated
1 tbsp curry powder
1 large cauliflower, cut into florets
400g can chickpeas
250ml hot beef stock (or use vegetable stock)
2 limes: one squeezed; one cut in half
Handful of fresh mint, chopped
2 tbsp mango chutney (I use Geeta's)

For the raita:
225g low-fat yogurt
half a cucumber, grated
1 sprig fresh mint, chopped

For the pancakes:
50g plain flour
25g gram flour
1 egg
1 tsp garam masala
Pinch chilli powder
1 tsp sea salt
Good grinding black pepper
100ml milk
50ml water


To make the filling, fry the onion, garlic, cumin, ginger and curry powder together until the onion is soft, then stir in the cauliflower and cook over a high heat for a few minutes until the florets start to colour. Add the stock, bring to the boil then reduce the heat, put a lid on the pan and cook fairly gently for 15 minutes. Then remove the lid and cook for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the pancake batter by putting the flours, spices and seasoning in a large jug. Make a well in the centre and add the egg, milk and water, then whisk together until smooth. Set aside.

For the riata, mix the yogurt, cucumber and mint, season, then put in the fridge until needed.

To make the pancakes, brush a little vegetable oil over the base of a non-stick frying pan or crepe pan with a pastry brush and heat the pan until it's very hot. Then, holding the pan off the heat, pour a little batter from the jug into the pan, swirling it as you go, until the base is thinly covered. Put back on the heat and leave for 2 minutes, check it is golden underneath, then use a silicone spatula to flip it over to the other side and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

Slide onto a plate and keep warm while you make a second pancake.

Add the lemon juice, mint and chutney to the filling in the pan, then use to fill the two pancakes, and serve with the raita and half a lime each.

Serves 2

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