Korean veggie pancakes offer a fresh twist on classic recipes
Until recently, I thought that potato or zucchini pancakes had no competition. They were the best! That was until I discovered a recipe for vegetable pancakes from Korea. Asians mix several vegetables, and the result is excellent. The delicious sesame sauce adds the perfect finishing touch!
Are you a bit bored with traditional potato pancakes or those made with zucchini? I was, having prepared them many times during the summer, so I sought a new recipe for inspiration.
Lots of vegetables, lots of flavor
Asian-style vegetable pancakes are definitely richer in ingredients and flavor. You can safely call them multi-vegetable. Even though they come from Korea, they are based on vegetables that you surely have in your kitchen or can easily get at a market. The typical Asian ingredients are needed for the sauce. Does having more ingredients make these pancakes labor-intensive? Absolutely not; you can easily prepare them for a warm dinner. They are also suitable for lunch because they are filling.
Korean-style vegetable pancakes
Ingredients:
- 1 small zucchini
- 1 medium carrot
- 3.5 ounces of red cabbage
- Chives or green onions to taste
- A piece of chili pepper
- 1.5 cups of all-purpose or spelt flour
- 2 eggs
- Salt to taste
- Oil for frying
For the sauce
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sriracha sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Preparation:
- Grate the zucchini on a coarse grater. Sprinkle with salt, mix, and set aside for 10 minutes.
- Thinly shred the cabbage, cut the chives into long pieces, slice the chili, and grate the carrot on a coarse grater.
- Squeeze the excess liquid from the zucchini, but do not discard it.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, a pinch of salt, 2 eggs, and about 4.4 fluid ounces of the drained liquid from the zucchini. Mix to form a smooth batter. You can add a little more water from the zucchini or fresh water if needed. The batter should be the consistency of thick pancake batter.
- Add all the vegetables and the drained zucchini to the batter and mix well.
- Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a pan. Spoon heaping tablespoons of the batter into the pan and flatten with the spoon to form pancakes. Fry for a few minutes on each side until golden brown.
- In a small bowl, prepare the sauce by mixing all the ingredients. Serve the pancakes with the prepared sauce.
