Our new favourite thing! We made this last night for dinner and then again today for lunch. Pretty sure we'd be happy to eat this every frikkin day. It's an incredibly delicious way to use up a variety of garden veggies. The recipe calls for 4 cups of thinly sliced mixed veg - we used carrot, kohlrabi, beans, bell pepper, zucchini, and kale.
These pancakes are perfectly crispy on the outside and the right amount of soft on the inside. Surprisingly, no one vegetable overpowers the other. Everything works together in perfect harmony. Finish it off with a quick dunk in a salty dipping sauce and you've got an irresistible combination.
Notes
you really do need to find some potato flour or rice flour, this recipe won't work with just plain all-purpose flour. We found rice flour at Bulk Barn and at Fresh Co on North Front St in the International section.
It'll seem like there isn't enough batter for all the veggies, but somehow it all works out - don't worry about it, just try to get an equal amount of batter for each pancake.
the recipe instructs you to make a number of small pancakes, but that was way too fussy for us, so we made two large ones and then cut into wedges, it worked well.
We think you could probably skip the kimchi if you had to, we know it's hard to find. Perhaps sauerkraut and hot sauce would work?
We can't wait to make this again!
For reference, this is an example of what our 4 cups of julienned veg looks like:
Vegetable Pajeon (Korean Scallion Pancakes with Vegetables)
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup potato flour (or ¼ cup each rice flour and corn starch)
¾ tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp baking powder
¾ cup ice water
1 large egg
¼ cup finely chopped kimchi
4 cups julienned mixed veggies (carrots, zucchini, bell pepper, kale, kohlrabi, white turnip, beans, eggplant, whatever you’ve got)
4 scallions, cut into 2-inch-long sections and thinly sliced length-wise
2 Tbsp grapeseed or peanut oil (a neutral, high heat veg oil), plus more as needed
Dipping sauce
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp finely grated fresh ginger (or garlic)
1 tsp sesame oil
½ tsp sugar
In a large bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, potato starch, salt and baking powder.
In a medium bowl, combine water, egg and kimchi. Whisk kimchi mixture into flour mixture, and whisk until smooth. Fold in vegetables and about three-quarters of the scallions. (Save the rest for garnish.)
In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, heat 2 tablespoons oil. Scoop 1/4 cup portions of batter into the skillet, as many as will fit while not touching, flatten, and fry until dark golden on the bottom, about 2 to 3 minutes. OR make one large pancake by adding half the mixture to the pan, flatten and fry until dark golden, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and continue to fry until other side is browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and sprinkle with a little more salt. Continue with remaining batter.
Before serving, make the dipping sauce: In a small bowl, stir together soy sauce, vinegar, ginger or garlic (if using), sesame oil and sugar. Sprinkle sliced scallion over pancakes, and serve with dipping sauce on the side.