These Green Veggie Pancakes are the best way to use an abundance of vegetables. They’re super easy to prepare and are a perfect vegetarian recipe!
Especially after having Gemma life has gotten a bit easier since we started using One Potato three days a week. That still leaves me with 4 nights a week to cook since my kids don’t really ever want to go out to eat these days. There’s something about staying home after a long busy day that just feels good to all of us.
Since we buy all of our produce at our local farmers market, without fail I end up getting overly excited about the abundance of fresh food and buy too many vegetables.
These Green Veggie Pancakes are the best use of a variety of vegetables that I’ve ever made. You can use broccoli, cauliflower or zucchini in these, but I have also tried grated Brussels sprouts and squash which work too. They’re unbelievably easy to prepare, only take minutes to whip up and a perfect vegetarian recipe for kids like Kenya or for newer eaters who want to hold them in their hands. They freeze beautifully too, so you can have a bunch at arms reach on busy nights.
When you’ve got two kids running around the kitchen and you’re trying to focus on too many things at once, mistakes happen (I guess welcome to motherhood, right?). The other night, I had tossed zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower into the food processor to make Crock Pot Lasagna and accidentally left it running while I ran to answer the phone. The next thing I knew, the veggies that were supposed to be roughly chopped were now chopped so fine that they wouldn’t work in the dish. Argh. As you know, nothing bugs me more than wasting food, so I stashed the overworked veggies in the fridge and chopped up a new batch for the lasagna. The next day those finely chopped veggies were staring me in the face when I opened the fridge and I swear I heard them say, “well?”
Whenever you have leftover vegetables (or flat out botch a recipe like I did), the addition of an egg, flour and some herbs can turn a mistake into one of the most delicious and happiest of accidents. Case in point are these Green Veggie Pancakes. They work great as a side dish or even on their own for lunch or a snack. Add any one of a variety of dips or sauces and things get even more fun. They are easy to make, fun to eat and perfect for the whole family….whether you intend to make them or not!
Green Veggie Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup zucchini, broccoli, and/or cauliflower
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- vegetable or canola oil
Instructions
- Place the vegetables in a food processor and pulse to chop fine.
- Add the chopped vegetables into a bowl along with the flour, salt, egg, basil and garlic powder. Mix to combine.
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and place 1 tbsp of the batter into the pan for each pancake.
- Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side.
- Serve with marinara sauce or dip of your choice.
Made these with cauliflower, so they were not green. Subbed almond meal for gluten free, they held together beautifully! Made into 4 pancakes and topped with poached egg for breakfast. We really enjoyed these and will try again with broccoli. Thanks for sharing.
I made these double the recipe with zucchini and steamed broccoli i had left. Added hemp, flax and coconut flour. They taste pretty good even when they are cold =)
What a great idea! I came to the party late since I just found this blog, but I love your recipes. I just made these and I think I should add some more liquid next time because my batter was pretty thick, so they didn’t spread and were more the consistency/look of hash browns. But they still tasted delicious so I don’t even care.
Hulk Pancakes, cute! I haven’t tried baking them. The batter is the consistency of pancakes and they need to hit the hot skillet to start cooking immediately or they would spread too thin. I have made pancake batter into “muffins” like in this recipe: https://weelicious.com/2011/12/12/pancake-sausage-muffins-on-a-stick-2/ Maybe that would work for these veggie pancakes? Let me know if you try and how it comes out!
We have been eating these for years and LOVE them! We use all three veggies (broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini) in a batch and call them Hulk Pancakes. One kid likes to dip them in ketchup and the other in ranch. We usually do a trip batch and freeze the leftovers. But my issue- I hate standing over the stove for that long! Suggestions on a way to bake them? Temp and time?
I made these earlier with some broccoli that was at the end of its life in my refrigerator. I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out great. Thanks.
The raw veggies aren’t as wet so they make a better pancake batter!
I can’t wait to make these! I don’t have the raw veggies on hand but I have frozen broccoli and cauliflower. Can I steam them and make it with steamed vegs or does it need to be raw for some reason? Thanks!
Interesting! It is definitely worth a try and I think it would work!
I wonder if this would work from the pulp from a juicer?! Anyone have any thoughts?
Very good, but really they are just zucchini fritters. I wanted them to be cooked through because of the egg so mine were much more browned – If I had flipped them when the coloring was like the photo they would’ve been mushy and falling apart. My 9 month old had a little trouble with them as they sort of crumbled in hands but he will get the hang of it! Left out dried basil & salt and used organic garlic in place of the powder.
Do these freeze well?
Time to face the music armed with this great inoonmatifr.
The ability to think like that shows you’re an expert
I just made a double batch of these with what I had on-hand: steamed broccoli, red onion (raw), and cooked ground chicken (approx. 2C in total). I went with 1/2t salt + 1/4t garlic salt, so a little less salt than the recipe calls for. They turned out great! Very tasty and good consistency (not crumbly at all). I’m looking forward to seeing how my daughter likes them tomorrow. Thanks for another great recipe idea!
Another of your recipes that I love. I really thought this wouldn’t turn into a batter and that I would have to add some water or milk, but I let it sit for a few minutes and when I returned to the bowl it had turned into a beautiful batter. I added some curry and they turned out delicious. I’m definitely going to do these again and add different vegetables.