Happy Pancake Day!

I flippin’ love Pancake day! This year my brother Chris came over to make them with me and what a feast it was!

We started off with spinach pikelets – half were plain and half had cheddar cheese and spring onion in them.

They were followed by a plate of regular pancakes which we topped with various combinations of Nutella, peanut butter, banana, lemon, sugar and squirty cream – hubba hubba!

And finally we watched the Pancake Day episode of the classic BBC 1 children’s TV series Maid Marian and her Merry Men. Perfect!

The regular pancake recipe was taken from my very old and battered copy of Vegetarian Grub on a Grant by Cas Clarke (using gluten-free flour as a substitute for wheat flour). The spinach pikelets were inspired by this Green Pancakes recipe and my version is as follows:

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 3 lumps of frozen spinach, defrosted
• 130g gluten-free flour (I used Doves Farm gluten-free flour)
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• 50g cheddar cheese, grated
• Salt and pepper
• Butter
• To serve: side salad and dressing, soft cheese (e.g. Philadelphia), sweet chilli sauce

What to do

1. Whizz the eggs and spinach in a blender.
2. Put in a bowl and mix with the flour until you have a thick, smooth batter.
3. Divide into two bowls and add the spring onions and cheddar cheese to one half of the mixture.
4. Heat a knob of butter in a frying pan. When hot, dollop large spoonfuls of the mixture into the pan and cook until brown on both sides.
5. Serve with the salad. We would recommend slathering the plain ones with soft cheese and drizzling sweet chilli sauce on top, mmmmm.

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