Veggie Recipes: Carrot 'Pancakes'

Pancake day may have been and gone, but it would be silly to restrict something so tasty to one day of the year. I'm also using 'pancakes' very loosely in this recipe. I'm not really sure what to call this little burger shaped balls of tastiness, but pancake is as good as any. (or burgers) The flour and eggs are there, but so are some other ingredients which turn it into the perfect main. If you have an egg substitute its very easy to make vegan too.

The carrot makes it slightly sweet, but not too sweet, and overall its a very quick and easy savory meal that can be whipped up in about 15 mins.  

Ingredients: 

1 egg

1/4 mug of self raising flour 

(but I have used plain before and nothing disastrous happened)

2 small carrots (grated)

1/2 a small onion (grated)

Ground pepper (can add a pinch of salt too) 

Herbs and spices for flavoring. 

(you can use whatever you fancy but I recommend a teaspoon of cumin and teaspoon of coriander)

Oil for frying 

(last time I used sesame seed oil and it made everything taste really nice, but any will work) 

This makes two which, if i'm hungry, I can eat all by myself. If you're serving it with generous sides, it could probably do two people though :) 

Method:

Crack the egg into a bowl and add the flour and herbs and spices, beat well and then add in the pepper and any salt. 

Add the grated carrot and onion to the mixture. You can squeeze out moisture from them first with some kitchen towel, but I rarely have any and find this all a bit wasteful, so I tend to just add it straight in, and if needed add a little more flour if it's overly runny. 

The mixture wants to be on the runny side, but not dripping. It needs to be able to keep it's shape, see the images below for a reference :)

Start heating up some oil in a frying pan, and separate the mixture into two halves. You can roll them into two balls but don't worry too much about the shape, you can shape it quickly when you first put it into the pan with a spatula, pushing the edges towards the center. 

When the pan has heated up, add in the two balls. you can cook two at a time, but any more and you will want to do it in batches. 

Fry until golden brown on both sides, approximately 8 mins on my old battered uni hob, but my snazzy ones at home get it done it approximately 5. Then tuck in!

I tend to serve mine with salad and seeds or sweet potato chips, or both. They taste amazing with tomato ketchup or a tomato chutney or relish, but it's really up to you. Let me know if you try out any good combinations or have any suggestions! 

I think I originally found this in the Nosh vegetarian student cookbook, which is worth checking out if you're after quick meals which are easy to make for one, but also all very scale-up-able.