Blueberry Basil Sweet Potato Pancakes. Are you intrigued…?
I do hope so, because they’re delicious, easy to make and bursting with virtue. Bursting.
Pancakes, for me, have always presented a challenge. Not because you can’t make great vegan pancakes (you can), but because I feel the traditional ‘Pancake Day’ pancake deserves to stay right where it is: in the land of lemon and sugar and childhood memory.
So when I was invited by the lovely people over at Seasonal Berries to create an alternative recipe using Chilean Blueberries for Pancake Day, I thought it about time I did just that: create something new.
In full Whole Ingredient style of making something that’s supposed to be sweet actually turn out savoury, I came up with something completely alternative. These pancakes honour my recipe-development rules; they’re vegan, made from whole-food ingredients, as healthy as possible, simple to make and definitely delicious. And they taste of:
- sweet potato;
- red onion;
- pepper;
- basil; and
- blueberries, of course!
Blueberries work really well in savoury recipes – the flavours mixed into the pancake batter make a surprisingly good combination. In fact, blueberry and pepper is such a good match I served this dish with watercress. Delicious.
But aside form the great flavour, what makes these pancakes so special? Well, they’re:
- full of satisfying savoury goodness;
- super-easy to make, with no need to whisk;
- vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free AND oil-free; and
- perfect for Pancake Day, breakfast, lunch and beyond.
You don’t even need a frying pan!
The thick batter of puréed sweet potato and gram flour really holds its shape, making this recipe perfect for oven cooking on a silicone mat (or you could just use a pan with a little oil, like a conventional person).
However you cook them, I hope you enjoy something a little different this Pancake Day.
- For the batter
- 150g sweet potato (roughly 1 small potato)
- 100g gram flour
- 200ml water
- 1 tsp baking powder
- For the filling
- ½ a red onion
- 50g blueberries
- 30g fresh basil leaves
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- Black pepper (be generous)
- Heat the oven to 200°C / 400°F / Gas Mark 6.
- Peel and chop the sweet potato and steam, covered, over boiling water until soft - about 10 minutes.
- While the sweet potato is cooking, finely chop the onion and the basil leaves.
- Once the sweet potato is steamed, place it in a food processor with the rest of the batter ingredients and blitz until you have a smooth and bubbly batter.
- Pour the batter into a bowl and stir in the filling ingredients by hand.
- Spoon tablespoon amounts of the batter onto a silicone baking mat or lightly oiled tray (or at this point, feel free to cook as regular pancakes).
- Cook on the top shelf for 10 minutes, or until the pancakes are lightly browned and cooked.
If you don't have a food processor, an electric hand blender and/or whisk will work just as well.
Use gluten-free baking powder if necessary.
**This post was kindly sponsored by Seasonal Berries. The recipe and all content is my own**
Oh I have all these ingredients, I think I may have to make these for lunch they look so good.
Yay, thank you! That’s good to hear – I hope you enjoy them 🙂