Squash and Corn Pancakes

I happen to love savory pancakes. By that, I mean for just the blog I’ve made zucchini pancakes, wild rice and pecan pancakes, butternut bacon pancakes, and more…

This recipe would classify under vegetable pancakes, made from seasonal vegetables. Most of us who have a garden have an overabundance of one of two vegetables at least for a few weeks or longer at one point during the summer. For me, it’s been summer squash.

I recently made a soup from a combination of summer squash and fresh corn, flavored with coconut oil, curry powder, and hot sauce. It was so good I want to continue this vegetable combo, and so I decided to make these pancakes.

The fun thing about making savory pancakes is that you can create the recipe as you go along. Just about anything works. But I settled on summer squash, zucchini, purple onion, walnuts, and cilantro.

It’s really all about making the batter light enough to not make the pancakes doughy, but also holding everything together. So here’s what I did.

Summer Savory Pancakes

2 large ears corn
2 medium summer squash
2 medium zucchini
1 small purple onion, finely chopped
1 cup walnut halves, chopped
1 bunch cilantro or parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Black pepper
3 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream, evaporated milk, coconut milk, almond milk, etc.
Approximately 1 cup white flour, or any flour
Butter or olive oil

Cook the corn for 7-8 minutes in boiling water, then drain. Let them cool

Grate the squashes and place them in a large bowl.

Then add the onion and walnuts.

Slice off the corn kernels and add them to the bowl, along with the cilantro and the seasoning.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and cream, and pour the mixture over the vegetables. Stir to combine.

Add a little at a time, begin incorporating the flour into the vegetable mixture until no liquid remains. Stop then. These are vegetable pancakes, not doughy pancakes with a little bit of squash thrown in. There’s a difference.

By the way, any flour works with these pancakes. Gluten is not a necessary factor in making these pancakes cook, so if you prefer barley flour, go for it. Whole wheat flour works as well as any whole-grain flour, if you prefer.

Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Form two 4″ wide pancakes and smooth them as much as possible. Let them cook for about 1 minute, so they get nice and golden brown.

Then turn the pancakes over. Immediately cover the pan and lower the heat as much as possible, so they brown on the other side, but also cook though. You don’t want the insides uncooked.

I have a gas stove. On an electric stove, I would just take the skillet off of that burner to let the inside heat cook the pancakes through.

After about two minutes, place the pancakes on a serving tray, add a little more oil, and continue with the rest of the batter. This recipe made 14 pancakes.

These are best served warm. They’re crisp on the outside and the walnuts add a bit of crunch. The pancakes make a very good side dish with any kind of meat or fish, but they’re also good served with a tomato salad for a light lunch.

note: One thing I like about making pancakes like these, is that no pre-preparation is required. Except for cooking the corn some, but that doesn’t take long. I’ve seen similar recipes out there in the blogosphere, sometimes called fritters instead of pancakes, where the onions are sautéed, and the squash is prepped to remove its water. Unless you really don’t like the flavor of fresh onion or shallots, then I can see only using them sautéed, but it seems silly to me. And as far as the water in the squash, I just use it to my favor. The wetness of the squash just means I don’t have to add that much liquid to the bowl of vegetables. They don’t have to be squeezed and dried first. Just FYI!