Summery Gourmet Pancakes

These pancakes are perfect summer lunch, with zucchinis as unbeatable inspiration for fast, healthy and delicious meal. I combined them with quinoa, gave them a bit of crunchiness with ground almonds (leave some of those almond pieces when you grind them) and some extra deliciousness with cheese. I put as minimal flour as I could, as you will see in the recipe. Use the gluten free flour blend, and you will have a really healthy meal. And its taste, as well as its appearance, is more than ordinary. At least I hope so 😉

SUMMERY GOURMET PANCAKES (gluten-free)

makes 10-12 pancakes, 4 inches in diameter –

Ingredients:

1 medium zucchini (approximately 1,5 cups shredded)

1/2 cup quinoa (1 cup cooked)

1 cup parmesan or other hard cheese

1/2 cup almonds

2 garlic cloves

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk (of your choice)

1/4 cup flour (I used spelt flour, but feel free to use wholewheat, or millet and oat for a gluten-free version)

1 teaspoon baking powder

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil for frying

Instructions:

1. Rinse quinoa and cook in the water for about 10 minutes. Leave it to cool.

2. While the quinoa is cooking, grate the zucchini, salt, and let sit for a while. After some 10 minutes, drain the excess water.

3. In the meanwhile, grate cheese, grind almonds, finely slice the garlic.

4. In a smaller bowl, whisk eggs, combine with milk, give it a pinch of salt.

5. In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, almonds, cheese and garlic.

6. Pour the liquid mixture in the mixing bowl and give it a good stir.

7. Finally incorporate quinoa and zucchinis.

8. Take a nonstick skillet, or a pancake pan if you have one. Pour some olive oil and when it gets hot, start making pancakes by grabbing the batter with a 1/4 heaping cup. Pancakes should be about 3,5-4 inch in diameter.

Since they are not so firm, be careful when turning them on the other side!

Bake them for 2-3 minutes on one side, until a nice crispy rind start to form, then, using a spatula, or with a help of a plate (as in making omelet), turn them and bake for another 1-2 minutes.

9. Repeat with the remaining batter, stacking pancakes on top of each other.

Sprinkle with some fresh herbs or carrot tops (as in the picture) and serve with a salad, hummus, olives, avocado…whatever you like. Enjoy!