What Should Have Been Cilantro Jalapeno Zucchini Pancakes with Chipotle Sour Cream

I was inspired to make this dish after posting my Links for Latkas last Friday. I wanted to see if you could take the deliciousness of a potato pancake and turn it on its head. Eliminate the frying. Up the veggie quotient. It wasn't too big of a stretch.

Plus, I happened to have a lot of zucchini in my refrigerator that I needed to use up a.s.a.p.

So as the snow fell outside, I was comfortably warm cooking up my own storm this past Saturday morning. I knew I would be serving this dish that evening to my newish next door neighbors. The neighbors where the wife is the phenomenal cook.

The pressure was on.

I thought I would do something really creative and make a casserole out of the pancake ingredients. A kugel if you will.

It worked, but while the resulting dish was delicious, I know that it could have been so much better, although more time consuming, if I had just stuck with straight up pancakes. The casserole lacked the crispiness on all sides that I was craving, so I carefully cut the entire tray into small squares and rebaked all of the pieces.

Luckily, it worked. But you don't need to go through all that hassle. Just make the pancakes from the start!

I'm not sure you'd want to attempt these without the magic of a food processor, but if you've got the muscle (or need a good workout), go right ahead.

Cilantro Jalapeno Zucchini Pancakes with Chipotle Sour Cream
adapted from this recipe

Printable Recipe

1 Tbsp EnerG Egg Replacer
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 pounds zucchini, shredded
1 pound peeled baking potato, shredded
1 small onion (mine was 7 ounces), shredded
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp chopped chipotle chili, canned in adobo sauce
scant 2 Tbsp finely chopped, seeded jalapeno pepper
2 tsp cumin
4 thinly sliced scallions (mine were on the small side)
1 tsp salt
12 Tbsp garbanzo bean flour

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

In a small bowl, whisk together EnerG Egg Replacer and water.

In a very large bowl, place all ingredients, including egg replacer/water mixture. Stir well to combine ingredients thoroughly.
Spray a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and set over medium heat. Drop 1/4 cupfuls of the batter onto the hot skillet and press each mound into a 3-inch pancake. Cook the pancakes until browned and cooked through, about 8 minutes per side. Transfer the latkes to a baking tray and put in the oven to keep warm.

Repeat with the remaining batter. Optional: serve topped with Chipotle Sour Cream.

Chipotle Sour Cream
Not exactly health food, but vegan. Outstanding.

1 12 ounce container Tofutti Sour Cream
2 Tbsp chopped chipotle chili, canned in adobo sauce
Zest of 1 large lime
Juice of 1 large lime

Place all ingredients into a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

These would also make outstanding Vegan appetizers for a party. Just use a tablespoon full of batter as you make the pancakes instead of 1/4 cup. Arrange on a platter and keep warm in the oven. Dollop a bit of the Chipotle Sour Cream on right before serving.

And They Said I Wouldn't Cook: Toaster Oven Socca

Thank you to everone who has already entered my blogger giveaway to win a copy of Chef A.j.'s book, Unprocessed. The responses are downright inspiring and it's not too late to enter if you haven't done so yet.

Prior to becoming a Nutritarian, a lot of people have legitimate concerns about whether or not this is a doable lifestyle for them. Unfortunately, as a society, we have become overly reliant on cheap, easy "food" that has little to no nutritional value. It's pretty obvious when considering this way of life that your habits in the kitchen department are going to have to change pretty entirely. Some people have even vocalized that they just don't know where to begin or even how to prepare healthy real food given their schedule and lifestyle. But I am here to say that you must make the choice. It's cook or get cooked, by disease that is. Either you take responsibility for your health or you don't. It's that simple.

Before I began kitchen renovations, my contractor, Dan Dureiko, said I wouldn't cook once our renovation was underway.

My friend, Brian Green, asked, "Do you know about the hidden cost of kitchen renovations?"

"No," I replied, shaking in my high healed, black suede, slouchy boots. This is already way over budget.

"Eating out in restaurants," he laughed.

"I'll show them all," I thought. Plus, there's pretty much no where to go out to eat when you are working hard to be an oil free, plant strong, Nutritarian Vegan.

My back's against the wall.

So I'm cooking, without a kitchen. A stew in my crock pot, quinoa salad in my rice cooker, I've even placed an order for a pressure cooker from amazon.com. I'm not letting a little thing like this

slow me down for a minute! If I can manage to get healthy real food on my table every day without a real kitchen, I won't accept any one's excuses!

This morning I was exploring the message boards on Dr. Fuhrman's Member Center for the first time ever, after participating in a webinar last last night where I learned how to navigate the monster, I came upon a thread about "Socca." It's a little like a bread, a little like a pancake. I've been seeing bloggers talk about it on and off for over a year now, so I was curious when I discovered that it was being referenced amongst Nutritarians. I quickly figured out that I could adapt it for my toaster oven so my 6 year old and I decided to go for it.

I'm pretty sure it was popularized by Michelle and Lori, the Pure2Raw twins over at http://www.pure2raw.com/. Here are two links that are worth exploring if you are so inclined:
All about Socca http://www.pure2raw.com/socca-tribute/
The Socca Videos http://www.pure2raw.com/2011/03/finally-our-first-socca-video/

Of course Maya wanted to start with their Chocolate Socca (sans the cardamom, she's just 6).

I decided to spray my pans with coconut oil spray instead of using the 3 Tbsp of coconut oil that The Twins call for. As you can see from the pictures below, it worked just beautifully without all of that oil.

I divided the batter into 2 9" round cake pans. Perfect size for my toaster oven! Here it is after baking for 20 minutes.

They popped out easily, just like the twins said they would!

Drizzled with maple syrup. My kids took one bite and they were done. I'm pretty sure they were expecting a sweet pancake, but they are more like a moist, dense bread and there is no sweetness except for the topping that you use. Next time I am going to try the straight up plain variety. Making the socca was so fast and easy with the detailed descriptions from The Twins, thanks Pure2Raw!

Have you ever made Socca? What were your results?