Growing up, my mom would cook most veggies as a stir fry because it was the easiest thing to do. However, sometimes she would choose to make pancakes with them. The two most cooked vegetable pancakes my mom cooked were celery leaves pancake and zucchini pancakes.
My mom’s recipe for zucchini pancakes were very simple. she would shred the zucchini, squeeze out the water, add flour, a bit of water and salt. It was generally a pancake with more veggies than pancake batter. However, I didn’t care, I love having these pancake. I love dipping them into hot sauces and eat it with congee.
This type of pancake is also great as a quick afternoon snacks for kids after school and leftovers can be heated up in the pan, microwave, oven or air fryer (oven or air fryer is preferable for better texture)!
Ingredients:
My mom’s zucchini pancakes usually had4 ingredients: zucchini, water, flour and salt. For my recipe I decided to add a bit of cornstarch for some extra crunch.
- Zucchini: any zucchini works, peeling is optional but I decided to peel it. If you are not peeling the zucchini make sure to wash it well. Once shredded, should squeeze the zucchini to get rid of any excess water.
- Flour: all purpose flour will do. Flour with water will give zucchini pancake its shape.
- Cornstarch: used to give the pancake an overall crunch
- Water: small amounts of water is needed, zucchini have natural water content and you don’t want the batter to be too runny.
- Other veggies: you can add any other vegetables as long as the vegetable is pretty hardy and doesn’t get mushy when pan fried. Cabbage, corn and onions are good options
- Spices: I like to keep the recipe simple with salt and pepper but you can add other spices including some chili flakes, ancho chili powder etc.
How to make zucchini pancakes
There aren’t many steps to making the pancake and it’s something that can be whipped up relatively quickly during the weekday. The one advice I would give is to wash the zucchini really well, peel the zucchini if necessary. Then the zucchini is shredded, mixed with flour, water, cornstarch and salt and pepper. Then the mixture is fried in a frying pan until each side is golden brown.
Pro-tip:
- Squeeze out some excess water from the zucchini.
- Add more flour than you think you need, zucchini can have a lot of water. You want the flour to form a binder for zucchini pancakes.
- Add cornstarch to help crisp up the pancake.
- Put any seasoning you like or keep it simple with salt and pepper
- I always have trouble with flipping the pancake so I try to keep the pancake relatively small for easier handling.
Zucchini Pancake
Ingredients
- 2-3 regular size zucchini ( or 1 large) 2 cups worth
- ½ large yellow onion diced
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 3 tbsp water
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Dipping sauce (optional)
- 1 tbsp Soy sauce
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
- 1 small scallion
- ½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp chili powder optional
- ½ tsp roasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- Use a bit of salt to rub on the zucchini gently and rinse with water. Cut the ends off
- Peel the outer skin of zucchini. Shred the zucchini using a grater into a bowl
- In a separate bowl, add in cornstarch and 1 tbsp of water, mix.
- Add in flour, 2 tbsp water, cornstarch mixture, salt and pepper. Mix together until there are no clumps left. It should a relatively thick batter.
- Heat up 1-2tbsp of oil in a frying pan on medium to medium low (prevents burning)
- Place some of the batter on the frying pan, spread it out so it's easier to cook. Can do smaller pancake as it will be easier to flip.
- Flip the pancake when it's golden brown
- Cook the other side until it's golden brown
- Serve with any dipping sauce of your choice.
Dipping sauce
- In a bowl, put in soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, roasted sesame seeds and chili powder.
- Chop up some scallion and place into the sauce. Enjoy!
- Serve with zucchini pancakes
