Baked Courgette Pancakes
My new favorite way to prepare the famous courgette pancakes. Move aside pan-fried, unhealthy, greasy pancakes. We will make those beauty’s completely oil-free. Ha! Recipe for diet champs and everyone who want to cut down the frying in their everyday repertoire.
Simple ingredients, 3 vegetables, and cheese. Yes, cheese. Once the pancakes are baked, the cheese will create nice and crispy edges. Delicious. We will make a nice garlicky soft cheese spread to go on top of our pancakes which will make the whole thing an extra punch of flavor and texture. These are great as a dinner, lunch, or even appetizer. I say that but, I could eat them all the time really.
Easy steps and few tips will make sure of your road to successful meal.
First, we must make sure that once we shred the courgette to soak it off from excess water by using a cheesecloth or through the strainer by pressing it down with the palm of your hand. We don’t want soggy pancakes. You can think of it as a little workout before dinner.
Second, we want the pancakes to be nice and crispy on the outside but still soft and moist on the inside. My tip is to put in the flour gradually to see how much is enough. While forming the pancakes in your hands you will feel if they are too dry or too wet. If too dry you can add an extra egg in and work your way from there. If they are too wet keep adding flour, but 1 tbsp at a time.
White soft cheese for the dip is the best to find in a polish shop. The texture of it is crumbly once separated with a fork. To make a dip, we will combine it with low-fat natural yogurt and spice it up with freshly crushed garlic. If you can’t find the soft cheese you can make a simple garlic sauce or even sweet chili sauce.
I hope you will give those veg and flavor-packed fellas a go and enjoy them as much as I do. Let’s get to work.
Baked Courgette Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 Medium Courgettes
- 1 Medium Carrot
- 1 Medium Onion white or red
- 1~2 Garlic Cloves
- 4~5 tbsp Plain Flour
- 1 Egg
- 5~6 tbsp Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- Salt & Pepper
For the dip
- 100 g Soft White Cheese in a crumbly form
- 2~3 tbsp Natural Yoghurt low fat
- 1 Garlic Clove crushed
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Shred courgettes on big holes of a grater to a big bowl. Sprinkle some salt, mix well, and set aside for 5 min. Squeeze out any access water through a cheesecloth or through the strainer by pressing it down with the palm of your hand. Place back in a bowl.
- Preheat the oven to 180C and line your baking tray with parchment paper.
- Grate carrot and chop onion into a fine cube. Add to the courgette. Next crush in 1 or 2 garlic cloves, add 1 egg, and shredded cheese. Start mixing gradually adding flour. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Start forming flat pancakes in your hands. You can make them as big as you wish but up to 2 to 3 cm thick. I usually end up with 6 pancakes. Place on the tray and bake for 30 min.
- After 30min flip the pancakes and bake for another 5 to 10min.
- Meanwhile, prepare the dip by combing all the ingredients with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Enjoy them hot straight out from the oven with a dip.