Vegetable Pancakes with Yogurt Sauce

As part of my self challenge to blog about every recipe I cook with my CSA produce this year, I am sharing this recipe for vegetable pancakes, from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. One of my favorite cookbooks I own, I use it a lot.

We got a lot of great produce this week. Potatoes, Swiss chard, snow peas, lettuce, basil, green onion, cucumber....definitely a lot or great stuff! So I figured I better get cooking tonight if I'm going to use up all the great produce.

There are a lot of variations you can make for these pancakes. The book says you can also use parsnips,sweet potatoes, winter squash, turnips, beets, celery root, or cooked, squeezed chopped spinach or other greens
Vegetable Pancakes (adapted from Mark Bittman's recipe)
Ingredients:
about 1 pound zucchini, yellow squash, and carrot (about 2 cups packed)
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup flour, more or less
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Half-and-half, as needed
2 tablespoons butter and/or olive oil, plus more for the pan (I used a combination on the griddle, and olive oil in the pancakes)


Here are the CSA vegetables I used, plus I decided to add in a little parsley (not pictured) Zucchini, spring onion, zephyr squash, and garlic scapes (the garlic scapes were used in the yogurt sauce)


Incidentally, here is my new kitchen island, purchased from Ikea to be my workspace. My counter is overtaken by coffee makers, other appliances, cooking oils, etc. It has storage space underneath, and hooks to hang lots of things on.

1. Preheat the oven or toaster to warm or 2275 degrees F. Grate the vegetables. I used my lovely new grater, it makes really nice thin strips.

All the veggies mixed together.

Mix the vegetables, onion, egg, and flour together. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. Then add just enough half-and-half so that the mixture drops easily from a large spoon. Stir in 2 tablespoons olive oil.

Here is the batter, ready to go on the griddle.

2. Put a pat of butter or a spoonful of oil on a griddle over medium heat. When the butter is melted or the oil is hot, drop in spoonfuls of the batter; use a fork to spread the vegetables into an even layer.
You have to work in batches, keep pancakes in oven until all are finished.Cook, turning once, until nicely browned on both sides, about 15 minutes.

Cookin up on the griddle.

Serve hot or at room temperature with yogurt sauce (recipe below)

Yogurt Sauce (adapted from Mark Bittman's recipe)
1 cup yogurt, whole milk
1 minced garlic scape
salt and freshly ground pepper
lemon juice
freshly chopped parsley and chives

1. Combine the yogurt with the garlic, a pinch of salt, pepper, lemon juice, and herbs. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.
2. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Cheesy Sausage Potato Cups with Yogurt Mustard Sauce

Today I entered this in an online contest for original recipes using dairy products like cheese, milk and yogurt. This has cheddar cheese AND yogurt....so I'm sure it will win!
Hehe well I think it has a shot anyway. But if not, I still liked eating it a lot.

Directions: Preheat oven 450.

There are my beautiful potatoes, fresh from market this morning!
Scrub potatoes and cut in half.
Cut a small amount off ends so potatoes stand up straight! The more narrow cut off ends will be the ends they stand up on, to be cute little potato cups :)

Toss with a good glug of olive oil in a bowl, and stir in some salt and lots of pepper.

Arrange potatoes spaced out standing up straight on a baking tray.
They are nice and peppery.
Bake in oven for about 20 minutes, or until potatoes start to look lightly golden and roasted.
Here is my chipotle turkey sausage from the Turkey Lady at Central Market. The stand is actually called The Turkey Lady. They have tons of different types of turkey sausage, and this one sounded good today. Regular hot Italian sausage or chorizo would be good I think too. And the cute little bell peppers! They were too adorable so I had to get them. Regular bell peppers will work.

While the potatoes roast, cook the sausage link in a non-stick skillet, breaking up into small pieces.


Dice the pepper into small pieces.


Slice the green onion. Put the sliced, darker green tops in a bowl for garnishing the potato cups. You will cook the rest of the onion with the pepper.

Cook the white and light green parts of the green onion with the red pepper in a small skillet with some olive oil until soft.

Mix together with the sausage and let it cool a little.

Mix the cheddar cheese with the butter in a bowl with a fork. Stir cooled sausage-pepper mixture in with cheese.

When the potatoes are done, pull the tray out.

Using tongs and a melon baller, scoop out the inside flesh, making lots of little "potato cups".
I like the little cups! (If you haven't noticed.)
Save the scooped out potato flesh for later.

Fill each potato with the sausage/cheese mixture. If you want to put extra shredded cheese on top, you should!
Put oven temp down to 350, and slide tray back in for a little, just 5-10 minutes until the cheese is melty.
While they get melty, mix shallots, yogurt, and mustard along with some salt and pepper in a food processor.

Mix till combined. This will make a lot of sauce, but you can use the extra as a coleslaw dressing! Yum.


Put your potato cups on a platter, and spoon a little yogurt sauce on top of each one. Then throw on the green onion pieces. So these were really tasty. I loved the sauce with them...AND
I had extra sausage and cheese filling, so I mixed that with the potato flesh I scooped out. I put that mixture into 2 ramekins, and topped with a little extra cheddar. I baked that as a side dish for dinner! And I chopped cabbage, onion, carrots and used the extra yogurt sauce as a coleslaw dressing! So you really kinda get two side dishes as a by-product of this!

Ingredient List
Serves 4-6 as appetizers
Ingredients:
9-10 new potatoes
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 link of spicy turkey sausage (or regular Italian sausage)
1 red bell pepper (0r a few cute red and orange mini peppers)
4 green onions
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 TBSP unsalted butter
12 oz plain yogurt (don't use non-fat)
1 TBSP deli mustard
1 shallot, roughly chopped