VEGGIES
Lo Bak & Mini Bella Mushroom Pan Cake
low carb vegan experimentation at its finest :)
Note that I call this recipe a ‘pan cake’ not a ‘pancake’ because it’s just a kind of cake made in a pan, not the smaller stackable and flippable things usually served with syrup.
Trivia note: both veggies in this dish have two names! Lo bak is also called daikon (which you can lazily call ‘huge white Chinese radish’ or something) and mini bella mushrooms are also called brown cremini mushrooms.
1 bowl of the chickpea flatbread batter
1 huge lo bak, peeled and grated
6 large mini bella mushrooms, finely chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp herb flavored extra virgin olive oil
Makes 6 servings.
Make a batch of the chickpea flatbread batter, including its 30 minute rest time.
Heat the olive oil on a medium flame in a large deep skillet. If you heat it too low, it just takes sooo loooong to get all the water out of these wet veggies.
Peel and then grate the lo bak, which you will find is rather extraordinarily wet inside! Wow, is there a lot of water there, who knew?
Finely chop the mini bella mushrooms. I am usually too lazy to finely chop anything, so actually I just press it through a handy kitchen multi tool that includes a blade set to easily fine chop anything.
Saute the mushrooms and lo bak until all the water evaporates from both veggie entities — ~10–15 minutes — but before it completely evaporates, add in the minced garlic (garlic can overcook fast so it’s a good idea to add it to the party a bit late).
Stir regularly, while salt and peppering to taste (remember that the chickpea batter also has some salt and pepper, so don’t overdo it).
It’s ok to admit that sauteing isn’t always the most efficient way to get the water out of the pan and you may need to dump it all into a strainer a few times to get the water out, then resume cooking.
When the sauteed veggies are all looking pretty well dried out, cooked and exhausted, pour in the chickpea batter, give it a swirl, then cook with the cover askew (so some water can evaporate) at medium low for ~10 minutes. Now, you’ve got a cake cooked in a pan, which is why this is called a pan cake.
Note that the resulting dish has a consistency more like mashed potatoes mixed with hash browns, so don’t expect it to act very cakelike beyond having chickpea flatbread batter to hold it all together like tasty legume mortar.
It is rather damn tasty and so doesn’t really need hot sauce or any other condiment to go with.
If you find you like the idea, taste, experience and convenience of a batter based hash or mash, check out the Failed Chocolate Chip Pancake Scramble. This dish is better for cheat days for those with weight loss goals, because it’s so addictive tasting, you’ll probably end up eating the whole batch.
To get something a bit more cakelike out of this mix, after stirring the chickpea flour batter into the veggies, transfer it all to a parchment paper lined baking sheet, flatten it as thin as possible with a spatula, and bake at 400°F/205°C for ~15 minutes. This will get you a very moist and stuffed flatbread.
