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Courgette, chickpea and herb pancakes recipe



Serve these with a spoonful of yoghurt instead of the coriander cashew cream, if you prefer, or even just drizzled with lime juice. Makes eight pancakes.

Prep 15 min
Cook 55 min
Serves 4

For the pancake mix
3 courgettes
Salt
150g chickpea flour (also called gram flour)
1 tbsp cornflour
20g coriander leaves
10g mint leaves
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
½ green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
120g drained tinned chickpeas (½ tin)
4 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
80ml olive oil

For the coriander cashew cream
75g cashew nuts
40g coriander
60ml lime juice (from 3-4 limes)
40g coconut cream


Roughly grate the courgettes, then put them in a sieve set over a bowl with half a teaspoon of salt, mixing to combine. Leave to sit for 20 minutes, then squeeze out as much liquid from the courgettes as you can. Set aside the courgette flesh – you should have roughly 370g.

Meanwhile, put the cashews in a small saucepan, add boiling water to cover and simmer on a medium heat for 20 minutes. Drain, then put the nuts in a blender with the coriander, lime juice, coconut cream, 50ml cold water and half a teaspoon of salt, and whizz until completely smooth.

In a medium bowl, whisk the gram flour, cornflour and 200ml cold water until smooth. Roughly chop half the coriander and mint, and stir into the mix with the spices, ginger, chilli, chickpeas, courgettes, half the spring onions and a teaspoon of salt.

Heat half a tablespoon of oil in a medium nonstick frying pan on a medium flame. Once hot, ladle in about 110g of the pancake batter, using a spatula to spread it out into a thin circle about 15cm in diameter. Fry for about two minutes, until it’s golden brown underneath and bubbles are starting to form on the top, then flip and cook for another two minutes on the other side, until golden and cooked through. Slide the pancake on to a plate and repeat with the remaining oil and batter, until you have eight pancakes, or enough for two per person.

Mix the remaining herbs and spring onion with the last teaspoon of olive oil. Top each pancake with the herb mixture and serve with the coriander cashew cream.

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