Broccoli and Potato Pancakes


Originally posted by Jess- November 9, 2015

Good evening, everyone, Jess here.  

Tonight I present less of a recipe and more of a culinary caper.  

As you may or may not know, I love using CSA veggies to make ebelskivers.  They are little bundles of joy stuffed with cheese, sauce, or other delectable ingredient.  I set out with the plan of making cheese stuffed ebelskivers using my Springdell potatoes, onion, and broccoli.  That’s not exactly what happened tonight.

I baked 3 potatoes on a cookie sheet until just tender.  Meanwhile, I steamed up a head of broccoli, and sautéed the finely diced onion (and after a few minutes added a clove of mined garlic) then cooked until just tender.  So far, so good.

At this stage, I planned to grate or gently mash the veggies together with a fork to combine, optionally adding bread crumbs or panko with some egg and spices.  I was short on time, so I thought “maybe I’ll try my new Vitamix to combine the broccoli and potato.  This is about the spot where I’d request a do-over.

imageI definitely I got a little overzealous pulsing the veggies together.  After only a few pulses of the Vitamix, I ended up with the glue-ish consistency that can happen when you overdo it puréeing a potato (such as with Potato-Leek soup).  This would not hold up in the ebelskiver pan.  Despite the addition of the egg, panko and spices (I used some salt and cayenne pepper in the grown up ones and kept the kids ones pretty plain, just a little thyme), there was no saving the consistency at this point.  

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Instead, I improvised and swapped to the pancake approach.  

imageI had baked some sweet potatoes too, just because, and a couple of the smaller ones in there as well, because why not?

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I ended up with a few versions.  The ones to the left in the picture have no sweet potato, while the others do have some.  

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I served them on a bed of warmed (but not wilted) spinach, sprinkled with a little cheese and topped with the Meatless Monday protein bomb, a poached egg.  As these were looking more like latkes than ebelskivers, a few tiny dollops of sour cream would be nice, also.  

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The good news about the Vitamix is that the extra nutrients of the peels were included without a big change in texture.  Here is the photo of the sweet potato ones.  

I’ll try to tackle these again.  These were good, but there is a great recipe in here somewhere, so it’s back to the drawing board.  Anyone that has any success stories to share with similar intentions, I’m all ears!  Thanks for reading and see you soon!


About Jess

Jess Anderson is the creator of CSA|365 and is passionate about the local food movement. A long time member of Springdell and a busy mother of two, Jess loves keeping her family fed by honest local food.