Greens Latkes

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It seems as though every time we get some greens in the CSA share, we talk about how we are going to use some of them to make Greens Latkes, and how we’ll write up the recipe “soon.” Well, today is soon. We’re writing.

At first, it might seem as though this is an odd combination: greens and pancakes (latkes are essentially pancakes), but it is an easy dish that uses a lot of greens and tastes really good. The other thing that might throw off some people is that the only kind of latkes that they have had are potato latkes (which are really good, too) and so they think that this isn’t an “authentic” latke. Maybe so, maybe so. But we don’t let that stop us, so why should it stop you?

We had originally found this recipe on our CSA’s recipe page as Green Latkes, but we have modified the ingredients and instructions to make it more of a one-skillet meal.

Greens Latkes

Author: Shawn

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 Tbs vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 bunch greens chopped
  • 1/2 cup diced onion
  • vegetable oil for frying

Instructions

  • In a largish bowl (3 quart), mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
  • Add the eggs, the 3 tablespoons of oil, and the buttermilk.
  • Mix until incorporated and you have a thick pancake-like batter. Set aside.
  • In a heavy-bottomed skillet, heat about a tablespoon of oil, and start cooking the onions. Add the greens to the skillet and cook until tender and most of the moisture has evaporated.
  • Scrape the greens and onions into a colander and let cool.
  • Once the greens have cooled, mix them into the batter.
  • Put about 1/4 inch of oil into the skillet and heat on medium until shimmering. Then add the greens batter and fry about 3-5 minutes on a side, or until golden brown and crispy.

Ingredient discussion:

You can use a big bunch of almost any kind of greens for this recipe. We’ve used radish, turnip, mizuna, mustard, pretty much any kind that’s not too tough. If the stems are tough, remove them after washing; otherwise, just include them for those extra nutrients. Eggs: as always, you should seek out and find pastured eggs.

Procedure in detail:

flour, salt, and baking powder
Mix the dry ingredients, flour, salt, and baking powder, in a medium-sized bowl.

Mix dry ingredients. In a largish bowl (3 quart), mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Just measure them into a bowl and use a spoon to mix them together.

addingliquid ingredients
Add in the eggs, buttermilk, and 3 tablespoons of oil.

Add liquids. Add the eggs, the 3 tablespoons of oil, and the buttermilk. Just measure and add them in.

latke batter
Once you’ve mixed the batter, it’ll be like pancake batter, only a bit thicker.

Stir. Mix until incorporated and you have a thick pancake-like batter. Set aside.

sauteeed onions
Saute onions. We use a cast iron pan, so we can fry the latkes in it later.

Saute onion. In a heavy-bottomed skillet, heat about a tablespoon of oil, and start cooking the onions. When tender and starting to brown….

cooking greens
Cook the greens until most of the moisture is gone; you don’t want to drain away that flavor.

Add greens. Add the greens to the skillet and cook until tender and most of the moisture has evaporated.

cooling greens
Set the greens aside to cool. We just put them into the colander, since we used it for draining the greens after washing.

Cool. Scrape the greens and onions into a colander and let cool; you don’t want to cook the batter when you are adding the greens. Let the greens cool for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, wipe out the skillet with a paper towel.

green latke batter
Add the greens to the batter, and you’re good to go.

Mix greens and batter. Once the greens have cooled, mix them into the batter. Now you’re pretty much ready for frying, so….

frying latkes
Fry, fry, fry. Of course, that’s why these are so good, they’re fried!

Fry latkes. Put about 1/4 inch of oil into the skillet and heat on medium until shimmering. Then add the greens batter and fry about 3-5 minutes on a side, or until golden brown and crispy. You can make them pretty much any size; we tend toward larger latkes that we cut in half and eat while the next is frying. You might want to do smaller ones, set them on paper towels, and keep in a warm oven until all the latkes are fried before serving. Your call.

green latke
Ah, a delicious crisp latke. It is really good with a bit of soy sauce.

Serve. We happen to think they taste great with a bit of soy sauce.

Just about every week that we get a bunch of greens that we can’t figure out how to use we fall back on the green latkes. Often, we’ll mix in another vegetable or two, perhaps a bit of turnip, or a small amount of daikon radish. The latkes are just a really nice way to use up some of those vegetables that you might have difficulty with. Since we have them pretty much weekly during the winter, this is a five-star recipe.

Worth the trouble?

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