Grow your own green onions + make 'em into pancakes!

A couple of weeks ago I was reminded of the the most brilliant idea-- growing green onions in your kitchen from used-up ones. I had some super shrivelled-up ones left over from Lunar New Year shenannigans and decided I had nothing to lose. So I chucked some green onions in a cup with the tops cut off, and within a couple of days you could see growth! 

Fast-forward to 10 days later and I've got such tall green onions, they're tipping over in the cup. Since I don't generally use many green onions at once and I didn't want these fabulous beauties to go to waste, I decided to cook up some Pa-Geon-- a Korean green onion pancake. When I visited my brother in Korea, we visited a pizza shop where we ate one of the most amazing meals I had there-- a green onion and kimchi pizza. They made it in the shape of a heart, possibly assuming (and not the first to do so) that my brother and I were lovers rather than siblings. Anyway, when I was on the plane ready to leave Korea, I was in tears when I realized I'd possibly never eat kimchi green onion pizza ever again (and that I wouldn't see my brother for several months). 

Fast-forward yet again to this year when my brother decided to figure out how to make these pancakes/pizza (call it what you will). We've made them twice together and are always experimenting with different ingredients. Sadly, today I had no kimchi  or even sauerkraut in the fridge, so I made a simple green onion pancake. Here's how: 

Pa-geon pizza/pancake:

1 1/2 c. light spelt flour

1/2 c. chickpea flour (you can use any combo of flours or straight up regular-- my brother uses rice + chickpea)

3/4 c.  water

an egg or egg replacement

4 or so green onion stalks

1/2 tsp. turmeric (because I hate inflammation!)

a big ol' squirt or two or three of sriracha

some pepper

a dash o' sea salt

Beat egg or prepare egg replacer. Mix everything together and let stand 10 minutes before cooking the pancake for a few minutes on each side (until the edges begin to brown). The batter should be slightly runnier than typical pancake batter. 

Spicy dipping sauce with this is traditional and super fun. Here's the one I made:

Spicy dipping sauce, y'all:

1 1/2 T. soy sauce

1 1/2 T. rice vinegar

1 t. toasted sesame oil

1 tsp. gochu flakes (hot korean red peppers)

1 garlic clove, minced

Mix and dip triangles of your pizza into this. I like to use chopsticks, but you could use your fingers, or most boringly, a dumb ol' fork. 

 I also had a tiny bit of red cabbage kicking around, so I made this Asian Slaw to accompany the pancakes for breakfast. This whole thing, including taking the photos took probably 20 minutes, possibly less. 

Asian Slaw:

2. c. red cabbage, grated

1 carrot, grated

dressing:

2 T. rice vinegar

1 T. soy sauce

3/4 t. maple syrup

1/4 t. mirin (or just a full tsp of maple)

1 tsp. grated ginger

1 tsp. sesame oil 

some black sesame seeds for garnish + crunch + high calcium!

Grate vegetables. Mix dressing together. Dress with however much dressing you want. I used about 2/3 of it it tasted nice and fresh, somewhat like carrot apple juice, oddly (with sesame oil). If you weren't serving this with the dipping sauce and pancakes, you might want to use more dressing, but sesame oil can be powerful, so I erred on the side of less. A wonderful breakfast. 

Grow some green onions PLEASE if you like 'em. I ALWAYS end up not using a full bunch when I buy them, so this is perfect- and if you have too many you can give them away. Thanks to Kevin and Sophie for telling me about this intially. It only took me a year and a half to bother to do this!