Shrove Tuesday Aquafaba Crepes with Haggis

Greetings on this Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Tuesday).  I had a go at aquafaba crepes today.  They were good but perhaps not quite as thin as they should be.  I usually make fat fluffy pancakes but today I wanted them thin enough to wrap around some leftover vegan haggis.

I have mentioned before that I have a vision of making a tartan haggis meal.  On my first attempt at tartan haggis, I piped sweet potato and tomato sauce over mashed potato and haggis.  The piping was far too thick.  On the weekend I had a go at piping much thinner stripes.  It is better.  I need to do away with my shaky hand.  And I really wanted a brighter green but my spinach was from dubious sources.  (Curse you, salmonella outbreak in bags of baby spinach!)

The tartan haggis quest continues.  Meanwhile I had lots of haggis and green cheese sauce leftover.  I made a fairly standard fast track pizza with tomato sauce, haggis and grated cheese.  While it baked I made a vegan cheese sauce.  I based in on Dreena's vegveeta sauce but doubled the cashews, added some garlic powder. I placed half in a squeezy bottle (the white half) and then added a few handfuls of basil and garlic plus a good handful of cooked green peas.  It never went green enough but tasted of peas and basil, ie a little sweet but full of flavour.

For Shrove Tuesday, I really wanted a savoury pancake.  It suited me for it to be vegan.  And I am still fascinated by the miracles of chickpea brine or aquafaba.  I finally found a reason to hang onto my balloon whisk when whisking the aquafaba.  At first the mixture was a little too thick to swirl around the pan.  I thinned it down and made another half batch of pancake mixture (because I had the aquafaba).  So a batch and a half made 8 pancakes.  I wonder if I should have thinned the mixture more.

 When it came to stuffing the pancakes or crepes, they rolled up really easily.  I spread the middle with green pea cheese sauce and then sprinkled lots of haggis along it.  I rolled it up placed it in a greased pan.  It was covered in more cheese sauce, tomato sauce and some grated (vegan) biocheese.  I cooked it for about 15 minutes.  The biocheese was disappointing after having it melt so nicely on toast but I guess it looked good and the cheese sauce gave the cheesy flavour.  It was so filling that one stuffed pancake would have been enough each.  Again I questioned if I had made the pancakes too thick.

Overall I was delighted with these pancakes.  Sylvia loved them with some grated cheese in them and rolled up.  The three of us the last one with nutella in it.  They are quite lacy textured, as aquafaba baking tends to be.  It is a brilliant recipe to use up aquafaba and make easy pancakes.  I will experiment with making thinner ones and report back.

I am sharing these crepes with Kimmy at Healthy Vegan Fridays, Jac at Meat Free Mondays, Karen for Cooking with Herbs.

More pancake recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

Pancakes filled with potato and lentils
Pea pancakes with sun-dried tomato pesto 
Spinach pancakes  (gf, v)

Almond meal pancakes (gf)
Banana oat pancakes (v)
Chocolate pancakes with berries and chocolate sauce
Pancakes with oats and cornmeal
Pumpkin buckwheat pancakes
Spiced carrot pancakes

Aquafaba crepes
Adapted from Clean Real Food Highs
Makes about 6 large crepes

1 cup aquafaba
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
4-6 tbsp milk or water

Whisk aquafaba by hand to make it frothy.  Gradually whisk in flour, salt and baking powder.  Slowly whisk in water until you have a thin mixture (like pouring cream, only just thicker than milk).

Preheat heavy bottom non stick frypan over medium to medium high heat.  (I needed medium high).  Lightly grease pan (I used a light coating of margarine for the first and then a spray of oil spray between crepes.)

Now add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of mixture to pan and swirl to cover pan.  (I think my pan is about 22cm in diameter.  I used 1/2 cups of mixture but others use 1/4 cups so maybe if I had it thinner I could use 1/4 cups and make more pancakes.)

Cook until when you check the underside there is some light golden brown colour.  The edges will curl up and some bubbles will appear but neither indicate there is colour on the other side.  I found I needed to look.  Flip over and cook for another minute or two until some golden brown spots on the second side.

Stack pancakes with a clean tea towel over them.  They will soften slightly.  Stack or fill to serve as desired.  Can be stuffed and baked.

Green Vegveeta
adapted from Dreena Burton via Green Gourmet Giraffe

• 1 cup raw cashews
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 1 cup milk (I used soy)
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt (or to taste)
• 1/4 tsp yellow mustard powder
• 2 good handfuls of basil and parsley
• 1 cup cooked green peas

Blend in a high power blender.  (If your blender is not high powered or you use a food processor you will need to soak the cashews.)

NOTE: if I had a handful of spinach or kale I would put that in too.

Vegan crepes with haggis and cheese 
serves 4

4 crepes (see above)
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp green vegveeta sauce (above)
1/2 a batch vegan haggis
1/4 - 1/2 cup tomato sauce (such as this or this)
60g grated biocheese or other cheese

Preheat oven to 220 C

Place a crepe on a flat surface and spread about 2 tablespoons of vegveeta sauce.  Crumble 1/4 of the haggis over it.  Roll up and place face down in a greased casserole dish.  Repeat with remaining 3 crepes.  Spread remaining vegveeta sauce on the crepes.  Spread tomato sauce over the vegveeta.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Bake for about 15 minutes or until cheese has melted.

On the Stereo:
Amanda Palmer goes Down Under