A Veggie Venture: Brown Rice Pancakes ♥

Pancakes for supper, a Shrove Tuesday "Pancake Day" tradition. Here made with cooked brown rice and corn meal and served with a delightful contrast, cranberry sauce or lingonberry sauce. 2008: We interrupt this recipe for a Missouri weather report: Two January Sundays warm enough for raking leaves in shirt sleeves. And now, two weeks in a row, two 24-hour periods ranging from hot 70s to hard snow.

Despite 8 inches of that fluffy white stuff I love just four days ago, yesterday people filled the streets in shorts and t-shirts, and kids, bare feet even - 75 it was. Faced with such a winter, what's a seasonal cook who chooses salads on summery days and soup on wintry ones to do, Well, on a Tuesday in February, this Tuesday in February, this day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, whatever the weather, there's just one thing for supper and that's pancakes.

It's a Christian tradition but perhaps more specifically Episcopalian according to my 20-some year long friend Lisa (now the brand-new Portland food blogger at My Own Sweet Thyme) who shared her recipe for Overnight Pancakes this week. No matter: pancakes for supper, it's a good tradition, faith aside. And no, there are no 'vegetables' in these pancakes but they are based on leftover oven-baked rice (both brown rice and wild rice), so plant food shall suffice for today - nutty and flavorful, steamy hot and substantial both.

I would make these again in a heartbeat - and of course will be back to vegetables tomorrow. So Shrove Tuesday pancakes it is, then tomorrow I'll plant Lenten grass, another old tradition, this one from Finland and a lovely way to mark the quiet season of Lent with children. Too bad Ash Wednesday comes quite so very early this year, I'd hoped to share flowers blooming on the Lenten Rose in the front garden, perhaps soon, after another summery day, another snowfall.

2015: And so once again, Shrove Tuesday and pancakes it was, these are nutty and warm, a good way to use up leftover brown rice. In a food processor, whiz the brown rice until the grains break down and become much smaller, not floury but minuscule chunks. Stir brown rice with flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt.

Whisk in egg yolks, melted butter and milk just until blended, a little bit of flouriness is fine. Fold in egg whites, the batter is quite thick. Butter a large skillet and heat til shimmery. Add dollops of pancake batter to the skillet, using a spatula to flatten a bit if needed.

Cook until brown on one side, just a couple of minutes. Flip and continue cooking til brown. Serve with maple syrup or cranberry or lingonberry sauce. HOW TO COOK BROWN RICE If you like, here's how to cook the brown rice with wild rice, cook brown rice in the oven.

BEATING EGG WHITES You know how they say that egg whites won't beat if any yolk or another fat gets mixed in, Well, they're half right. My egg-cracking was sloppy (who else finds that the shells on farm-raised eggs are less predictable crackers than those from the grocery,) and a fair measure of yolk slipped into the whites.

I decided to beat them anyway, just to see. And truth is, even cold (and egg whites do whip higher when warm, a good thing to remember when making meringue) the whites tripled in volume, more frothy than whipped, but still. I wouldn't use them for meringue but they were plenty light enough to thin and lighten a heavy pancake batter quite well.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Pancake: 223 Calories; 6 g Tot Fat; 3 g Sat Fat; 35 g Carb; 1 g Fiber; NetCarb34; 3 g Sugar; 183 mg Sodium; 63 mg Cholesterol; 7 g Protein. NEVER MISS A RECIPE! For 'home delivery' of new recipes from A Veggie Venture, sign up here. Once you do, new recipes will be automatically delivered straight to your e-mail In Box. A Veggie Venture is the home of Veggie Evangelist Alanna Kellogg and is the award-winning source of free vegetable recipes, quick, easy, and yes, delicious. Start with the Alphabet of Vegetables or dive into all the Weight Watchers vegetable recipes or all the low carb vegetable recipes.