Scallion Pancakes Recipe

I needed 2-3 bulbs of green onions or scallions (yes, green onions and scallions are the same thing!) for a tomato pie recipe with fresh cheeses and uncooked cherry tomatoes I was doing (recipe here!). I asked F to pick some of those up at the Portland Farmers Market. This is what he brought back – after I already took 2 bulbs to use is when I took this photo, with fork to scale.

Yes that’s right, instead of a few bulbs he brought me two BUNCHES of scallions. It was terrible timing too because I already had multiple meals on my calendar with others for the next week, and then I was traveling to California for work a day then more travel to see family. So, I knew I would have to freeze them.

Have you ever frozen scallions before? It’s pretty simple – wash and chop, and then place them on a pan spread out with wax paper or such, then put them in the freezer. After an hour or so, you can then transfer them from the pan into a freezer ziploc bag. This way, when you want to use them, you can just grab a handful from the bag and they aren’t already all stuck together in a block.

You can also make scallion pancakes, which are sort of a mashup between Indian paratha in that it is stuffed with in this case scallions within the bread, but it’s slightly fried and flaky on the outside and soft on the inside, almost like a cheeseless quesadilla. All you need is flour, water, scallions, and oil for this easy peasy Scallion Pancakes Recipe! And, you can even make these pancakes ahead of time and just freeze them too for an easy snack. This is totally vegan!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup warm water
• Sesame Oil
• 1 bunch scallions, by which I mean the tiny ones that are the small size like a foot long at most and maybe 3-5 bulbs… not gigantic monsters like what brought me that are as long as my arm

Directions:

1. First we’re going to make the dough since it has to rest a bit before making the pancakes. So, in a mixing bowl, mix the 2 1/2 cups flour (traditionally white, but I also make it with whole wheat flour) with 1 cup warm water until it forms a smooth dough. You can do this in a mixer with a bread kneader, or I just do it by hand by continually doubling the dough over and pressing down. If you are using a mixer you can even go up to boiled water – the reason why you want to use warm to hot water is that it breaks down the proteins so there is less gluten when you knead in the next step. This is because you don’t want the dough to be too elastic, and it will make it easy to roll out and stretch.
2. Coat this ball of dough lightly in oil (maybe a teaspoon or so worth) and put it back in the bowl. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.
3. During this resting time is usually when I do my scallion chopping.
4. After the dough has rested, cut the dough into 4 equal parts. Lightly oil a working surface and roll out one of those four parts until it is a thin rectangle, it should be only a few millimeters thick.
   
5. With the back of a spoon, I lightly spread some more sesame oil, then sprinkled the chopped scallions
   
6. Now, starting from one end, start rolling up the dough as tight as you can. Don’t worry if some of it tears a little bit here or there and you have a hole, just keep rolling. Adding layers is how we will get flakiness to the pancake, so this is step one of rolling.
   
7. Cut this long rolled tube in half, and then coil each of those halves individually into a circle. Let it rest, and continue with the other parts from the original ball. In the end you will end up with 8 coils which you will have let rest at least 15 minutes. Now you have completed step 2 of adding layers to add flakiness!
   
8. Now, roll or pat each of the 8 coils into a a ball and flatten into a smooth round pancake. At this point, you can freeze them if you’d like – just separate each pancake with a wax paper layer.
   
9. To cook the pancakes, heat a pan on high with a tablespoon of oil. After the oil is hot, place the pancake gently in the pan so it doesn’t splash and it should start to sizzle. Let it cook on each side for 2 minutes, it should be golden brown when you flip it. Haha the ones I made below you can totally tell I didn’t pat them as flat because they are so full of scallions since I had soooo many.
   

You can cut the pancakes into wedges to serve and dip. Some various dipping sauces you can use include gochuchang or other spicy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, or a mix of soy sauce (usually an equal part of soy sauce and rice vinegar, and then add ginger or chili pepper or a little bit of sugar per your taste).

Have you had Scallion Pancakes before? What sauce would you make alongside this Scallion Pancakes Recipe?

Have you ever sent someone to get you ingredients to hilarious results like my story with the giant bouquet of scallions I received?