Kitchen Vixen

When I suffered from a bout of existential constipation recently, my friend Susan sent me an sms with the following advice: ‘Make Yotam Ottolenghi’s green pancakes with lime butter. It always works for me.’ I love Yotam’s book PLENTY. It is meat free, not that you’d miss meat with all the amazing robust flavours that he conjures up. Earthy, delicious and just so sensible. It’s how we should eat, with or without a side of meat. And perhaps how we should ‘build’ our meals. Make the veg or salad your centerpiece and think of the meat or fish as the side. Just a slight shift in focus, really.

The green pancakes with lime butter are more like flapjacks, only packed with spinach, spring onion, green chili and cumin. Lightly fried in a bit of oil and served with a dollop of lime butter. The lime butter melts and adds to the flavour of the pancakes. This is superfood. Eat it and feel great.

There’s some lime butter left which will be great on grilled chicken, fish or veg. Total preparation time is about 45 minutes and once you have surplus lime butter in the fridge, even less. This is a great light lunch or side. I had it with grilled haloumi (an old favourite) and tomato (without which I would shrivel up and die, unceremoniously). They might look a bit lumpy and ordinary in my photo but believe me, they’re ambassadors of goodness and clean, caring flavour.

Thanks for the rejuvenating advice Susan.