This is a wonderful vegetarian dinner, that will fulfill even the meat-eaters! These European-style pancakes are packed with veggies and then baked with mozzarella cheese until gooey and golden. For the vegetable filling, I used my ratatouille recipe. It may sound fancy, but it is actually a very simple vegetable stew (that requires no hard to get ingredients, only vegetables, and herbs). The vegetables are very aromatic and thanks to their jammy consistency melt in your mouth. These vegetable crepes are covered with melted cheese and have crunchy browned edges. This is a delicious and simple dinner, that kids love.
Some recipe tips:
- The pancakes made from this recipe don’t come out very thin. They are more thick and fluffy (this is the reason for adding baking powder, which you can omit), as I find that such pancakes hold better thick vegetable filling. If the consistency seems too thick for your liking, you can add more milk or sparkling (or still) water.
- In my ratatouille recipe, I’m describing two preparation methods – one, with pan-fried vegetables and a simpler, faster and more authentic version, where the vegetables are stewed until thick and rather jammy – this is the kind of ratatouille you’ll need for this recipe.
What are crepes?
Crepes are French pancakes, that are much bigger than American pancakes and very thin. I called these pancakes crepes because that is what most people search for, but this recipe actually calls for a little thicker pancakes than crepes, that are most often called British or German pancakes, although they can be easily found across most European countries. These pancakes are perfect to hold many filling, and are perfectly suited for dinner, breakfast or even dessert. Classic paper-thin French crepes would also work in this recipe but I find them a little to thin to hold this particular filling. If you’ll make crepes you need to fill them with less filling.
The difference between French crepes and British/German pancakes in only that the batter is a little thinner resulting in thinner pancakes.
Other pancake recipes that you may like:
- Smoked salmon pancakes with honey mustard sauce
- Chocolate crêpes with vanilla cream cheese and raspberry sauce
- Lemon blueberry sheet pan pancakes (oven-baked pancakes)
- Kaiserschmarrn – Austrian torn pancake
- Basic crepe recipe
Vegetable crepes step by step:
STEP 1: Prepare the pancake batter and cook the pancakes. I love my non-stick pancake pan for making European-style pancakes. It is so much easier to cook them!
STEP 2: Fill the pancakes with ratatouille and roll them up.
STEP 3: Place the pancakes on a baking tray and sprinkle with grated mozzarella cheese.
STEP 4: Bake at 425°F/220°C/Gas Mark 7 (no fan) until the cheese is melted and golden (it will take about 5-10 minutes).
Melted, gooey, golden cheese + crispy cheesy pancake edges + jammy, full of flavor veggie filling. Perfection!
Cheesy vegetable crepes
Ingredients
pancakes (yields 6 pancakes):
- 3/4 cup flour 3.5 oz/100g, spoon and leveled
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup milk 240-250 ml
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder you can skip it
- 1/2 teaspoon Herbes de Provence or chopped fresh herbs, French/Italian seasoning
- salt and pepper just a little
filling:
- 3 cups ratatouille
vegetable stew, stewed version, not pan-fried, 1/2 – 2/3 cups ratatatouille per 1 pancake, depending on the thickness of the pancake - additionally:
- 2 cups grated mozzarella low-moisture mozzarella
- fresh thyme optional
Instructions
- Prepare the pancake batter: In a large bowl, whisk the flour, spices, and baking powder together, then add the eggs, milk, olive oil and whisk until smooth. Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.
- Cook the pancakes: for this recipe, it's better to make slightly thicker pancakes (not paper-thin pancakes). Heat a little amount of oil in a pancake pan (only for the first pancake) over high heat. Ladle a portion of the batter into the pan, just enough to cover the bottom, tilt the pan to spread the batter evenly around it, cook until the edges of the pancake are slightly crispy and browned, slide a spatula under the middle of the pancake, flip it over and cook briefly on the other side. Repeat with the remaining batter.
- Fill the pancakes: Spread 1/2 – 2/3 cup of ratatouille on each pancake, depending on the thickness and size of the pancake. Roll up the pancakes.
- Bake the pancakes: Place the pancakes on a rimmed baking tray, sprinkle with grated cheese and bake in the oven preheated to 425°F/220°C/Gas Mark 7 (no fan) until the cheese is melted and golden (it will take about 5-10 minutes).
- Enjoy!
Notes
- The pancakes made from this recipe don’t come out very thin. They are more thick and fluffy (this is the reason for adding baking powder, which you can ommit), as I find that such pancakes hold better thick vegetable filling. If the consistency seems too thick for your liking, you can add more milk or sparkling (or still) water.
- Calories count = 1/3 of the recipe (this is only an estimate).
Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!
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