A savory nutritious vegetable packed dish inspired by Korean Mung Bean Pancake
sharing the winning dish + the disaster that went into the trash
As you may or may not know, I am on the vegetable wagon. Similar to all health-conscious humans, I aspire to eat as many vegetables as possible each day, and strive for consuming a variety of vegetables. I don’t always succeed but I don’t do too bad, on most days. It’s all about balance, right?
Some ways I play out my vegetable obsession (and trick myself into eating them more) include:
Concentrate large quantities of vegetables into a single dish: e.g. Saag prepared from giant quantities of green leafy veggies, Bhaji made from several colorful veggies
Add vegetables in unexpected places: e.g. zucchini eggs, blood soup, spinach potato puree, frittatas loaded with veggies like asparagus, broccoli, sweet potato
Serve vegetables as accompaniments: e.g. daikon sticks, pickled onions, kimchi, cucumbers, etc.
Prepare vegetable-forward meals: e.g. vegetable-heavy rice bowl, veggie-packed soups
One day I was fondly thinking of my work trip to South Korea a few years ago. After the work commitments, I used a few vacation days to explore Seoul with a local friend. She took me to so many wonderful places and introduced me to many many delicious Korean dishes. My favorite became bindaetteok - a mung bean pancake filled with veggies and meat. I had my first one at the Namdaemun Market, a traditional street market full of vendors selling affordable, fragrant, mouth-watering foods and other goods.
I nostalgically look back at the pictures showcasing a giant vat of batter made from soaked and ground mung beans, vegetables, and meat. A big dollop of this batter gets fried on the spot. My eyes viewing the deliciousness on display and my nose smelling the heavenly aroma worked together to induce hunger. I savored my first ever bindaetteok at this food stall and thanked the Korean gods as I devoured crunchy yet soft bites along with some kimchi and pickled onions.
I got inspired to cook this for the first time in my own kitchen. However, I felt compelled to tweak it for the sake of health and my vegetable obsession.
Thus, an experiment began, leading to delicious pancakes as well as a disaster that I actually had to throw away.
Batter
It could not be more simple - it’s made from mung beans and some salt. Of course you can feel free to build upon this but I think salt is generally enough so the mung bean flavor can shine. You can use whole or split mung bean (I only had the split version on hand). I washed 1 cup of mung beans 2-3 times and then soaked them in 3 cups of water overnight. The next day the mung beans had grown in size and softened. I transferred the mung beans with ~1/3rd of the water into a food processor. As I started grinding them, I kept an eye on whether more water was needed. The goal is to have a somewhat thick pancake-like batter, it should not be too thin. So it’s important to be careful with how much water you add in the beginning.
Vegetables
The world is your oyster (or rather, your local market is). Add any vegetables you like. In the recent batches I made I have included veggies like napa cabbage, purple cabbage, carrots, and spring onions. In the future I also plan to try broccoli, bell pepper, daikon, red onions, butternut squash, you name it - I want to try it in this! You can chop all the veggies yourself or make your life easier and toss them all in the food processor (I’ve done it both ways). I combined the chopped veggies and the ground mung beans, mixed thoroughly, and let that rest and mingle for a few mins on the countertop.
Cooking
Deep frying is the traditional method. But for the sake of health I wanted to stay away from it. One day I tested pan-frying the pancakes and another day I tried baking them. Both had opposite results and took me through yet another rollercoaster in the kitchen.
Pan-frying (win): I added a small amount of olive oil in a nonstick pan on medium heat. I added a dollop of batter and then gently flattened it out and smoothed the edges. I cooked this on low-medium heat for ~5 mins per side, periodically pressing down after the first flip to ensure the inside was cooked properly. I also tested covering with a lid for some pancakes; those cooked slightly faster. These looked inviting, with crunch on the outside and softness on the inside.
I call this a win!!
Baking (disaster): After preheating the oven to 400C, I greased a baking dish with olive oil. I added some baking soda to the batter to help it rise and poured it into the dish. I baked this with a lid for 30 mins, sprayed olive oil top of the batter, and baked for another 30 mins without a lid. In between I probed with a toothpick to test if it was fully cooked. While this looked very appetizing as a whole, the first ‘slice’ clearly screamed this was a disaster. While cooked, the texture of the inside was an unappealing mush. However, the bottom and the outside were slightly crispy and tasted ok. That said, I could not bring myself to eat this or recover it in any way. This went directly into the trash. I am not in the mood to try baking these again but I am open to suggestions from my readers!
Yes, yes, in retrospect I see that this was a surface area problem.
Devouring
I don’t want to end this post on a disappointing note so I’ll get back to the winning pan-fried mung bean vegetable pancake. They were so yummy and healthy (not fried) and nutritious (full of vegetables and fiber from the mung beans). We enjoyed this pancake mountain with kimchi and soy sauce and licked our fingers at the end. It was an excellent dinner. Will you try it?
Dish Debrief
Is this my winner or disaster? Win (pan-fried), disaster (baked)
How would I rate this dish out of 10? 9/10 (pan-fried), 1/10 (baked)
What would I change next time? add protein like tofu or meat
Would I make this again? absolutely, can’t wait!
Yummy! We are putting this on the menu! 😋