potato, cauliflower and kale pancakes

This is based on a soup I made for a Kent Food Not Bombs event a few weeks ago. I pretty much just threw things in a pot in true FNB fashion, and while the soup was pretty good, Jen's mom's suggestion to turn it into pancakes made it even better (I accidentally typed "batter" first, which was actually a pretty good pun. let's all laugh now!)


1 head of cauliflower
6 large potatoes
1 large bunch of kale
1 white onion
6 cloves roasted garlic (optional)
1 bunch green onions (optional)

Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Cut the potatoes into smaller pieces to make them boil faster. When the potatoes have been boiling for a few minutes, add in the cauliflower, also cut into smaller pieces. You can use the whole thing, stem and all since everything is just going to get pureed up. Boil until they are soft.

Meanwhile, strip the kale leaves from their stems and rip them into very small pieces, and dice the onions. Saute gently in a pan with olive oil.

When the potatoes and cauliflower are soft, drain the water, but put a pot underneath your strainer to reserve some of the water. Put the potatoes and cauliflower in a blender or food processor and puree (or mash by hand if that's your preferred or necessary method. This is als the point at which you would add the roasted garlic if you happen to have any on hand). Return the mush to the large pot and add some of the water you saved from draining. Stir until the texture becomes soup-like. Then add the onions and kale. Stir, combine, salt and pepper well.

To make this into pancakes, simply add flour. I just add it little by little until it looks right, but a good ratio is probably 1/4 cup flour to every cup of soup. Then heat up olive oil in a pan and drop about 1/2 cup of batter onto the hot oil and pat them down. Fry until crispy and brown on both sides. They tend to come out crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and yummy all over.

just a note, this tends to make a lot, you may want to half the recipe if you don't need to feed a lot of hungry people.