Spring onion (scallion) pancakes, crispy and chewy to perfection
What a start of the day! These spring onion pancakes, or scallion pancakes are often enjoyed as breakfast in China. Absolutely delicious! I adore them , and often make them at home. I do have to admit that personally I choose to eat them around lunch time.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
🥘 Main ingredients
- All purpose flour
- water
- vegetable oil
- green onions
- coriander leaves
These crispy and aromatic pancakes are available all around China, often to be found on the street markets. Though the texture of these pancakes differ from region to region. In some regions they prefer the well layered crispy ones, and in other regions you will find more chewier textures. But on the whole they are delicious 😉
🔪 Instructions
The making off … Please read full instructions in the recipe card before starting or check out the short step by step video in the recipe card.
It might seem quiet a task to make these scallions pancakes, but ones you understand the rolling technique it is really not that difficult. And most of the preparation time, is actually resting time for the dough.
After the kneading and the resting of the dough, the dough should be easy to roll out. Dust some flour on your work surface and on your rolling pin. At this stage it is really not that important that the pancake has a perfect round shape. See pictures;
I have used coriander in these pancakes. Most commonly only the green from the spring onions is used. But as I am a coriander addict, I throw some in everything in which it is suitable 😉
Then the rolling and tucking technique might seem a bit odd. But is significant for the creation of the texture and flakiness of the pancakes. Think of ‘layers’, creating multiple layers.
After again 20 minutes resting, you press gently these rolls down with your fingers and palm of the hand. Without using too much pressure, this is where you shape your spring onion pancakes.
The cooking & frying is quick and easy.
🍵 Dip suggestion
A great dipping sauce to have with theses pancakes ;
- soy sauce, or tamari
- spring onion, sliced thin
- water, if you want it less strong
- rice vinegar, Chinese vinegar, or sherry vinegar
- maple syrup, agave or brown sugar
- toasted sesame oil, or chilli oil
- red pepper flakes, and/or grated ginger and/or garlic
Just combine the preferred ingredients and enjoy!
Spring onion pancakes are part of my series; ‘Travels of taste‘. Where we use our senses and imaginations to discover other cultures. Today we find ourselves in China. Get ready to discover all its flavours. Check out my full China ‘travels of taste’ post; >>> China, It’s all about FOOD!
I hope you enjoy these Chinese spring onion pancakes as much as I do. Show me your favourite pancakes by adding @haricoco1 to your instagram post. So we can all share and inspire each other. Thanks!
📋 Recipe
Ingredients
- 150 g 1 cup All purpose flour
- 90 ml 3/8 cup water
- 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 100 g 1 cup green onions, chopped (green parts)
- handful of coriander leaves chopped
- 11/2 tbsp vegetable oil for cooking
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Measure the flour into a bowl mix in the salt and make a ‘well’ in the middle.
- Pour the water with 1/2 tbsp of oil in the well, and mix the water with the flour.
- Form the dough into a ball, and leave to rest (covered) for 5 minutes.
- Knead the dough for 5 minutes, it should be smooth and soft.
- Rest the dough for 30 minutes (covered)
- Divide the dough in two, dust the surface with flour and roll out the dough into a round-ish shape (but don’t worry to much about the shape at this point)
- Brush some oil on your dough and scatter the spring onion and the coriander over the dough, leaving 1 cm free from the edges.
- Roll up your dough like rolling a burrito.
- While holding the middle of the dough roll, twist to pleat from middle towards end.
- Bring one end towards the middle and tuck it under the twisted roll in the middle.
- Roll the other end like a coil, and stack it up on top the other roll. So you end up with a tall 2-tier layers.
- Let the dough rest 20 mintes (covered)
- Pre-heat a pan (non-stick) to low-medium heat, Press the dough down gently into a round shape using your fingers and palm of the hand, but don’t press hard.
- Place the pancake in your pan and cook until slightly browned.
- Flip over and cook the other side for 2 – 3 minutes (covered)
- Drizzle a liitle less then a tbsp of oil on the sides op your pancake, swirl it around and pan-fry your pancake till it is nicely browned on both sides.
- Serve straight away.
