Rice pancake with vegetable mélange

This simple dish is so nourishing and grounding and tasty for vegans and non-vegans alike. I've been getting more into macrobiotic dishes and this is one of them! The recipe comes from Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet which is a fantastic book especially for those deciding whether or note to go vegan. Liz and I made a few of the dishes in here during her visit and everything was fantastic. The original recipe is for rice waffles but we made them as pancakes and they were really yummy and wonderful left over and eaten as sweet pancakes. I'll post about that later.

Ingredients:

Pancakes:
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup water
1 Tbs mellow miso mixed with 3 Tbs water

Vegetable mélange
sesame oil
1 cup half-moon onion slices
1 cup seitan, thinly sliced
1 cup carrots, sliced
1 tsp soy sauce
2 cups broccoli florets
2 tsp dark sesame oil
sliced black olives (original recipes says optional, but I say they are NOT optional, as the dish really comes together with the olives)

1. Stir together the rice, flour, miso and 1 cup of water in a large mixing bowl. Heat a nonstick pan and coat lightly with oil. Pour in about 1/2 cup of batter and cook until browned, flipping as each side cooks. Transfer the cooked pancake to a plate to keep warm, and repeat with the remaining batter.

2. While the pancakes cook, heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 2 mints. Add the seitan to the skillet and sauté for 1 minute longer. Arrange the carrots on top of the seitan and onions and add 3 Tbs of water to the pan. Cover and simmer for 7 minutes. adding more water if the pan gets too dry. Add the soy sauce and broccoli to the pan and simmer 3 minutes longer. Stir to combine the ingredients and remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the sesame oil.

3. Arrange a pancake on each serving plate and top each one with a heap of sautéed veggies and seitan. Sprinkle with olives and serve warm. Also try topping with toasted sesame seeds mashed with sea salt. Yum!!

Try leftover pancakes the next day with sweet maple syrup. A delicious and nutritious breakfast!