Lately, my lack of breakfast recipes has left me a little down. Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of the day, and when the idea for this dish sprouted it was going to end the breakfast recipe drought. However, as I iterated on it, it went from a sweet pancake featuring peach, to a savory pancake really highlighting the star of the dish – fresh sweet corn. Those who have followed my blog for a while know my love for corn. Since I spent a summer working on a vegetable farm and first tried raw sweet corn, I have been in love.

This dish highlights corn in a few different ways, creating a pancake which has great texture and awesome flavor. The texture is two fold; we use both medium ground cornmeal and almond flour giving it a pleasant, gritty texture. Additionally, the whole corn kernels, which are added to the batter raw, get lightly cooked and add a burst of sweet bliss to every bite. The pancake is topped with a delicious, fresh chopped basil aioli and roasted cauliflower. It has to be one of my favorite recipes written to date; it’s easy, quick and features bright, local ingredients. I hope you find the time to make it soon!

Active time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes

Servings: 4 meals

Ingredients

Pancake & roasted veggies

• 1 head cauliflower, broken into small bite size florets
• 1 medium yellow onion, thickly sliced
• 3 very fresh corn on the cob, shucked
• ¾ cup medium ground cornmeal
• ¼ cup almond flour
• ½ cup flour
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1-1 ¼ cup preferred milk or milk alternative (I use whole milk)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp finely chopped chives

Basil Aioli 

• ½ cup mayo
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 bunch basil, finely chopped* 
• ½ tsp salt
• Generous amount of freshly cracked black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. On two lined baking sheets, toss the cauliflower and yellow onion with a generous drizzle of olive oil and a few generous pinches of salt. Toss and roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes until starting to brown and soften. Set aside. 
2. While the cauliflower roasts, begin to make the pancakes. Carefully, and using a sharp knife, cut the corn off of the cobs. Set aside for now. 
3. Combine the cornmeal, almond flour, flour, nutritional yeast, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine. 
4. In a liquid measuring cup, measure out a cup of milk and whisk the two eggs in. Slowly pour the milk mixture over the dry ingredients while whisking to combine. The batter should be thick, but not so thick it is difficult to stir. Add up to an extra quarter cup of milk until a good consistency is reached. 
5. Fold in the corn kernels and the chives. Set aside while making the aioli. 
6. In a shallow bowl, combine the mayo, garlic, lemon juice, chopped basil and black pepper and stir to combine. It should be relatively chunky due to the basil. The flavors will combine more as it sits. 
7. Set a pan on medium low heat. Once hot, add in a touch of neutral oil. Ladle in about a quarter of the mixture (this is one large full ladle for me). The result will be a relatively large pancake. The key here is to be patient. Each side will require 4-6 minutes in order for the pancake to cook fully. The pancake should have small bubbles forming and popping all over before attempting to flip. When flipped, the bottom should be well browned. 
8. Once complete, spread a generous serving of aioli over it and top with the roasted vegetables, enjoy immediately while warm!

*Note: the fancy culinary word for doing this is to chiffonade your basil, which essentially means to roll stack a bunch of leaves up and to roll them very tight, then cut thin slices of your rolled basil to have nice, uniform strips of basil.