E2 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2 , 2022
topping the dish with toasted
pine nuts and grated lemon zest
for a little brightness.
It’s the sort of thing you can
turn around in a half-hour,
boiling the pasta, mashing
canned (or your own precooked)
beans by hand, and tossing it all
together. If you think it would
help you sell the dish to an
otherwise-skeptical teenager (or
spouse), feel free to call it
Creamy Rigatoni, and leave out
the words “cannellini bean.” I
won’t judge.mixture she names, simply,
“Meat,” quotation marks
included.
I was most drawn to a recipe
that combines two of my favorite
things: pasta and (surprise,
surprise) beans. In Seinfeld’s
hands, the latter becomes a
creamy sauce for the former,
especially once you employ a
generous amount of pasta
cooking water to help turn it
silky. She uses cannellini beans,
amping up their flavor with
garlic and red pepper flakes andthat eating more plant-based
meals can improve your and
your family’s health, and in it she
displays some of the same savvy
about the kinds of foods that will
appeal to the eaters and to the
busy cook trying to feed them.
There’s chocolate banana bread,
which she calls “the first vegan
item in our house that was
unanimously approved,” then
writes, “Full disclosure: they did
not, still do not, know it is
vegan.” And there’s a taco salad
that uses a spiced lentil-walnutMy ideal pancake
has crisp edges. It’s
plump but not
dense, a down
pillowlike sponge
that can absorb
lots of salted
butter and just
enough maple
syrup to tilt
everything toward
sweetness.
Crucially, it needs to be easy to mix
together on lazy mornings, before
anyone has had their coffee.
This recipe, for oatmeal
griddle cakes, fits the bill nicely
— and is adaptable enough that
it might just become your
favorite pancake, too.
It was inspired in part by a
large, dinner-plate-size griddle
cake I was served at a restaurant
called Salt’s Cure in Los Angeles.
Light, but chewy, the pancake
had crisp, lacy edges and was full
of pockets of soft, dense oatmeal,
barely held together by eggs and
milk.
But this variation gets that
pancake closer to my ideal. By
making the batter in a blender,
the nutty oats turn into a smooth
flour and cook quickly into fluffy,
rather than dense, cakes on a hot
skillet.
Lots of double-acting baking
powder means there’s no need to
add salt, and they’ll be lofty with
or without eggs, so they can
easily be made vegan. To make
them gluten-free, substitute your
favorite gluten-free flour blend
for the all-purpose flour.
If your blender is on the fritz,
or you are trying to make
breakfast quietly while others
snooze, you can also whisk the
batter together in a bowl. (Just
be sure to use quick-cook oats
rather than old-fashioned.) Made
this way, your pancakes will turn
out more like the Salt’s Cure
version, with craggy edges and
chewy bites of oatmeal.
To get crispy edges, I
recommend frying this batter in
a hot skillet that’s not just
greased, but coated with a thin
pool of fat. Ghee, coconut oil or
vegetable oil — heated until
barely smoking — work well here
to ensure each pancake gets a
crunchy ring around its edge.
This is from our Eat Voraciously
newsletter, which delivers a quick
dinner recipe four days a week,
Monday through Thursday. Sign up at
http://wapo.st/evnewsletter.
G. Daniela
Galarza
EAT
VORACIOUSLY
Lazy little
oat cakes,
hot off the
griddle
Oatmeal Griddle Cakes
2 to 4 servings (makes 8 small pancakes)
Thick with oats and lightly sweetened with honey, these oatmeal
pancakes can be made gluten-free and/or vegan. Mixed in a blender, the
batter takes minutes to prepare. If you like crispy edges, don’t just
grease the skillet — cook the pancakes in a shallow pool of hot fat.
This recipe makes a small serving, but is easily doubled or tripled. (If
making a big batch, keep cooked pancakes warm in a 200-degree oven.)
Oatmeal griddle cakes go well with fresh or sauteed fruit, honey, spiced
or fruit-infused syrup and/or salted butter.
Total time: 20 mins
MAKE AHEAD: The batter can be made the night before. Stir in
additional buttermilk or milk to loosen the batter until it’s a pourable
consistency.
Leftover pancakes can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
From staff writer G. Daniela Galarza.Ingredients
l^3 / 4 c up (64 grams) rolled oats,
preferably quick-cooking (see
NOTES)
l^1 / 2 c up (120 milliliters) whole
milk or buttermilk (seeNOTES), plus more as needed
l^1 / 4 c up (31 grams) all-purpose
flour or a gluten-free flour
blend
l1 large egg (see NOTES)
l1 tablespoon honey or maplesyrup, plus more for serving
l 11 / 2 teaspoons double-acting
baking powder
lGhee, coconut oil or vegetable
oil, for frying
lButter, for serving
lFresh or cooked fruit, for
servingSteps
lIn t he pitcher of a blender, com-
bine t he oats and milk or butter-
milk. Blend on high until the
oats appear finely ground and
the milk thickens, about 1 min-
ute. Add the flour, egg, h oney or
maple syrup, and baking pow-
der and blend on high until just
combined, 5 to 10 seconds. (Do
not overmix, or the pancakes
may be tough.) Scrape the bot-
tom and sides of the blender to
ensure there are no unmixed
pockets of batter.lPlace a 12-inch cast-iron or
heavy-bottomed skillet over
high heat, and add 1 to 3 table-
spoons of ghee or oil, evenly
spreading it across the bottom
of the pan. As soon as it begins
to smoke lightly, pour 3 to
4 small, roughly 3-inch-
d iameter puddles of batter into
the pan. Lower the heat to
m edium and cook until the p an-
cake edges look dry and the t ops
are pocked with bubbles, 2 to
3 minutes. Flip, and continue
cooking until the pancakes
bounce back when lightly
poked in the c enter, another 2 to
3 minutes.
lRepeat with the additional fat
and the remaining batter. Serve
the pancakes hot, with butter,
syrup or honey, and/or fresh or
cooked fruit.REY LOPEZ FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; FOOD STYLING BY LISA CHERKASKY FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTCreamy Cannellini Bean Rigatoni
4 to 6 servings (makes 10 cups)
Mashed cannellini beans create a creamy sauce and add a dose of
protein to this hearty, quick pasta dish. Be sure to save the pasta water,
which helps the sauce to achieve a silky texture.
Total time: 25 mins
Refrigerate for up to 5 days. When reheating, add water as needed to
achieve a saucy consistency.
Adapted from “Vegan, at Times” by Jessica Seinfeld (Gallery Books,
2022).Ingredients
l^1 / 2 teaspoon fine salt, plus more
for the pasta water and to taste
l1 pound short pasta, such as
rigatoni
l^1 / 4 c up raw unsalted pine nuts
(may substitute with slivered
almonds)
l3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive
oil, plus more for serving
l2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely
grated
l^1 / 4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
flakes
lOne (15.5 ounce) can no-salt-
added cannellini beans, drained
and rinsed, or 1^1 / 2 c ups cooked
cannellini beans
l^1 / 4 teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper, plus more for
serving
l2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
(optional)
l12 fresh basil leaves, for serving
lFinely grated zest of 1 lemon, for
servingSteps
lBring a large pot of water to a
boil, then add enough salt so it
tastes like the sea. Add the pasta
and cook according to the pack-
age directions. Right before you
drain the p asta, reserve 2 cups of
the pasta water.
lWhile the pasta cooks, in a small
dry skillet over medium heat,
toast the pine nuts, tossingo ften, until golden brown, 3 to
5 minutes. Remove from the
heat and transfer the nuts to a
small heatproof bowl.
lOnce you drain the pasta, wipe
the p ot dry and return it t o medi-
um heat. Add the oil, garlic and
red pepper flakes and cook, stir-
ring, until the garlic is fragrant
but not browned, about 30 sec-
onds. Add the beans, the 1 / 2 tea-
spoon of salt and the black pep-
per, and stir to coat in the oil.
lAdd 1 cup of the reserved pasta
water. Using a potato masher or
the back of a fork, crush the
beans until mostly mashed. Add
the pasta and stir well to coat
with the beans. Sprinkle in the
nutritional yeast, if using, and
stir again to combine. If the
p asta mixture is a little stiff, stir
in some or all of the remaining
pasta water to loosen. Ta ste, and
season with more salt, i f desired,
and remove from the heat.
lDivide the pasta among bowls,
and top with the basil leaves,
pine nuts and a little more oil.
Sprinkle with the l emon zest and
black pepper, and serve.
Nutrition | Per serving (1^2 / 3 cups), based on 6:
433 calories, 15 g protein, 64 g
carbohydrates, 12 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0
mg cholesterol, 200 mg sodium, 6 g dietary
fiber, 3 g sugar
Recipe tested by Joe Yonan; email questions
to [email protected]Food and dining editor: Joe Yonan • Voraciously editor: Matt Brooks •
Recipes editor: Ann Maloney • Art director: Christine Ashack • Photo
editor: Jennifer Beeson Gregory • Assistant recipes editor: Olga Massov- Food critic: Tom Sietsema • Staff writers: Tim Carman, G. Daniela
Galarza, Aaron Hutcherson, Emily Heil, Becky Krystal • Editorial aide: Kari
Sonde • Copy editors: Jim Webster, Jordan Melendrez | Contact us:
[email protected], 202-334-7575. The Washington Post, Food, 1301 K St.
NW, Washington, D.C. 20071
FOODI made wraps for
my husband and
foster son the
other day: whole
wheat tortillas I
rolled around
baby spinach,
warm hummus
with chickpeas
and cherry
tomatoes, plus some leftover
cooked ground turkey for them
and a little cauliflower salad for
me.
The 13-year-old ate his quickly,
then asked me to make him
another one — a common
occurrence in our household. I
noticed that he had a little
spinach and tomato still on his
plate, so I asked him to finish it
before I made him seconds. “I
can’t eat that,” he said. “It tastes
disgusting.”
“But you just ate it inside your
wrap!” I countered.
“It was covered up with other
things,” he said.
The exchange made me think
of Jessica Seinfeld. She made
her name — as a cookbook
author, anyhow — as the writer
behind “Deceptively Delicious,”
whose point was to sneak
vegetables onto your kids’ plates
by, say, pureeing cauliflower
into mac and cheese. The book
generated no small amount of
controversy by advocating an
idea that some critics pilloried:
How can you teach children to
love vegetables if they don’t
know the vegetables are there?
Ever since we started
parenting this teenager who
would rather down a pile of
chicken wings or a bowl of
noodles than anything that
resembles a leaf, I’m more
sympathetic to her point than I
was before. If you can serve your
family something that tastes
good and that happens to be
good for them, do you need to
call attention to the vegetables?
Maybe not, at least not at first.
Baby steps, right?
Seinfeld’s latest book, “Vegan,
at Times,” is built on the idea
Joe Yonan
WEEKNIGHT
VEGETARIAN
The secret to this creamy r igatoni sauce is beans
REY LOPEZ FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; FOOD STYLING BY LISA CHERKASKY FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTlNotes
l To make this recipe vegan, omit
the egg and milk. Use^3 / 4 cup
light coconut milk, from a can,
plus 2 teaspoons white or cider
vinegar. If using quick-cooking
or one-minute rolled oats, as
recommended, you h ave the op-
tion of stirring the batter to-
gether in a bowl, but the pan-
cakes will be chewier.
lThe quick-cooking oats ensure
the pancake’s interiors will cook
quickly and be tender. If using
old-fashioned rolled oats, you
must use a blender to mix the
oats and milk very well before
adding the other ingredients.
Nutrition | Per serving (4 small pancakes),
based on 2: 291 calories, 13 g protein, 49 g
carbohydrates, 7 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 99
mg cholesterol, 373 mg sodium, 4 g dietary
fiber, 11 g sugar
Recipe tested by Kara Elder; email
questions to [email protected]