3 Delicious Pancake Recipes Made with Leftover Food

More often than not, we take food for granted. If you think about it, every day someone, somewhere throws food away, and the ingredients used for making this food are not the only thing that goes to waste. Just think about the electricity that was spent to prepare it, the water that was spent to wash the dishes it was prepared in... Ok, my aim isn’t to stress or depress you, only to make you aware that throwing food away is not okay.
Well, among the many things you can do with leftover food, pancakes are my all-time favorite, and I believe they will become yours too once you take a look at these delicious pancake recipes.

#1 Okonomiyaki Pancakes

If you have kids, then I believe that one ingredient you’ve been trying to make them eat but they won’t eat for the life of it is cabbage. Well, don’t fret, even if you ended up with loads of leftover cabbage, the okonomiyaki pancake recipe is just that: a cabbage based pancake layered with whatever you please. Actually, the name itself translates from Japanese as “what you like”, which means this is a pancake recipe that is a great base for any leftover food you might have. Carrots, green onions, eggs, bacon, cheese anything goes really. Plus, this is a great way to sneak in some more veggies into your kids’ diet. The okonomiyaki was a God send for me. My 7 and 9 year-olds adore these pancakes and I am as thrilled as ever. A friendly tip though, fry the pancakes with only a drop of virgin olive oil. Yes, there are many veggies in the pancake, but frying with too much oil might not be the best idea.

#2 Banana Bread Pancakes

Well, you probably didn’t know that this American classic dessert came to be precisely as a result of people wanting to reduce food waste to a minimum. It was at the time of the Great depression that resourceful housewives decided not to throw ripe bananas away, and that’s how it all started. Well, today I am going to share with you a recipe I found among the Best American Pancake Recipes – Quick, Easy and Delicious and it is a recipe for banana bread pancakes. Don’t do the mistake of throwing black bananas away, please, they will actually work best in this recipe.

#3 Mashed (Sweet) Potato Pancakes

I have decided to put both sweet and regular potatoes into this category because leftovers of both can be used to prepare delicious pancakes.

If you are preparing salty sweet potato pancakes, then go ahead and add a little bit of sour cream. The contrasts in flavor will make the hotcakes incredibly tasty, not to mention they will be pillowy soft. If, on the other hand, you want them sweet, then use milk and of course, nutmeg and cinnamon.

A pancake recipe you can prepare with leftover potatoes is the very Irish recipe for the boxty. The boxty is made with a grated potato, a cup of leftover mashed potatoes, a cup of flour, the same amount of milk, and of course, salt and pepper to taste. The boxty much like the okonomiyaki, is a great base for re-using any leftover food. So, mushrooms, onions, sausage, or any other meat really, can be great for garnishing this pancake. (Note: you can find all of the recipes in the collection I’ve linked to, only type the recipe’s name and voila, you will have different recipes at hand)

Pancakes are only one of the many options you have for re-using your food, so next time think twice before you decide to throw leftovers away.