Tuesday 4 May 2010

Coconut Crêpes with Asparagus and a Sweet Chilli Lime Dipping Sauce


Vegan Coconut Crepes with Asparagus and a Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce

I took one bite of these and instantly knew these would become a dinner staple, they are seriously delicious!!! The recipe was on BBC Good Food and I found it intriguing as I just wouldn't think to use asparagus this way. It's hands down my favourite vegetable so I'm always keen to find new ways of using it. Plus the 'in season' British stuff is out now so a good time to use it!

I had to veganize the crêpe recipe they used and am pleased to say it turned out fantastic, I sort of combined their flavours with the quantities I used in my Wild Rice Crêpe recipe. Only thing was these were possibly a little more delicate to work with. The first one had to be scrapped, as seems to always be the case when I make crêpes ;-) The next two didn't tear or rip but it was touch and go....so just bear that in mind when making these. That being said I later ate the first crepe, all ripped up and cold just by dipping it in the sauce and it was just as good. So don't stress if they tear just serve it all together in a bowl!

Oh and that dipping sauce is perfect with these and omg good, I just swapped the honey with some light agave and added a bit more garlic. I also used bird's eye chilli's as that's all I had, I made sure I removed all the seeds and membranes and it still packed a punch. So you may want to only use 2 or a different chilli altogether, depending on how hot you like things.

They included some roasted peanuts in the dipping sauce but I thought they would be better in the crêpe itself. Their version had some hard boiled egg in the filling (bleurgh!) so without it my filling would just be steamed asparagus. I then forgot to buy peanuts so lightly toasted some almond flakes and added that. I really liked the flavour in their and the thin crunchiness was really nice. Later, I made these for my husband with the peanuts and while he liked the flavour of the peanuts in their preferred the texture of the almonds. The peanuts were just a bit too hard.

Whatever way you go - those crêpes with that sauce and the asparagus is amazing! I got 5 crêpes out of this with my large crêpe pan....

Coconut Crêpes with Asparagus and a Sweet Chilli Lime Dipping Sauce:

200ml reduced fat coconut milk
200ml water
120g plain flour
30g chickpea flour
1 Tbsp cornstarch (cornflour) or arrowroot
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 Tbsp peanut oil, for greasing the pan
25 spears asparagus, 5 for each wrap
25g flaked almonds or finely chopped roasted peanuts (optional)
2 Tbsp light agave syrup
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice, strained
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Bird's Eye chilli's, deseeded and membranes removed, chop fine

First make your batter, simply whisk everything together until super smooth, or use the blender. Cover and place in the fridge for about an hour.

Next make your dipping sauce. Whisk the agave, soy and lime juice and well mixed then whisk in the garlic and chillies. Set aside to let the flavours mingle up a bit.

Take the batter out of the fridge and give it another good whisk. Heat your crepe pan on medium heat and brush on some peanut oil. Using 1/2 cup measure pour the batter in the centre of the pan and swirl it around making sure it coats all the pan. Immediately sprinkle on some of the spring onion before it sets. Now, turning these are a little tricky. The best way I found was to loosen the edges and pick it up and move it to a plate. I then brushed a little more oil on the pan, picked it up again and placed the other side down. I also wore a pair of (clean!) washing up gloved to do this otherwise I would have burnt my fingers!! Once both sides are cooked, it should be ever so lightly golden at spots, it's a bit more hardy. Turn over onto a plate so that the spring onions are facing up. Continue with the rest of the batter and meanwhile start steaming your asparagus: 3-5 minutes should do it.

When ready to serve, simply place 5 asparagus in the middle of the crêpe and sprinkle on some of the almonds or peanuts, if using. Fold the bottom over then roll them up, you could cut them on the diagonal or just leave whole.

Vegan Coconut Crepes with Asparagus and a Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce

Give the dipping sauce another little mix and serve on the side. I spooned a little bit of the sauce over the crêpes and do recommend this as it's an easier way to eat these than dipping them.


Nutritional Analysis: based on 2 filled crêpes with sauce

Calories: 516
Protein: 14.8g
Carbs: 69.8g
Fat: 20.7g (if you use all the peanut oil )
Sat Fat: 1.4g
Fibre: 7.3g
Sugars: 14.3g
Sodium: 1200mg *this is only if you use 2/5 of the sauce recipe, which is unlikely, so really it's not that high :-)

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6 comments:

  1. What a delicious looking dinner, I still have to try your crepe recipe and I have some white asparagus to use up too!

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  2. These look SO good! As do the wild rice crepes. Im not that keen on cooked mushrooms which are usually in crepes so its nice to see another savory option. I wonder if they could be made without the chickpea flour? im slightly allergic to chickpeas :(

    Rose

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  3. I need to lay my hands on green asparagus! These crepes look perfect.

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  4. oh my god these are so so beautiful!

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  5. Oh how I heart asparagus....

    Looks amazing, as always.

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  6. I'm a little late responding here - brain freeze!! Thanks for all the comments, Rose I'm sure the chickpea flour could be replaced, maybe with some cornflour or other to help keep it together? I may try that next time...

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