Posted August 22, 2017

In Breakfast, Brunch, Cooking, Nutrition, Recipe Redux

Do you ever see food pics on social media that look amazing, but you’d probably never try making them in your own kitchen? For me, one of those food categories is pancakes. Food bloggers always place them in fluffy piles, dripping with maple syrup or peanut butter, maybe topped with chocolate and fruit. I absolutely love to look at them, but I’m just not into actually eating sweet pancakes for breakfast and you’d never catch me ordering them from a restaurant menu. That is, unless they’re savory pancakes filled with cheese and bacon!

This month’s Recipe Redux challenge was to create a savory breakfast dish inspired by a dish typically eaten at dinner. I was pretty much obsessed with the idea of making savory pancakes that I could eat any time of the day. I looked in my half empty fridge and saw that shrimp was the only protein I had on hand. Voila, cheesy shrimp n’ grits pancakes were born.

The combination of corn grits and whole wheat pastry flour make a hearty, yet puffy pancake with a surprise crunch. I really like using whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular whole wheat flour because I don’t want a strong “wheaty” taste to overpower the corn flavor. You also get a more tender final product. If you want to maximize the whole grain-ness of this dish, look for corn grits, or polenta, that is made from corn that hasn’t been degermed. When you remove the germ, you remove some of the nutrients such as B vitamins and Vitamin E. Grits and polenta are both stoneground corn, but they are made from different types of corn. Flint corn for polenta and dent corn for grits. Either will work for this dish, so get whichever you find at the grocery store. Some bags may even contain both of the words “grits” and “polenta”.

If you love pancakes and shrimp n’ grits, you’ll want to try the two rolled into 1 dish breakfast or dinner dish!

Cheesy Shrimp n’ Grits Savory Pancakes

Print Recipe

These savory shrimp n’ grits pancakes are great for breakfast, brunch or even dinner! They taste great on their own, as well as with a dollop of spicy yogurt sauce. The recipe makes exactly 4 TBSP, which is enough for 1 TBSP per serving. You may want to make a double recipe because I guarantee you’ll keep tasting it!

Author: TastyBalance Nutrition
Yield: 8 Pancakes 1x

Ingredients

Scale

1/2 cup yellow corn grits
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp olive oil (plus a total of 4–1/2 tsp for sauteeing)
1/3 cup chopped green onions, white and green parts (plus 4 tsp for garnish)
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese (plus 4 tsp for garnish)
6 ounces of 31-40 count raw shrimp (peeled & deveined), each shrimp chopped into 3 pieces

Spicy Yogurt Sauce

1/4 cup 2% plain Greek yogurt
Few dashes of hot sauce such as Tabasco, Cholula, etc
Pinch of kosher salt
1/2 tsp olive oil

Instructions

Place grits, salt and boiling water in a medium size bowl and stir to combine. Cover for 5 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine flour, garlic powder and baking powder.
After 5 minutes, remove cover from grits and add the egg, buttermilk, and 1 tsp olive oil. Stir to combine.
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine. Mix in the green onions, cheese and shrimp.
Heat a saute pan (or griddle) on medium low heat. Once hot, add 1-1/2 tsp of oil. Spoon 1/4 cup of mixture onto the pan. If you have an 10″ saute pan like I do, you can fit 3 pancakes in the pan at 1 time. Cook pancakes for 6 minutes, flip and cook for another 6 minutes on the other side. Keep pancakes warm in 200 degree F oven while you repeat the process for the remainder of the batter.
Serve warm, garnished with reserved shredded cheese and chopped green onions. If using the yogurt sauce, dollop 1 TBSP over each serving. (1 serving is 2 pancakes)

Yogurt Sauce

While pancakes are cooking combine the yogurt, hot sauce, salt and 1/2 tsp olive oil. Add another small pinch of salt if needed.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 2 pancakes

Keywords: pancakes, savory pancakes, grits, shrimp, seafood, shellfish, nut free, breakfast, brunch

breakfast, brunch, Pancakes, The Recipe Redux