I have been wanting to try these for a while now. Having never had the authentic version, I don't know how my version compares, but we enjoyed them. They do make a satisfying meal on their own, but if you would like a bit more variety in vegetables, then a side salad or some more veggies would be nice. I was having a lazy night regarding cooking, so it was just the pancakes for us with a few pieces of salt-reduced halloumi cheese. I can imagine that this would be an eyebrow raiser in Japan, but I am not in Japan and it did go well together.
By just having the one pancake, you are having a nutritious meal which is just over 1000kJ or just under 260 Calories - even with a drizzle of mayonnaise! So really if you are trying to reduce the kilojoules of your meals, even with a salad, which would be great for the added fibre, minerals and vitamins, you would still zoom under the 2000kJ mark. Not that everything is about the kJ, but it can be helpful to understand where you are at with each meal when you have weight management in mind.
For our mental wellbeing this meal ticks a few of the essentials - high pre-biotic Fibre ✅ source of Folate ✅ sources of Vitamin D ✅ Omega 3's ✅ Zinc ✅ Iron ✅ Phytonutrients ✅ . To give you an even bigger health boost, consider adding some Kimchi for the beneficial bacteria present in the fermented vegetables. That is just with the basic pancake and Kimchi. Add a variety of salad veg or more grated veg in the pancake and you will be boosting some of these nutrients. Or try a serve of oily fish like salmon will also be a big win! 🏆
You can also make this a portable meal. By making sure the pancake is thin, you will be able to roll it up and what better way to roll it up than a piece of Nori! Maybe it should be called a Sushi pancake??? You can then wrap it in foil and take it with you for lunch on the go. So make a few spare ones for a quick lunch.
Another tip for this meal is to cook it on a flat based sandwich press. It works really well and reduces the wash up, which is always a big bonus in my books. The mushroom and corn can be cooked this way as well. It reduces the cooking time and the complexity as you won't have to flip the pancake.
Have fun with this recipe. There are so many ways you can modify it.
Credit goes to the Wander Cooks blog for introducing this to me. They can be found here.