With a few simple staple ingredients in your fridge and pantry, you can always make a variety of meals – sweet or savoury. My pantry is never without a variety of flours, and the fridge always has eggs and some variety of milk. These are staples. This weeks recipe – Tuna Veg Savoury Pikelets uses these staple ingredients – the same ingredients I would use for making breakfast or lunchbox pikelets.
When I first made these pikelets, I served them for Israel’s breakfast. I sat them on top of a bed of baby spinach, then added 2 fried eggs on top, then slices of avocado with lemon wedges on the side (the lemon wedge lists them to a whole new level).
This makes about 15 pikelets, so the leftovers went in lunchboxes with a lemon wedge and finger salad. You could also pimp these up for an evening meal with steamed greens, and a serve of sweet potato wedges or chips. We love Georgia from Well Nourished’s Healthy Mayonaise – squeeze some extra lemon and paprika into the mayo for an extra flavour burst.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Wholewheat SR flour (I used Orgran Gluten Free with quinoa)
- 1/4 cup LSA
- 1 corn cob
- 1 small carrot
- 1 small zucchini
- 1 x 95g tin tuna in spring water drained
- 1/2 lemon squeezed
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 tspn Herbamare
- Pepper to taste
- Coconut oil to shallow fry
Method
- Mix flours in a bowl with a fork
- Cut corn from the cob (this is easiest if you cut the cob into thirds before attempting to cut the kernels off)
- Grate carrot and zucchini into bowl, stir with a fork
- Add tuna and lemon
- Grate zucchini and carrot into the bowl
- Stir with a fork until all well mixed
- Add herbamare and pepper, mix with fork again
- Allow mixture to sit for 10 mins
- Heat coconut oil in frying pan over medium heat
- Take a tablespoon of mixture and plop them the into the pan. Use the pack of the spoon to spread them out to the size you wish (I made mine with the lunchbox in mind). Cook about 2 minutes or until golden, then with an egg slide flip to the other side. Cook 2 minutes or until golden. Remove and rest of paper towel to absorb any excess oil. You may need to add a little more oil to the pan between batches
Nut Free Option
If your school is a nut free school, sub out the LSA with more self raising flour
2 Other Ways
- Add some grated broccoli and cauliflower to the recipe to boost the vegetable content
- Add some grated cheese to the mix for a cheesy tuna pikelet.
Story behind this recipe
I am doing home economics with our 10yo daughter, Indrani, as part of her home schooling this year. I am trying to show her how you can have a simple supply of pantry staples to make many foods. I am also trying to show her that simple ingredients can be used in similar ways can make many different recipes.
I created this recipe because I wanted to show her how pantry staples of self raising flour, milk, egg which we use to make these Super Simple Lunchbox Pikelets can be used to make a savoury dish. I also wanted to show her how the technique for cooking them is the same as the lunchbox pikelets (which are also the same as breakfast pikelets).
My purpose of teaching her these things is to show her that you don’t need to have ritzy super food ingredients and be a chef to make nourishing food. All you need is some simple core ingredients in your pantry and fridge and some simple cooking techniques.
Just a reminder, you don’t need to be a master chef, or have a big spotless kitchen to make awesome nutritious meals or snacks for your family.