Potato and cabbage pancakes with lightly roasted heirloom tomatoes and lemon nori pesto.

Colcannon (a traditional Irish dish) is normally made from mashed potatoes and cabbage or kale. This version shreds the vegetables, adds some tomatoes and scallions, as well as a little pesto for a quick brunch style dish a little more like boxty. This make four pancakes.

For the pancakes

2 cups of shredded yellow potatoes (well-scrubbed, unpeeled)
1 cup of shredded cabbage (I use coleslaw mix)
2T of olive oil
2 scallions, minced (about half a cup — reserve a little green for garnish)
1T of minced garlic
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
1/4 to 1/2T of coarse sea salt (use less if you don’t like your potatoes nicely salted — you can always add more later)
1T of egg replacer diluted in 2T of cold water
A pinch of turmeric
Black pepper to taste.

Preheat your oven to 400F.
Squeeze out all the moisture you can from the potatoes.
Combine everything but the egg replacer in a large bowl and mix until well combined.
Whisk the egg replacer, cold water and turmeric until well combined.
Add the mixture to the potatoes and cabbage and mix well until the egg replacer is thoroughly distributed.
Make balls about 3/4 to 1 cup in size from the mix, packing well.
Add the balls to a well oiled baking sheet and pack by hand again.
Bake on the middle rack until the tops are starting to brown slightly (about 25 to 35 minutes depending on your oven).
Once the balls have started to brown a little on top, flatten carefully with a wooden spoon for a pancake shape about 1″ high.
Set the oven to broil.
If you roast the tomatoes in the garnish, add them to the pan now, cut side up, sprinkle with a very tiny pinch of sea salt.
Broil for 7-10 minutes — until you have a nicely browned top.*
Remove from the oven and let cool 5 minutes.
Carefully remove the pancakes from the pan and plate with the tomatoes.

For the garnish

2T of scallion green sliced on the diagonal
2 basil leafs
4 small grape tomatoes, halved
A small amount of olive oil just to coat the tomatoes a little
A pinch of sea salt

For the pesto

2T of olive oil
A pinch of coarse sea salt
3T of packed fresh basil
1t of lemon juice
1/2t of nori flakes
2t of minced garlic
2t of nutritional yeast

Combine ingredients in a high speed blender and blend. You can always ad a few pine nuts to this, but given the amount, you may have difficulties getting it to blend.

*I use a convection oven. Time may vary for a gas or a standard electric. Use the browning of the potatoes to guide the amount of baking. If you use a gas oven, very carefully flip the pancakes once they start to brown (as above) with a spatula and cook for another 10-15 minutes at 400F.