Recipe: Savory garden green crepes

You’ll love this delicious and simple savory crepe recipe made with organic whole wheat flour, duck eggs, fresh garden greens & herbs! 

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Mmm, crêpes. Or just simply crepes if you want to drop the circumflex (the fancy ^ mark) and appear less pretentious. 

When I was a kid, the only homemade breakfast that made me more excited than waffles or pancakes was crepes. My mom would typically reserve crepes for: 1) special occasions, and 2) times when we had fresh, seasonal berries. 

I drool a little bit thinking about mom’s blueberry crepes with freshly made whipped cream. 

Savory crepes? Yes, please.  

One of the nice things about being an adult is you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want it. No waiting for special occasions. The downside: you have to pay for it and you also have to make it. 

And if you’re trying to maintain a healthy diet, you probably don’t want to eat sweet crepes for every meal, tempting though that may be. (You also have to pay for your dietary choices via your health.) 

Thankfully, crepes don’t have to be a dessert-like substance that sends your blood sugar crashing. In fact, the Tyrant and I have to come to prefer savory crepes to sweet crepes due to their more healthful qualities and ingredient versatility. 

You can incorporate so many garden-fresh and foraged ingredients into savory crepes: mushrooms, duck eggs, greens, herbs, edible flowers. Yes, you can still work in a pop of sweet if you want to… 

A savory crepe stuffed with a duck egg, arugula, and a drizzling of our ground cherry preserves (or our green tomato marmalade with smoked paprika & brandy) is out-of-this-world delicious. And not dessert.  

Adding greens and herbs to your crepe batter 

Rather than making the standard generic savory crepe, we like to use organic whole wheat flour and incorporate greens and herbs right into the batter. This gives the crepe a unique green color and boosts the flavor and nutrition as well. 

Our favorite greens & herbs to blend and mix into crepe batter include:

• stinging nettle
• chives or other allium greens (examples: wild garlic or shallot greens) 
• spinach 
• garden or sheep sorrel (which adds a lemony flavor)
• wild greens like dock, lambs quarters, and chickweed 
• pea greens 
• kale 
• any of the Herbes de Provence picked fresh (thyme, rosemary, savory, marjoram, oregano, lavender). 

How to make the perfect savory crepe

Don’t be intimidated by the idea of making crepes if you’ve never done it before. If you can make a pancake, you can make a crepe. As with anything, practice makes perfect.  

The main differences between pancakes and crepes are:

1. crepes don’t rise (hence no leavening agents like baking soda or baking powder are included in the ingredients); and
2. you want crepes to be silky smooth with no lumps or bubbles, which is why crepe batter is typically whisked or blended, then allowed to sit in the fridge for at least a couple hours so that all the air bubbles come out of the batter. 

For this recipe, which incorporates fresh greens and herbs right into the batter, you’ll want to have a good food processor or blender on hand. That way, you can really blend the greens up into a smooth consistency with the other ingredients. (We use and love a metal & glass Cuisinart blender.)  

Now, let’s get started! 

Recipe tips and process photos

1. First, de-stem any greens with thick or fibrous stems, like you can see with the kale and sorrel below. You don’t want to use the stems for this recipe to ensure an ideal crepe consistency.  

2. Rough chop your raw greens. Exception: don’t chop raw stinging nettle or your hands won’t feel very good (they have small leaves, so no need anywy).

For this recipe, we used about 2 cups of rough chopped mixed greens & chives, lightly packed. Once they were sautéed, they measured about 1/2 cup. 

3. Quickly sauté the chopped greens in 2 Tbsp of butter to wilt and tenderize the leaves. You’re not trying to fully cook them, just wilt them. Total cook time ~3 minutes on medium heat.

This step also helps melt the butter used in the recipe. 

4. Add the milk + greens to your blender, then blend. Do NOT add the eggs yet. This cools the greens so eggs don’t start to cook when incorporated, and also ensures that the greens receive a lot of blending. 

5. Add eggs then blend again. Then add flour + salt, and blend quickly. You don’t want to over-blend the flour, which is why it goes in last.  

6. Fridge or no fridge, that is the question? The general advise when making crepes is to let the batter sit for at least two hours (or overnight) in the fridge before making them. This allows more air to come out of the batter. 

We do notice a slight difference between crepes made immediately after blending vs crepes made after the batter has been refrigerated for 2+ hours. The “fast” method leads to some small bubbles that form in the crepe. The slower method has virtually no bubbles. Your choice…   

7. The shape of pan you use to make crepes is important. Ideally, it has a gently curved edge so the crepe batter just slightly rolls up the edges as you spin the pan to make the batter spread thinly and evenly. We use an antique cast iron Wagner #8 for our crepes (which is 8″ across on the base). 

We also recommend standardizing your pan and scoop you use to pour your crepe batter. That way, you make the same, perfect-sized crepe each time. Along with our Wagner #8, we use a 1/2 cup measuring cup. 

8. Heat your skillet/pan to medium heat (4 on our stovetop). Once hot, butter the pan and add a measured scoop of batter. Lift the pan off the stove and spin it in a circular motion so the batter spreads thinly and evenly across the surface. Return pan to heat.   

9. Once the edges of the crepe curl up and turn slightly brown, flip it. 

Cook on other side for another minute then plate the crepe. 

Recipe: Savory garden green crepes

Filling your savory crepe with seasonal goodies

We saved the best for last! Time to fill your savory crepe (which is already full of seasonal greens and herbs) with more seasonal goodies. 

For the crepes photographed in this article, we used the following ingredients:

• our green tomato marmalade with smoked paprika & brandy;
• a 2 egg duck egg omelette (just the right size); 
• edible daylily flowers;
• elderflowers;
• some blueberries as a side, including pink lemonade blueberries. 

If you’d like to replicate our crepe, here’s how:

1. Add green tomato jelly and daylily flower petals & stamens to the center of the crepe. 

2. Add duck egg omelette. Not the most beautiful omelette we’ve ever made, but don’t judge. It won’t be visible in the final showing anyway… 

3. Roll crepe and cut down the middle. The cut side will be the base that you place on the plate. 

5. Plate and garnish with additional flowers, berries, greens, or other fresh, seasonal goodies from your garden! 

Recipes like this are why we love growing food. We don’t believe it’s possible or desirable to be self-sufficient, but growing some of your own fresh, organic food makes life (and meals) better.  

KIGI,

Other plate-licking articles you’ll love: 

• 5 minute no-kneed artisanal bread – yes, really!  
• Persimmon bread with oats, walnuts, and honey (no sugar) 
• Turkish Poğaças, stuffed savory dinner pastries 
• Fall harvest coffee cake with apples and pumpkin
• Flourless fig crumble with oats and almond flour
• Healthy summer breakfast bread with whole wheat flour, zucchini, and fresh berries

… and more great recipes from Tyrant Farms.