Buckwheat Crêpes (naturally gluten-free)//Fresh Hearts of Palm Salad
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Option to serve:
-with the hearts of palm salad and sunny-side up eggs
-with rosemary ham, melted cheese (e.g., gruyère), and sautéed wild mushrooms in butter, garlic, and fresh thyme
-with maple syrup
-with sunny-side up eggs
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Vegan modification possible - see notes
Special thanks to my friend Rachel Craven for being the best model, and master crêpe server.
This is my family’s recipe for traditional French Buckwheat Crêpes. They are hands-down the best I’ve ever had, and are surprisingly quick and easy to whip up. The batter is made up of 4 ingredients only—5 if you count the butter to fry them up—and takes mere minutes to whisk together. This recipe makes 10-12 large crêpes, so feel free to half the recipe if you want to make a smaller amount of batter.
You can top them with with a dreamy pour of maple syrup, which is how I like to turn them into easy dessert crêpes, to enjoy after the savoury main one for dinner. And, the morning after I’ve made crêpes for dinner, I will heat a crêpe up, cut it in half, and douse one half with maple syrup, and top the other half with one or two sunny-side-up eggs for the most delicious breakfast. For dinner (or lunch), I serve these crêpes with with a fresh hearts of palm, tomato, avocado, cucumber, and parsley salad, as well as sunny-side-up eggs. You can see that salad in the second TikTok video above. So simple and so good. But of course, you can do whatever you’d like—rosemary ham and nice melted cheese, maybe some sautéed wild mushrooms in butter, garlic, and fresh thyme, you name it. Ooh, that last variation would be so good with a cold glass of hard cider…num.
They make for a delicious weeknight or weekend meal, or for your next dinner party or brunch. Buckwheat flour is also naturally gluten-free—not that you’d know it from tasting it—so this is a great option if you or those you are serving have a gluten intolerance. And on the note of dietary restrictions—although the French girl inside of me is screaming as I say this, I should also note that I modified this recipe to be vegan once, when a friend of mine was avoiding dairy. And, well…they were actually pretty good. We just replaced the milk and cream with an unsweetened plant-based milk (the batter actually needed an extra splash, for some reason), and used a good plant-based butter. We didn’t have any unsweetened plant-based cream, but if we had, I would have used it. The crêpes were surprisingly not at all dry and were a definite win. So that’s an option I wanted to throw out there, for what it’s worth—but only for those who need it.
I hope that you enjoy these little stunners as much as we do. And the smell in the kitchen when you make them. Dang oh dang, it’s good.
Recipe:
Makes 10-12 large crêpes
Notes
I specify the type of salt used, as different salts are more or less salty than others. If you don’t have the same kind of salt used, be mindful of this and adjust accordingly. Generally speaking, pink Himalayan salt is less salty than most others.
Try to get the highest quality buckwheat flour that you can find, as this is where all of the flavour comes from.
The hearts of palm can be found at most grocery stores, either in the canned vegetable isle, or sometimes in what they call the ethnic section in Canada. Any brand they have is good.
I used whole milk. Any percentage will do though.
I often add capers on top of my salad too. Not necessary at all, but I do love them.
You can modify this recipe to be vegan. Replaced the milk and cream with an unsweetened plant-based milk (the batter actually needs an extra splash, for some reason), and use a good plant-based butter. If you have unsweetened plant-based cream, use it in the place of the cream. The crêpes come out surprisingly not at all dry and are a definite win. So that’s an option I want to throw out there, for those avoiding dairy—but only for those people.
Buckwheat Crêpes
Ingredients
500 g buckwheat flour
800 ml milk
400 ml heavy cream (35%)
1 tsp salt (pink Himalayan), option to add an extra pinch if you want them extra salty
Instructions
In a medium bowl, whisk all of the ingredients together until thoroughly combined. Buckwheat flour is naturally gluten-free, so you don’t need to worry about over-mixing.
The crêpe batter is ready to use, just like that, but it’s even better if you let it rest, at room temperature, for up to 8 hours (if you whisk it together in the morning), before frying up the crêpes. This will develop the batter’s elasticity to improve the texture, as well as the flavour, but it’s by no means necessary. If you’re not comfortable with leaving the batter out for 8 hours, option to rather let it sit out for up to 4 hours. I find there’s a difference in comfort levels between North Americans and Europeans in this matter, often, so do as you feel comfortable.
Heat up a cast-iron pan until it’s absolutely piping hot. This depends on your burner, but I’d suggest medium-high heat on average. I sometimes knock mine up to high heat. Add a generous knob of butter to the pan, about a tablespoon’s worth. If the pan doesn’t sizzle loudly, it’s not hot enough.
Once melted, and bubbling or crackling, ladle in the crêpe batter. You have 2 choices here: in the TikToks, I show you an easy way to do it, by just ladling the batter in circles until it’s the size you want. But, the more common way to do it is to ladle all the batter at once into the center of the pan, and to swirl it around in circles until it’s dispersed. Be sure to use oven mitts, to avoid the piping hot pan handles. Do whichever option you feel confident with, they both work, and achieve the right thickness.
Cook for 4-6 minutes on the first side. When the edges look brown, and you can hear the bottom sizzling, flip the crêpe. Cook the second side for 3-4 minutes, until nice and brown.
Remove from pan, and make the rest of the crêpes. You need to add another generous knob of butter to the pan between each crêpe. Don’t worry if the butter browns, I promise that the crêpes won’t taste of burned butter. The pan needs to be that piping hot to get them nice and crispy. Also, a reminder that the first crêpe is never perfect. It’s never crispy enough—don’t stress, the rest of them will be. You most likely didn’t do anything wrong! It’s just a curious rule that the first crêpe is always a little sad.
Cook 2 sunny-side-up eggs per person in a pan with butter, if you’re making savoury crêpes. Be sure to sprinkle a little salt over them.
If you’re making a sweet crêpe, drizzle a lovely stream of maple syrup overtop. Truthfully, I was being pretty about this in the photos and videos, but in reality I poured the rest of the maple syrup overtop once we cut the cameras. So please make sure that your maple syrup pour is just as obscene as mine. If you’re making a savoury crêpe with the salad (recipe below), top it with as much of the fresh salad as you’d like, as well as 2 sunny-side up eggs. Fold it over, and it’s ready to be devoured.
Enjoy!
Fresh Hearts of Palm Salad
Ingredients
3 medium tomatoes, 350 g, diced
1/2 large cucumber, 185 g, peeled and diced
1 avocado, 230 g, diced
1 can hearts of palm, 235 g drained, diced a little bigger than the other vegetables
A big handful of parsley, 35 g before washing, chopped
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp olive oil
1 + 1/8 tsp salt (pink Himalayan)
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Instructions
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Give the salad a good mix, and let it chill in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. It’s best eaten the day that it’s made.
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