Let’s celebrate the spring of 2018 with yachaejeon, a Korean vegetable pancake!
I introduced this recipe to you in 2007 when I first started YouTube, but it wasn’t exactly yachaejeon because I used seafood. The video is here if you’re interested to see it. This time let’s make a real yachaejeon!
We’ll use a couple different kinds of vegetables and you can add your own, too. I didn’t use perilla leaves (kkaenip) or asian chives (buchu) this time, but they work well in yachaejeon.
These pancakes remind me of my grandmother on my mother’s side, who passed away a long time ago. When I was young, during school vacation my mother used to send me and my siblings to her mother’s house in a small village in the countryside.
Whatever she made, it was so tasty! I remember she made vegetable pancakes all afternoon because she had to feed so many family members. While she was cooking the pancakes, we all waited and eagerly watched what she was doing. Once she brought it out, we ate it very fast!
Serves: 2
For a large 12 inch pancake
Ingredients
About 2½ to 3 cups 0f sliced vegetables
- 4 green onions, cut into 1 inch long
- ⅓ cup leek (optional), sliced thinly 1 inch long
- 3 ounces zucchini matchsticks (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 green chili pepper (or jalapeño), optional, sliced
- 3 ounces onion, sliced
- ⅓ cup sweet potato
- 1 fresh mushroom (white, baby portobello, or shiitake)
Also
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup water
- vegetable oil
Dipping sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru), optional
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Directions
Make dipping sauce:
- Combine soy sauce, vinegar, hot pepper flakes (if using), and sesame seeds in a bowl and mix it well with a spoon. Transfer it to a small bowl. Seat aside.
Make batter:
- Combine green onion, leek (if using), zucchini, green chili pepper (if using), onion, and sweet potato in a bowl. Add flour salt, and ¾ cup water. Mix it well with a wooden spoon.
Make a pancake:
- Heat up a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat. I use my 12 inch non-stick skillet to make one big pancake, but if your skillet is small, you can work in batches to make smaller ones.
- Add about 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and swirl it around to coat the skillet evenly. Add the batter to the skillet and spread it out evenly.
- Turn down the heat to medium and put the sliced mushroom on top. Gently press them in with a wooden spoon or spatula.
- Cook for 4 to 5 minutes until the bottom turns crunchy light golden brown. Grab the handle of the skillet and twirl it around so the pancake moves and is cooked evenly underneath.
- Turn or flip over the pancake.
- Increase the heat to medium high and add 1 to 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil along the edges of the pancake. Lift up one edge with your spatula and tilt the skillet so the oil flows underneath the pancake.
- Cook for 3 to 4 minutes until both sides turn light golden brown, occasionally pressing down with the spatula.
- Flip it over one more time and cook another 2 minutes.
Serve:
- Transfer it to a large plate and serve right away with the dipping sauce.
Hi, Maangchi,
Made the jeon today for the first time. You would’ve been very impressed with my flip! I made mine a medium-sized jeon and they flipped perfectly! I still need to practice with the batter. I felt like mine needed to be a little more crispy. It seemed a little too wet on the inside, but it was still good. We ate it all!
Thanks.
Lidna
Truc,
I’m sure they used either food coloring or egg york.
Some of my Korean friends use the pancake mix because it’s very easy to use.
You can add any starch powder(potato, sweet potato, mung bean) which makes your pancake more crispy.
I used only plain flour in this recipe, but sometimes I mix starch powder and even sweet rice powder.
Hi Maangchi,
I have a couple of questions. I’m from London, I went to a Korean restaurant yesterday for lunch, the pancake they made was delicious and crispy and it had a very yellow colour all over. How did they do this? food colouring or korean pancake mix?
Second question, what is so special about the korean pancake mix? I read the ingredients and it has mung bean starch. Nothing to say it gives the yellow colour?
Thanks for a wonderful website.
Truc
ym, i just bought some korean pancake mix!
Keith,
Thank you for your support. I can cook, so can u! : )
Maangchi,
Yes, you can call me the “flip guy” I went from restaurants many years ago to healthcare. Now I cook because I love it. I learn something new each time I visit your website. Talk you you soon.
lol,
Keith, the flip guy
Keith,
lol, you are saying yourself as “flip guy”. : )
Oh, I did not know you used to work at a restaurant. I hope many people read your interesing instruction.
Hi Maangchi,
Sounds like you had a wonderful trip back home.
Yes, I am the flip guy for the vegetable pancakes. When I worked in a restaurant many years ago we would have new cooks practice flipping eggs with a piece of bread instead of eggs until they get the motion. The same principle holds for the vegetable pancake. It is very important to have the right type pan and also once the mixture settles to move it in the pan.
These pancakes are great and I make them all the time with different ingredients, depending on what I have in the fridge.
Thanks again for a great website and for sharing both your knowledge and your culture. UR the best!
Take care,
Keith
Christine,
Thank you for your interest in my reicpes.
I will give you tips for vegetable pancake.
Use your spatular to lift the edge of your pancake so that vegetable oil can reach the center, and
press the pancake slightly with your spatula. That’s the way of cooking the center part of pancake.
Keith,
You are the person who practiced flip with a piece of bread on a pan, right?
You are king of flip now! lol
Hi Maangchi!
I just ran into your videos while looking for korean recipes earlier today. You made this look so easy that I decided to give it a try.
The first 4 pancakes were failures :( but I eventually got the hang of it! I made some with kimchi later on, and they tasted GREAT. Now I’m motivated and inspired to try more of your recipes. I’ll definitely be hooked on your videos from now on.
Thank you for all your hard work!
Hi Maangchi,
I made these again tonight, probably because I read this blog yesterday. They came out great and I was able to vary the recipe and clean out the veggies in my fridge. I love doing the flip and your new videos.
Keep up your great work,
Keith
Zabeth,
Unfortunately this vegetable pancake should be eaten once it is made. so we make this just before eating it. It’s impossible to keep it crispy. If you make fish jeon like “cod jeon” one of my videos , you can keep it for a day though.
Thank you and wish good luck with making korean style of pancakes.
I recommend you practice before making this. lot of people have let me know they needed practice. : )
Dear Maangchi,
I love these Korean vegetable pancakes. Always order in a restaurant and am happy to now have your recipe.
My question: I am planning to make lots of them tomorrow. How do I keep them warm in the oven without them loosing their crispiness?
Thanks for any advice. I’m cooking for our wonderful kindergarten – 16 kids! And I want the pancakes to turn out just as perfect as though I was cooking them freshly in front of their nose.
Love your site!
Greetings from Munich.
Zabeth
C.K,
Yes, making smaller pancake will be good practice. Thanks!