I woke up this morning, and my thoughts turned to crepes, a light, gluten savoury chia and quinoa crepe roll filled with juiced minced beef for our dinner.
Here is another recipe that reminds me of my mother’s food. She still makes delicious crepes, and my favourite one is filled with chicken sauce. Savoury crepes or panquecas are very popular in Brazil, easy and quick to make, and I always make extra portions to freeze and work to accompany steamed vegetables and salad.
Chia and Quinoa Crepe Roll Savoury Filling
You can layer the crepes and alternate them with a Bolognese sauce and dairy-free béchamel sauce for a delicious lasagna. You can use many different fillings, but I decided to play safe when feeding a fussy little toddler, so a simple minced beef sauce works well for us.
Chia and Quinoa Crepe Roll Filled with Beef Sauce
Print RecipeIngredients
- 1 cup of cornstarch
- ½ cup of quinoa flour
- 1 ½ cups of unsweetened almond milk
- 2 tablespoons of chia seeds soaked in ½ cup of water overnight
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- salt
- MINCED BEEF SAUCE
- 500 grams of minced beef
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 small onion chopped
- 100 grams of passata
- 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- salt and pepper
- parsley, chopped
- oregano
- TOMATO SAUCE
- 200 grams of tomatoes, chopped
- ½ small onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 teaspoon of tomato purée
- 1 teaspoon of olive oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
Making the crepes
- In a blender, combine all the ingredients and blend until smooth. The batter should be fairly runny.
- Heat a crepe pan over medium heat and brush with oil.
- Pour 1/4 cup of batter in the centre of the pan and swirl quickly so that the bottom surface gets covered evenly.
- Cook for 1 minute or until the bottom is light brown.
- Using a spatula, flip the crepe and cook the other side until golden brown.
- Transfer to a plate.
- Repeat with the remaining batter, adjusting the heat if necessary.
Tomato sauce
- In a saucepan, heat the oil and add the chopped onions and let it sauté on low heat until soft.
- Add the garlic and chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, salt and pepper and let it simmer for a few minutes. Reserve.
Making the filling
- In a large pan over a medium-high flame, heat the oil.
- Add the chopped onions and sauté until the onion is soft.
- Add the crushed garlic and stir for a minute.
- Add the minced beef and cook until the meat is lightly browned, stirring and using a spatula to break up the meat as it cooks.
- Add salt, pepper and oregano.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the passata.
- Cover the pan with the lid and let it cook, occasionally stirring, until the sauce has thickened.
- Remove from the heat and add chopped parsley.
Making the crepe rolls
- Place one crepe on a plate and fill each one with minced beef sauce.
- Roll the crepe up and line them up on an oven dish.
- Repeat the same with the remaining crepes.
- Pour the tomato sauce over the rolls.
- Put the crepes in the oven at 180C for a few minutes to warm up.
- Serve hot.
If you can eat dairy products and eggs, you can boil an egg. Finely chop and add to the sauce before filling the crepes, together with 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese. Enjoy!