Our pancake recipes from around the world for include sweet and savoury pancakes. We’ve got recipes for everything from Vietnamese banh xeo, crispy turmeric crêpes filled with savoury minced pork and bean sprouts to Japanese okonomiyaki made with eggs, cabbage, yams, dashi stock, and flour. We’ve also got recipes for the classic Russian crêpes called blini and Asian-style scallion pancakes.
We’ve also got an easy recipe for Asian scallion pancakes which originated in China, to all kinds of Slavic pancakes, from the classic French style Russian crêpes called ‘blini’ to a handful of sweet and savoury pancakes my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother used to make for me as a child, which are found all over the world.
Those Eastern European style pancakes or Slavic pancakes made for Pancake Day and for the Orthodox Christian Pancake Week called Maslenitsa – yep, they eat pancakes for a whole week – include French-style crêpes, which we called blini; buckwheat pancakes, which were essentially cocktail sized blini, ricotta cheese pancakes for syrniki, and potato pancakes called draniki in Russian or deruny in Ukrainian.
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Pancake Recipes from Around the World for Pancake Day or Pancake Week
Now let me tell you all about these pancake recipes from around the world.
Okonomiyaki Recipe for Japanese Cabbage Pancakes
This classic Japanese okonomiyaki recipe calls for eggs, finely sliced cabbage, finely grated yams, dashi stock, and a flour to bind the Japanese pancake. As you’d guess, okonomiyaki can be quite a filling meal, and best of all, it can be eaten at any time of day.
Okonomiyaki roughly translates to “as you like it”, which means the toppings – sometimes cooked separately – can vary greatly. Some of the most common toppings include pork belly or bacon, prawns, octopus, and other seafood.
At teppanyaki joints in Japan, basic single servings of okonomiyaki are lined up on a counter in bowls and when an order comes in the chef just adds an egg, mixes it thoroughly, and upturns it onto the grill with a little oil.
The extras, such as the bacon and prawns, are cooked separately, and then added once the pancake has been flipped and topped with the okonomiyaki sauce and lashings of creamy Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise.
The pancakes are then sprinkled with bonito flakes (grated dried bonito fish), nori (dried seaweed) and furikake (a mix of sesame seeds, fine nori flakes, and seasoning).
Okonomiyaki Recipe for Japanese Cabbage Pancakes for Umami Lovers + Okonomiyaki Sauce Recipe
Vietnamese Banh Xeo Recipe for Crispy Turmeric Crepes
Pancakes, along with baguettes, butter, yoghurt, coffee, chocolate, and a passion for beef steaks and red wine, are some of the culinary remnants of French Indochina and next on our list of pancake recipes from around the world is this Vietnamese banh xeo recipe.
This banh xeo recipe makes crispy Vietnamese crêpes filled with savoury minced pork and bean sprouts. The Central Vietnam-style yellow turmeric-tinted pancakes are a street food snack served at simple eateries, roadside stalls and markets.
Traditionally, they’re torn apart using your hands and are eaten wrapped up in fragrant herbs and leafy lettuce, and dunked in nuoc cham dipping sauce. They need to be eaten immediately before they start to soften.
Translated as ‘sizzling crêpes’ or ‘sizzling pancakes’, Vietnamese banh xeo recipe – or more correctly, bánh xèo – are also found in Cambodia, where they’re called banh chao, and are larger, wafer-thin, and lighter on the fillings, yet equally delicious.
Do make sure you prepare the nuoc cham dipping sauce early so that the flavours meld together, We recommend using a Vietnamese fish sauce as their flavour profile is a little different to Thai fish sauces.
Vietnamese Banh Xeo Recipe for Crispy Turmeric Crepes Filled with Savoury Minced Pork and Sprouts
Sourdough Discard Scallion Pancakes Recipe
If you’re a sourdough baker, then this Chinese-style sourdough discard scallion pancakes recipe makes the easiest sourdough starter discard recipe you’ll ever make. It takes just 10 minutes from prep to taking your first bite.
These scallion pancakes are delicious and they’ll give you the confidence to try out even more sourdough starter discard recipes, as well as more authentic Chinese scallion pancakes.
This is not an authentic Chinese scallion pancakes recipe for cong you bing, which Cambodians here call num sleuk ka’tem in Khmer. These should also probably be called ‘Asian’ scallion pancakes, as there are also Taiwanese scallion pancakes, Korean scallion pancakes, and so on.
Authentic northern Chinese scallion pancakes are layered and flaky and involve a lot more work. These pancakes are incredibly easy to make, takes just ten minutes, and they’re incredibly delicious. We love to eat them with homemade Sriracha sauce.
Sourdough Discard Scallion Pancakes – Easiest Sourdough Starter Discard Recipe Ever
Classic Russian French-Style Crêpes Recipe
Also our list of pancake recipes from around the world is a classic French crêpes recipe which makes the sweet, thin, buttery pancakes that my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother cooked us for breakfast as kids.
I was raised by my baboushka to call this style of pancake ‘blini’, which simply means ‘pancakes’ in Russian. Although outside of Russia, blini is typically associated with the smaller pikelet-style pancakes below.
Baboushka would place a towering pile of them on the table for breakfast with bowls of butter, jam and sour cream, however, in the afternoon we’d eat them as as savoury blini with smoked salmon, fresh dill, gherkins, and sour cream.
My mum also made these for us as kids but in the style of French crêpes, with all sorts of savoury fillings of the kind you’d find at a crêperie in France. This recipe makes a batch of 10-12 crêpes.
Best Russian Pancakes Recipe for Blini in the Style of French Crêpes for Pancake Day
Buckwheat Pancakes Recipe for Blini with Smoked Salmon, Dill and Sour Cream
This Russian buckwheat pancakes recipe makes the blini with smoked salmon, dill, sour cream, and caviar that people typically think of when they think of blini and these buckwheat pancakes are next on our list of pancake recipes from around the world.
More like pikelets than pancakes, these cocktail size blini are perfect for snacking and entertaining, and make a fun brunch snack or fantastic finger food.
Instead of proper caviar, I’ve made a ‘caviar’ of gherkin and radish – blini for those of us on a Prosecco rather than Champagne budget! While this is a savoury topping you could spread these little pancakes with jam and cream.
Russian Buckwheat Pancakes Recipe for Blini with Smoked Salmon, Dill and Sour Cream
Ricotta Cheese Pancakes Recipe for Syrniki or Farmer’s Cheese Pancakes
Next on our list of pancake recipes from around the world is another Russian recipe for ricotta cheese pancakes, which makes syrniki or farmer’s cheese pancakes. Crunchy outside and fluffy within, these scrummy Russian pancakes are traditionally made with tvorog or farmer’s cheese.
‘Syr’ means cheese and syrniki have traditionally been made with a beloved Russian curd cheese called tvorog or farmer’s cheese. My baboushka translated it to English as ‘cream cheese’ when I was a child growing up in Sydney.
But in the Russian diaspora you’ll also find ricotta, cottage cheese, quark, and/or cream cheese used. Or in fact, any combination of all those white cheeses. All hard to find here in Cambodia, I’ve long made syrniki with ricotta and they’re just as delicious. Serve them piping hot with sour cream, jams or stewed or fresh fruit.
Russian Ricotta Cheese Pancakes Recipe for Syrniki or Farmer’s Cheese Pancakes
Potato Pancakes Recipe for Draniki or Deruny
This potato pancakes recipe makes draniki (in Russian) or deruny (in Ukrainian) and it’s another of my favourite pancake recipes from around the world and another family recipe. This potato pancakes recipe is super easy and versatile.
Finely grate the potato and onion and use more rather than less flour for a light pancake similar in texture to a pikelet or the mini buckwheat blini, above, or you can grate larger pieces of potato, finely chop or slice your onion, and use less flour for texture and crunch and make something more akin to a German kartoffelpuffer, Israeli latkes, Czech bramboraky, and American hash browns.
I use a kitchen grater with a storage container attached, but you can use any grater – from a simple box grater to a food processor with a grating or shredding attachment.
Russian Potato Pancakes Recipe for Draniki to Celebrate Maslenitsa or Pancake Week
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of these pancake recipes from around the world as we’d love to hear how they turned out for you.
