This was one of those recipes I came up with because I had a bunch of napa cabbage on hand, and I wanted to make something akin to okonomiyaki(a savory Japanese cabbage pancake). I love okonomiyaki(and hate typing it because I constantly have to pronounce it out to remember which letters to type in what order), because there are so many textures. The crispy edges, the soft, cakey center, and it is usually made with pork belly, and pork and cabbage are a pair made for each other. However, I did not want to just make another okonomiyaki recipe(been there, done that), so I figured, why not rummage through my pantry and see what else I could do with the cabbage in that fashion? I found my chickpea flour, which I usually use to make socca(a gluten-free AND vegan chickpea flatbread), and realized I could make a hybrid of okonomiyaki and socca! This recipe wound up being completely gluten-free as a result of me subbing out the regular flour with the chickpea, which in turn also gives it a ton more protein. If you want to make it vegan, just omit the egg and the bacon, and you’ve got a crispy chickpea and cabbage fritter essentially. It was a surprisingly quick recipe to make, and is a nice little breakfast item for the next time you want to eat cabbage for breakfast, I guess? At least that was my logic, because breakfast foods are the best-fast foods(at least that’s my philosophy since they’re cheaper to make, therefore easier to play around with).

Makes 1 10-inch pancake, roughly 2-3 servings:
For the pancake batter:
9oz napa cabbage
1 tsp salt
3oz chickpea flour
2 strips bacon, cut in half widthwise

In a bowl, mix the cabbage and salt first, allowing that to sit for 10 minutes. Squeeze out the liquid from the cabbage, and remove half of it. Then stir the remaining liquid, cabbage, and chickpea flour together to form your batter. Line a cast iron with the bacon pieces, then spread the batter. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. Flip the pancake and reserve any rendered bacon fat

For the fried egg:
1 egg
a pinch of salt
a pinch of black pepper
rendered bacon fat

In a pan, cook the egg in the bacon fat, with salt and pepper, for 2 minutes, covered.