Today I want to show you how to prepare delicious vegan crepes with radicchio and mushrooms. The basic crepes are made with chickpea flour and are topped with a light béchamel sauce made with oil and plant milk. Simply delicious.
They are not even difficult, only that there are various steps to do, but they are worth it especially for the holiday table: they will be perfect to offer to your family for Christmas, for example. And you can bake them in the oven or in an air fryer, as you will see later, which is really convenient if the oven is already occupied with other dishes.
I recommend preparing the béchamel, mushrooms, and radicchio in advance, even a couple of days before. You can also prepare the crepes the night before, but not beyond that, otherwise, they tend to dry out and become less flexible, as happened to me; in fact, one broke while rolling it. But no one complained, we enjoyed them thoroughly! Let’s get cooking…
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 20 Minutes
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 8 crepes
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Vegan
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter, Christmas
Ingredients
To prepare the crepes, I refer you directly to my recipe instead of rewriting everything, read here: Vegan Chickpea Flour Crepes. The recipe is for 8 crepes, and we indeed need to prepare 8 crepes.
The béchamel is also made with my recipe, here’s the procedure: Vegan Light Béchamel but below are the quantities, as we need to make a smaller dose.
- 1 oz flour
- 4 tsp extra virgin olive oil (4 measuring teaspoons)
- 1 1/4 cups plant milk (unsweetened or unflavored)
- to taste nutmeg
- to taste salt
- 1/2 radicchio
- 14 oz mushrooms
- 1 onion
- 1 garlic
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil (2 measuring teaspoons)
- 2 tbsps nutritional yeast (about 2 measuring tablespoons)
- to taste spices (to taste: thyme, sage, marjoram…)
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- Total points = 23 WW points
- Points per crepe = 3 WW points
Tools
Here are the main tools for preparation. You can use either the oven or the air fryer. If you use the air fryer, you must use a baking pan, even aluminum, that fits well in the basket.
- Pan
- Whisk
- Spatula
- Air fryer baking pan
- Air fryer
Steps
As already explained, you must follow this recipe: Vegan Chickpea Flour Crepes to the letter, and you will get 8 crepes like these:
For the béchamel, you must also follow my recipe: Vegan Light Béchamel but with the quantities indicated above, as we need a smaller portion, a little more than half the recipe. To the béchamel, add, in addition to salt and nutmeg, 2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast to flavor it, and save the rest of the nutritional yeast to assemble the crepes. Here’s the béchamel:
Clean the radicchio from the hardest parts and cut it into strips. Save a little raw to decorate the final dish if you like. Chop the onion and sauté it with a teaspoon of oil along with the spices for a couple of minutes. Add a little water if it dries out too much. Add the radicchio, a little salt, and cook until the radicchio is wilted. Turn off and let cool.
For the mushrooms, follow this recipe: Trifolati Mushrooms. Cut the garlic in half and sauté it in a teaspoon of oil.
Add the well-cleaned and sliced mushrooms and cook them. If they release a lot of water, continue until it has completely evaporated. Add some salt, turn off and let cool.
Place the crepes on the work surface and spread a tablespoon of béchamel on each.
Then add a sprinkle of nutritional yeast, add the radicchio, and finally, the mushrooms. Make sure to save most of the béchamel and a little nutritional yeast for the next step.
Spread some béchamel on the bottom of the baking dish. Then gently roll each crepe and place it in the dish so that they are touching each other. Spread the remaining béchamel well over the crepes, especially on the edges, so they don’t become too dry.
Sprinkle the surface of the béchamel with the remaining nutritional yeast, and we’re ready to cook the crepes!
OVEN COOKING
Preheat the oven to 392°F and place the dish at the lower rack for 15 minutes, then move it to the top rack for another 10-15 minutes until golden.
AIR FRYER COOKING
I also tried cooking the crepes in my air fryer. In fact, you see that 6 were in an oven dish because I put 2 in a separate dish and cooked them in the air fryer for 6 minutes at 320°F and then another 6-7 minutes at 356°F. Perfect this way too!
Here are the Vegan Crepes with Radicchio and Mushrooms ready to be served! What a lovely aroma… I garnished them with some raw radicchio that I had saved, and they really make an impression served like this. If you want to bring them to the table for Christmas, they will also look beautiful served in Christmas dishes.
Okay, the eye also wants its part, but the most important thing is that they are really so good, tasty, filling, and light. What more could you want?
These vegan crepes were approved at home with flying colors, but most importantly, I liked them. I hope it will be the same for you, if you make them, tell me if you liked them and leave me a comment below…
Enjoy your meal!
By Giovanna Buono
Preparation and Storage
The béchamel can also be prepared a few days in advance and kept in the fridge. If it becomes too thick, you can add a little milk and mix well with a whisk. It can also be frozen in a jar if you prefer. Then leave it in the fridge to defrost overnight.
You can also prepare the vegetables in advance, up to two days before, without any problems. Of course, you keep them in the fridge.
For the crepes, I would prepare them no more than 12 hours in advance, otherwise, they tend to dry out too much, and it will be difficult to roll them. Make them and separate them with kitchen paper on a plate; you can leave them in the oven turned off until preparation.
You can also, once cooked and cooled, freeze the crepes in suitable containers. Then place them in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Check with a fork that they are well heated inside.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
What is nutritional yeast?
In this recipe, you also find nutritional yeast, which is a deactivated yeast rich in vitamin B12. It is widely used in vegan cooking as it adds a cheesy flavor to dishes. To learn more, read here: Nutritional Yeast: What it is, how to use it, and why! You can omit it, but in that case, add spices to taste to give more flavor to the final dish.
