Love at First Bite - Basic Vegan Pancakes

We all love us a big stack of pancakes, don’t we? If your answer to that question is no, you’re obviously lying. I know you are. I used to be one of those (crazy) people claiming they don’t like pancakes. Here in Sweden, a pancake is usually a thin, flat disc that's quite dense in consistency. Growing up, I absolutely hated these. They were all too stodgy for my taste and nothing like the wonderfully fluffy American kind, which, I was yet to discover. So when each Sunday, my Instagram feed was flooded with beautiful stacks of golden pancakes, I felt nothing but perhaps a little envy of their gorgeous presentations. Then I decided to try it out for myself and everything changed. It was love at first bite. Pancakes are without question the ultimate comfort food and my previous attitude towards them could not have been more misguided.  

Although most people think of pancakes as an unhealthy treat, it’s actually very simple to make them both healthy and vegan. I’ll admit it took some tinkering around with this recipe before I was happy and confident enough to share it with you all but here it is, finally, my basic vegan pancake recipe!

Basic Fluffy Vegan Pancakes with a Caramel Sauce

Serves: 1

1/2 cup buckwheat flour (heaped) (70 g)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 ripe banana, mashed (80 g)

1 tsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

1 chia egg (1 tbsp ground chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water), could sub for flax egg

3 tbsp almond milk (you may have to add a couple more tbsp if the batter is too thick!)

1 tsp melted coconut oil

Optional:

Coconut oil for frying 

1 tbsp maca or lucuma powder

1 pinch of vanilla powder

1. Start by preparing your chia egg: Grind one tbsp of whole chia seeds either by hand or in a coffee grinder, then mix the ground seeds with 3 tbsp of water. Stir well and let sit on the side for a few minutes to swell.
2. In a small bowl, mix all the dry ingredients with a fork until the baking powder is evenly divided. 
3. Mash/blitz the banana with the lemon juice (or vinegar) until smooth.
4. Pour in the chia egg, mashed banana, melted coconut oil and almond milk and stir until the batter is completely smooth. Let sit on the countertop for a few minutes (the batter should be THICK)
5. Fry in a spoonful of coconut oil (unless you have a non-stick frying pan) on medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side.

Caramel Sauce

2 tbsp peanut flour (or peanut butter if you don't have any peanut flour)

1 1/2 tbsp almond milk

1/2 tbsp date syrup

1/2 tsp maca powder

1. Mix all ingredients with a fork until you have a smooth, creamy sauce. You may have to adjust the amount of liquid if you use peanut butter instead of flour.

Put slices of banana in between the pancakes and top with the caramel sauce, quinoa pops and mulberries! Hope you like the recipe :)

Pancake-coma-love, Tilda