You know my passion for healthy pancake recipes, and I have shared so many with you, like my 3-ingredient banana oat pancakes or vegan buckwheat pancakes. But today, I felt like eating quinoa for breakfast, and I hadn’t prepared my quinoa breakfast bake the day before, so I started experimenting with pancakes. To make this vegan quinoa pancake recipe, I took inspiration from my quinoa tortillas. I started with soaking raw quinoa in cold water to see how I could blend and turn this delicious, healthy grain into a light, fluffy pancake batter. After experimenting I found the perfect ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients. My goal was to avoid the addition of wheat flour or any other flour to keep the recipe easy, healthy, and gluten-free. My secret ingredients to make these pancakes super fluffy are the same used in my classic vegan pancakes. I use a combination of baking powder and apple cider vinegar. It’s hard to believe you can make pancakes from quinoa without quinoa flour.
Ingredients and Tips For Success
All you need are a few ingredients, but most of all a high-speed blender to pulse your quinoa into a fine powder that creates the best quinoa pancake batter.
Uncooked Quinoa – white quinoa or red quinoa, both work the same. Make sure you soak the quinoa in a bowl with cold tap water. Then, drain it over a sieve and discard the soaking water. Give it a quick rinse to remove extra impurities present in the quinoa. Do not use cooked quinoa in this recipe. Flaxseed Meal also known as flaxmeal is your binder. You can use brown flax meal or golden flax meal which has a less bitter flavor. Plant-Based Milk – I love almond milk, but for a nut-free option, feel free to use soy milk or oat milk. Water makes the pancake light and airy. Pure Maple Syrup or any liquid sweetener you love like agave syrup. This adds sweetness to the batter, and you can skip it or also swap it for two pitted Medjool dates and blend it with the remaining pancake ingredients. Vanilla Extract for a boost of flavor. Lemon Juice or apple cider vinegar for a fluffier pancake texture. Cinnamon for flavor as well, you can skip it if you are not a fan of its taste. Baking Powder for ultra fluffy and light quinoa pancakes. You can use half the amount of baking soda instead but I found the pancakes a bit bitter with baking soda.
Preparation
I recommend picking a narrow blender, like a NutriBullet for this recipe or double it up if you have a large jug from a high-speed blender. This ensures that the batter blends well.
Serving the pancakes
My favorite healthy pancake toppings for this quinoa pancake recipe are:
A drizzle of maple syrup Homemade banana syrup Banana slices Fresh berries like strawberries or blueberries with Vegan Whipped Cream Date caramel Granola butter
Expert Tips To Bake Quinoa Pancakes
Pick the correct blender size. This batter is small and blends easily in a narrow, high-speed smoothie blender rather than a large jug like Vitamix. When using a Vitamix, double up the recipe to make a large batch that blends easily. Soak quinoa for at least 1 hour for easier blending and easier digestion. Note that I made the recipe many times after soaking the quinoa for only 15 minutes. If you are using a high-speed blender, it will handle the batter very well. Don’t use quinoa flour. Quinoa flour is a gluten-free flour that is not made by grinding raw quinoa. Using quinoa flour won’t work in this recipe. Add berries or chocolate chips to the batter. Pour the batter into a mixing bowl and stir in 1/4 cup of blueberries or dark chocolate chips to flavor the pancakes.
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