This month’s Recipe Redux challenge is ‘break out of breakfast boredom’ – yay for trying new things at breakfast…chickpea flour pancakes!! Don’t these look yummy?
The first meal of the day is a challenge for most people because they want to sleep in AND eat, and you just can’t do both (unless you’re a sleep-eater, yes that exists). This fact means that sleeping in wins most of the time, and breakfast is an afterthought either while running out the door or as a sad desk meal at the office.
I’ve wanted to make chickpea flour pancakes forever and ever, and I grabbed this Redux opportunity to create some gorgeous vegan, dairy, gluten-free pancakes with chickpea flour. These pancakes can be made in advance and frozen, so breakfast, even when an afterthought, can be heated up in the microwave and ready in seconds. How’s that for easy?
If you’ve never used (or heard of) chickpea flour before, it’s essentially just ground up dried chickpeas! It has an earthy flavor that suits pancakes – both savory and sweet – really well. I know you probably associate chickpeas with Indian food or some sort of savory use, but 2016 is the year of the pulse, so it’s time to expand your pulse horizons!
Chickpea flour has twice the protein of regular flour, giving these pancakes an extra protein boost without the use of protein powder or dairy. Each pancake in this recipe has 4 grams of protein – supercharged compared to 1.5 grams in typical ‘mix’ pancakes. Yowza! It’s also super-high in fiber – one cup of chickpea flour has 10 grams of fiber vs 3 grams in normal all-purpose flour.
I got this recipe from a friend, who makes it non-vegan with normal flour, milk, and eggs. It’s amazing that way too! My way though, the chickpea flour adds protein and fiber, and it rises almost as high as regular flour when you add this much baking powder! I used a flaxseed egg replacer that’s really simple and it works perfectly in this recipe.
You can mix whatever fruits you want into these pancakes, or add some chocolate chips, coconut, or your usual mix-ins. I made them plain today so I could be sure that the base was delicious, and it was. Just like with my raspberry protein pancakes a few weeks back, my mom and the rest of my family crushed the entire batch of these within a few minutes. I got 2 🙁
I found chickpea flour in the Indian food section of my local grocery store.
Makes 8 4-inch pancakes
1.5 cups chickpea flour
1.5 cups milk alternative (I used coconut SILK)
1T ground flax meal + 2.5T water (that’s your egg replacer)
¼ cup melted coconut oil + more for frying
2T honey, maple syrup, or sugar
1T vanilla extract
3t baking powder
1/4t salt
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and stir to blend.
In a cup or ramekin, combine the flax meal and water and whisk gently with a fork until just mixed.
In a smaller bowl, combine the egg replacer and the rest of the wet ingredients, and beat a few times until blended.
Stir the wet ingredients into large bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until the batter is mostly smooth.
Melt 1-2t coconut oil in a large frying pan. Fry the pancakes, turning once, until golden on each side.
Serve with maple, date, or sorghum syrup and fruit.