Flourless Vegan Banana Pancakes
These 15 minute, 5 ingredient banana pancakes are naturally sweet and fluffy, offering a refreshing alternative to their heavier flour-based counterparts. The cinnamon and vanilla extract add layers of flavor to already delicious banana, while the oats hold the assembly together.
As a kid, I loved pancakes.
Close to the end of a 2 hour trek to my grandparents’ house stood a breakfast restaurant, The Broken Yolk. Stopping there, while a regular occurrence, always felt like a treat. I don’t think I ever ordered an egg breakfast — I was obsessed with the giant blueberry pancake that consistently spilled over the dinner sized plate.
On a couple of proud occasions, I ate the entire pancake — I’m sure over 1,000 calories. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine why aligning my consumption levels with the excessive American portion sizes could be a celebration — but I knew a lot less about our food system back then.
Reliable effects of those giant pancakes included exhaustion and an unpleasant syrupy coating in the back of my throat that persisted for the rest of the day. From a young age, I was cultivating the binge eating habits I still manage to this day.
As I gradually became aware of my body’s disdain for certain foods, I began building a list of what I would “give up” — as if stopping the onslaught of sugar and high calorie, nutritionally empty foods was some kind of sacrifice. Pancakes made that list as I began to associate the palate pleasure I derived with the dread that would soon set in.
In recent times, though, I learned that my relationship with food doesn’t have to be this way. I can enjoy pancakes without having the life sucked out of me.
The first pancake recipe I created for this blog, Blueberry Chocolate Chip pancakes, was a delicious start to this new reality. Of course, it can’t be compared to eating whole fruits and vegetables. But Bob Red Mill’s gluten free flour is nutritionally superior to white, and the natural sweetness of the maple syrup in the batter diminishes the need to douse with syrup at the table (goodbye throat coating!).
Naturally, I had to follow up with another gluten free pancake recipe, and I was inspired to cut out flour completely this time. While 2 bananas is a bit much for an individual to consume in one sitting, I did not experience the sugar crash with this recipe that became so familiar to me growing up.
My recipe uses less oats than most other similar recipes you will find online, so feel free to add more oats should you prefer sturdier pancakes. Personally, I loved the delicate nature of these pancakes and the balance of banana to the other flavors.
Please leave me a rating and review if you make these pancakes — I would love to hear about your experience and adjustments!
Flourless Vegan Banana Pancakes
Equipment
- Medium mixing bowl
- Non stick pan or griddle
- Spatula
Ingredients
- 2 ripe bananas spotted is ideal
- ¼ cup almond milk
- ¼ cup gluten free rolled oats*
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Mash the bananas with a fork in a medium sized mixing bowl. Adding almond milk at this stage may make the mashing easier.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix until well combined and most banana chunks are completely broken down.
- Heat a griddle or non stick pan on medium. Once hot, add batter in 2 Tbsp increments. Cook on first side until bubbles in the batter stay popped open instead of disappearing.
- Carefully flip pancakes and cook on the other side until browned, 2 minutes or so. Transfer to plate, top with your favorite ingredients (I used maple syrup and semi-sweet chocolate chips), and enjoy!