Vegan Oat and Banana Pancakes

Everyone loves pancakes, am I right? But as much as we love them, they can be quite on the heavy side and are not diet-friendly. Plus, if you’re like me, you don’t want to be whipping out bowls and whisks on a Sunday morning (or any other morning for that matter). These pancakes, on the other hand, will tick all the boxes. They’re naturally sweet, nutritious and fill you up without making you feel heavy (or guilty).

And the best part is that you can make them in a blender. This means:

• less work
• less clean-up

What’s not to love about that?

Let’s get cooking, shall we?

To make these pancakes you only need 3 key ingredients: oats, bananas and milk.

OATS

To substitute flour, I use rolled oats. Not only are they a great source of carbs, proteins and fiber, they also release energy slowly and gradually. This means you feel full for longer and they also keep you focused and concentrated.
You can of course substitute oats with oat flour. If you’re weighing everything in grams it will be the same amount. If you’re using US cups, 2 cups of rolled oats should correspond to roughly 1.5 cups of oat flour.

PLANT MILK

To keep this recipe vegan, use plant milk, otherwise any milk you have hanging around in the fridge will work. I would suggest using unsweetened milk, so you can control the sugar level and adjust it accordingly.

BANANAS

To substitute eggs I use bananas. For this recipe I use one medium banana, as ripe as you can get it. This way you’ll get the sugar from the fruit rather than from any other sweetener you might use.

Additional ingredients: baking powder, vanilla extract, cinnamon, salt.

You just have to throw everything into a blender and…done! That was easy right? The only thing you have to keep in mind is that you must let the batter sit for about 5 minutes. This way the oats absorb some of the moisture and the batter thickens. If you keep it in the fridge it will become thicker over time, you can thin it with some more milk before cooking the pancakes.

When cooking them, I like to keep them slightly custardy in the center. To achieve that consistency, flip the pancakes when the surface is bubbly but still a bit wet.

TOPPINGS: agave or maple syrup, honey, fruit, jam, nut butter. In the picture above I used fresh rasperries and pistachio butter.

Vegan Oat and Banana Pancakes

Yield: about 10 Ø10 cm pancakes

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

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Ingredients

• 2 cups of rolled oats (200 gr)
• 1 cup of plant milk (230 ml)
• 1 medium banana
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1 tbsp of sweetener of choice (optional)
• a pinch of salt

Toppings

• fresh or stewed fruit
• syrup
• nut butter

Instructions

1. Start by powdering the oats into a blender until they resemble flour. Then add all the other ingredients and blend until smooth. You can add a sweetener of your choice if you'd like. I often keep it unsweetened if I'm using ripe bananas or I'm topping the pancakes with syrup.
2. Let the batter sit for 5-10 minutes. The oats will absorb the moisture and the batter will become thicker.
3. Cook the pancakes in a non-stick pan or in a regular pan sprayed with some non-stick spray. Flip them when the surface is bubbly but still a bit wet. Be sure to not overcook them.
4. Top the pancakes with anything you like. I like to use fruit, jam, syrup or nut butter. In the picture above I used rasperries and pistachio butter.

Notes

• If you want, you can cook all the pancakes and then freeze them.
• If you keep the batter in the fridge, it will become thicker over time. You can thin it with some more plant milk before cooking.