These buckwheat banana pancakes are so sweet and fluffy they taste like dessert. Naturally gluten-free buckwheat groats, bananas, and macadamia nuts blend together to make delicious, guilt-free vegan pancakes.
Who knew you could make pancakes so irresistible without flour, eggs, milk, sugar, or oil? Instead, these cute silver dollar-sized buckwheat pancakes get their sweetness and tender texture from the right combination of whole foods.
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⭐ Why it works
- Mini pancakes - small pancakes cook quickly and are easy to flip.
- Whole food - delicious, healthy, vegan pancake recipe.
- Buckwheat groats - grind your own small batch of buckwheat flour or buy pre-gound.
- Light and fluffy - you'll be amazed at these eggless, dairy-free pancakes.
- Gluten-free - one-ingredient buckwheat flour is naturally gluten-free.
- No sugar - banana and vanilla make the pancakes sweet all on their own.
- Freezer-friendly - Buckwheat banana pancakes freeze and re-heat beautifully.
🏆 Top tip
Measure guide: ½ cup of buckwheat groats make ⅔ cup of buckwheat flour.
📋 Ingredients
- Buckwheat groats - The secret to these baby buckwheat flour pancakes. Grind your own small batch of flour from whole groats, or buy light-colored buckwheat flour.
- Raw macadamia nuts - Whole food macadamias add protein and make dairy-free pancakes.
- Baking powder - Reacts beautifully with natural enzymes in banana and buckwheat to give these vegan pancakes an exceptional rise.
- Vanilla - Pure vanilla extract gives the pancakes that warm, cozy, from-scratch flavor.
- Banana - Extra-ripe banana makes pancakes sweet without added sugar.
🥣 Steps
- Grind buckwheat groats to flour.
- Blend macadamia nuts and bananas.
- Mix pancake batter.
- Fry pancakes.
🥞 Are buckwheat pancakes healthy?
Go ahead and enjoy these scrumptious, golden, buckwheat banana pancakes without guilt. They're wholesome and nutritious. That's because buckwheat flour is a healthy alternative to other flour. It's high in protein, minerals, and fiber.
Buckwheat also provides antioxidants and helps lower cholesterol and blood sugar. In fact, it is considered by many to be a superfood.
It's interesting to note that buckwheat groats are not a grain. They are actually the seeds of flowering buckwheat and are naturally gluten-free.
🌾 Buckwheat groats
Freshly milled raw, hulled buckwheat groats make a light-colored flour that bakes into tender pancakes. They aren't gummy or heavy like banana pancakes made with oat flour.
Buying whole, raw groats gives you an added bonus. You'll have them on hand to make into other recipes, including kasha, the name given to groats when they are toasted.
Sweet porridge is a classic preparation for toasted buckwheat. You might like to try my recipe for Toasted Apple Spice Kasha Cereal.
👩🏻🍳 Make buckwheat flour
It doesn't take any time at all to make a cup of fresh pancake flour. Just grind raw groats in a spice mill or coffee grinder. Clean-up is easy with a spice mill, and it makes soft, extra-fine flour in about 30 seconds.
If you don't have a spice mill or want to grind a larger quantity, you can use a high-speed blender with good results.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
- Plain - Honestly, this is my favorite way to eat buckwheat banana pancakes. Perhaps it's just me being impatient, but they just taste so good the way they are. I can also picture these baby pancakes, sans the sticky syrup, in the fists of toddlers. What a wholesome grab-and-go food!
- Yogurt and jam - You can have a vegan pancake breakfast that is utterly indulgent and still entirely sugar-free. Smother your banana pancakes with unsweetened vegan yogurt and 100% fruit preserves.
- Traditional - With vegan butter and pure maple syrup.
- Hawaiian Style - Go all out with sliced banana, chopped macadamia nuts, and coconut syrup over the top.
👩🏻🍳 Expert tips
- Purchase light buckwheat flour if you don't grind your own fresh.
- Dry your spice mill or blender well before using it to grind buckwheat groats.
- Sift flour with baking powder and toss out any hard grains left from grinding flour. I usually end up with about one-half to one teaspoon of grit.
- Stir batter lightly and quickly with a whisk until smooth.
- Rest batter for 5 minutes, but not longer before frying banana pancakes.
- Preheat a well-seasoned cast iron or non-stick skillet.
- Spoon pancake batter into a tablespoon measure with a soup spoon. Make it slightly heaping. Then, use the soup spoon to scrape the pancake batter into the skillet. Spread it with the back of the soup spoon to 3-3 ½ inches.
- Rub the skillet with ⅛ teaspoon of plain oil before frying each batch if the pancakes stick.
- Cooked pancakes can be kept on a plate covered with a domed lid while you finish cooking them all. You can also keep the plate of buckwheat banana pancakes warm in an oven set to 170 degrees.
💭 FAQ
Yes, the batter is entirely oil-free. Use a non-stick skillet or griddle for cooking. If you don't mind a touch of oil, rub a heated cast-iron skillet with a couple of drops of oil before pouring the batter.
No problem. You can use Anthony's organic gluten-free buckwheat flour interchangeably with homemade flour you grind yourself from whole groats.
🥧 More gluten-free vegan
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📖 Recipe
Buckwheat Banana Pancakes Vegan
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw buckwheat groats
- ½ cup raw macadamia nuts
- 1 cup ripe banana packed
- 1 ½ cups water
- ¼ tsp. sea salt
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 2 tsp. baking powder
Instructions
Grind buckwheat groats
- Place 1 cup raw buckwheat groats in a spice mill, coffee grinder, or high-speed blender and process to fine flour.
- Measure out 1 ⅓ cups of flour.
Blend macadamia nuts to make milk
- Place ½ cup raw macadamia nuts in a high-powered blender with 1 ½ cups water. Blend for two minutes to make creamy nut milk.
Add banana and flavorings
- Add 1 cup ripe banana, ¼ tsp. sea salt, and 2 tsp. vanilla to the blender. Process the mixture at high speed for a minute until it is very smooth.
Sift flour and baking powder
- Sift buckwheat flour with 2 tsp. baking powder into a medium-sized bowl. Toss out any hard grains left in the sifter. I usually have about ½ a teaspoon left from grinding buckwheat in a spice grinder or about a teaspoon when using a blender to grind flour.
Mix batter
- Pour the banana mixture into the bowl with flour. Whisk until smooth and scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spoon. Let batter sit for 5 minutes while heating the skillet. Don't let the pancake batter sit longer than 5 minutes before frying pancakes.
Fry pancakes
- Heat a cast-iron or non-stick skillet at medium-low setting and rub with a tiny bit of oil if desired.
Small dollar-sized pancakes
- Use a soup spoon to fill a tablespoon size measuring spoon to slightly heaping. Use your soup spoon to scoop the batter out of the tablespoon into the pre-heated skillet. Spread pancakes 3 inches to 3 ½ inches across with the back of your soup spoon.
Larger 6-inch pancakes
- Use a soup spoon to fill a ¼ cup measure full to the top. Use your soup spoon to scoop the batter out of the cup into the pre-heated skillet. Spread pancakes to 6 inches with the back of your soup spoon.
- Cook pancakes until bubbles pop and half the top surface is dry. Flip and cook briefly until the second side is done and flecked with golden spots.
- Adjust the temperature of your skillet or griddle if necessary. Baby pancakes should be golden brown and cooked in the middle.
Serve
- Your choice: Plain - Good for impatient ones and toddlers on the go.Traditional - With vegan butter and pure maple syrup.Plain vegan yogurt and whole fruit preserves - Indulgent pancakes without any sugar!Hawaiian Style - Go all out with sliced banana, chopped macadamia nuts, and coconut syrup.
Store
- Store cooked pancakes in a covered container in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for 3 months.
Reheat
- Reheat frozen buckwheat banana pancakes by toasting them briefly in a toaster oven or warming them in a microwave. You don't need to thaw them beforehand.
Jackie Harris says
Instead of making the macadamia nut milk, could I use l 1/2 cups almond milk? Thank you!
Poppy Hudson says
Yes, absolutely. I recommend plain, unflavored, and homemade, which is always the best. That being said, go for it with any plant-based milk you enjoy!
Hikari says
Thank you for the recipe!! Instead of sugar, we added jaggery and it turned out just yummy!
Gabrielle says
I tried these, and THEY TASTE SOOO FRICKEN AMAZING OMG, very nutrient dense and filling. I'm very happy with these I will continue to make them!
(I also add dates in the blender to naturally sweeten them without the maple syrup, DELICIOUS!)
Poppy Hudson says
That's a great way to sweeten the pancakes without maple syrup! Glad you are enjoying the recipe. I'm a new blogger and would love to receive your five-star rating if you haven't already voted on the recipe. Wink, wink. Aloha, Poppy