These ‘No fuss’ Plantain Pancakes can be whipped up in minutes and taste lovely. All they need is a blender pot (like literally a smoothie blender pot) and a handful of ingredients to have a healthy, hearty and nutritious breakfast recipe ready in minutes.
We love organic fresh produce and on our recent grocery haul we picked up some vibrant and greenish – yellow looking plantains. If you are not familiar with plantains, they look just like bananas but have a higher nutritional profile. In fact they almost seem like over grown bananas and are a mostly a combination of green and yellow. They are also less sweet and more starchy as compared and as they ripen they change color from green to yellow and then black.
Unlike the bananas you cannot eat these baddies raw. They are hard and will need to be cooked. The yellow ones have a high starch content very similar to that of a potato when cooked.
To make our Gluten Free Plantain Pancakes today we will need a plantain that is ‘fairly ripe’ i.e. which falls somewhere between – yellow and black. The plantains add the desired thickness and binding capacity to the pancake. While we use eggs in the recipe one of the users on our youtube channel tried making these without eggs and they turned out just fine as just like bananas, plantains act as a binding agent.
The pancakes use a blend of almond and tapioca flour. While we have used unrefined coconut sugar in the recipe you can choose to leave it out completely as the natural sweetness of the plantains would cover up for it. These pancakes also don’t need any baking soda as it uses natural emulsifiers like egg and the plantain to give it the desired texture.
These pancakes are enjoyed by kids and adults equally and like most of our recipes they are extremely customizable. For example we made a version without the maple syrup and garnished it with some grass-fed butter instead and OMG guys it turned out soo good! So really the key here is to your your imagination.
We also tried making the following versions before bringing the recipe for you :
AIP
For the AIP version we replaced Almond Flour with Coconut flour and used a gelatin egg instead. However we feel that you can leave the egg out completely. The consistency of the pancakes will be a bit dense but they will turn out delicious. Here are some Gelatin brands that we prefer:
Vegan
For the vegan version we simply used flax eggs instead of the regular ones.
Are Plantains Low Carb?
Well, the answer is a NO! But we would approach this question differently. Despite being higher in carbs it is immensely beneficial to your body. It is a strong source of potassium and Vitamin A, C and B6, is nutrition packed, high in antioxidants and is easily available everywhere – so a win to the win to the win. So we would consider making plantains a regular affair.
Now, with all that out of the bag – let’s dive into the recipe then:
Plantain Pancakes – Paleo | AIP | Vegan
Plantain Pancakes - Gluten Free, Paleo
Equipment
- Blender
- Skillet
- Spatula
Ingredients
- 1 Plantain Fairly Ripe - Somewhere between yellow and black
- ¼ cup Almond Flour - 1/4th cup Use coconut flour for AIP
- 2 tbsps Tapioca Starch
- ¼ tsp Himalayan Pink Salt
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Coconut Oil
- 3 tbsps Maple Syrup or Coconut Sugar
- 1 tsp Ghee or Coconut Oil or Avocado Oil
- 1 Egg Use Gelatin Egg for the AIP version and Flaxseed Egg for the Vegan version
AIP Egg
- 1 tbsp Gelatin
- 1 tbsp Warm Water
- 2 tbsps Hot Water
Flax Egg
- 1 tbsp Flaxseed meal
- 3 tbsps Water Room temperature
For Garnish
- Seasonal fruits, berries and maple syrup
Instructions
- Peel the plaintain. Lightly slit the skin along the length of the plantain with the help of a knife
- If the plantain is hard lightly slit them first and then place them in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds - the peel should come off easily
- Chop them into small chunks and add them to a blender pot (We used a smoothie blender)
- Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend them together
- For the AIP version use Coconut flour and Gelatin egg & for the Vegan version use a flax egg
- After you have mixed all the ingredients (irrespective of the version that you are making) heat a skillet
- Once the skillet is adequately hot add in your choice of fat (i.e. ghee/ coconut oil/avocado oil) and drop in the batter directly from the blender to the pan in a somewhat circular size - maps of all the cities in the world are acceptable too - but it should mostly come off circular-ish
- Cook from each side for 1 -2 minutes
- The batter will be stable after a minute. Try and slightly lift it from the all sides with the help of your spatula to check for its readiness before you flip
- Then flip the pancake and cook it from the other side
- Plate the pancake out and cook the others in a similar manner
- One plantain should yield 7 pancakes
- Garnish with fruits of choice and drizzle on some maple syrup and grass fed butter if you fancy
- Devour!
AIP Egg
- Mix 1 tablespoon of Gelatin with 1 tablespoon of warm water and mix well. let it set for 30 seconds. Then mix 2 tablespoons of hot water and whisk well. Let the mixture set for 3-5 minutes and you are good to use.
Flax Egg
- Mix 1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoon of water and mix well. Set this aside for 20 mins. It should thicken up after 20 mins and can be easily used to replace eggs
Video