Friday, April 22, 2011

Vegan Oatmeal Pancakes with Banana Syrup

HAPPY EARTH DAY! I'm really into Earth Day this year. I think it's because I've made strides over the past year to be more eco-friendly. I take my reusable bags everywhere. When I do get plastic or paper bags, I reuse them for litter boxes or housing potatoes. I wash 75% of laundry in cold water and have even cut down my time in the shower (partially to get more sleep but it still counts!). I am currently switching my cleaning products to natural ones. I am more mindful of leaving unnecessary lights on. It's all these little things that really can make a difference...you don't have to buy a solar powered house to help! :)


Vegan Oatmeal Pancakes
makes 8 pancakes
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup almond or soy milk (approx)
  • 1 Tb. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tb. flax seeds
  • 1 Tb. brown sugar
  • 2 Tb. Earth Balance, melted

If you don't have Earth Balance, you can use canola oil...although the EB is less calories and I love the buttery taste it gives the pancakes.

Add 1 Tb. vinegar to a large measuring cup. Fill with almond milk until it reaches 1 cup. Stir well. Soak oats in 3/4 cup of milk, reserving the rest. Let sit for 5 minutes.


Grind 1 Tb. flax seed in a coffee or spice grinder. In a small bowl, combine ground flax seed with 2 Tb. cold water. Let sit until 2-3 minutes. Add melted Earth Balance and brown sugar and combine.


Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add oats, the reserved milk, and the flax mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.


The batter should be lumpy but well combined.


Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-heat and spray with cooking spray. Pour 1/3 cup of batter onto skillet and let cook for 2-3 minutes or until edges set up.


Flip pancake and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until fully cooked. Serve hot with banana syrup.

Nutritional information (per pancake): 123 calories, 4g fat (0.5g sat), 16g carbs (1.6g fiber), 3g protein

Banana Syrup
makes 1/2 cup syrup
  • 1 ripe banana
  • 3/4 cup unsifted powdered sugar
  • 1 Tb. lemon juice


Blend ingredients together until well combined. You may have to adjust the sugar to your sweetness, but keep in mind that more sugar increases the calories and carbs.

Nutritional information (for 2 Tb. syrup): 115 calories, 0.1g fat (0g sat), 30g carbs (1g fiber), 0.4g protein

I adore these pancakes. I really think you should try them this weekend. :) And the banana syrup is one of my childhood favorites. The original recipe calls for more than double the sugar though! It's crazy how much my taste buds have changed to where that would have been wayyyy too sweet for me.

shared them earlier on the blog but I really wanted to try them vegan. There's something so fascinating about vegan baking to me. I guess because it hasn't been normal to me during my life. Plus, I wanted pancakes, I was out of eggs, and was currently trying to find less gross ways to use up the almond milk. I've been trying out different soy milks and almond milk lately. The almond milk added a nice flavor to the pancakes but I hated it in cereal and in smoothies. And if you're wondering, I've fallen. in. love. with unsweetened soy milk! I love how becoming a vegetarian has made me so open to trying new foods. Because you have to get creative or vegetarianism could be really boring, I'm always looking for new things to try.

Are you open to trying new things when cooking or baking?

5 comments:

The Lucky Wife said...

Sounds so yummy! Visiting from SITS!

Krista said...

I once was going to make vegan chocolate chip cookies, just to make them. I had the recipe and I headed to the grocery store, but then I just couldn't find half the stuff I needed so I said forget it. I would definately be open to cooking vegan/vegetarian things, but it seems like such a hassel if you don't regularly keep those ingredients stocked in your kitchen!


Also, question for you. I've only ever tried vanilla almond milk, and I also hated it in my cereal. Do you use plain almond milk? It just seems like it wouldn't taste very good..but so many bloggers use it to make shakes, oatmeal, and all kinds of stuff and I'm debating whether or not I want to buy it...

Anonymous said...

I agree, actually! I've been wanting to make more vegan things but I don't always have what's needed and I'm not one to buy things just for one purpose. I had everything I needed to "veganize" these pancakes already in my kitchen from other things so that was really the only reason it got made!

I tried plain almond milk and absolutely hated it. It was fine in these pancakes but in cereal or smoothies, it was terrible. Not to mention it only has 1g of protein per cup! Ridiculous. Now I use organic unsweetened soymilk and that stuff rocks! I use it in my morning smoothies and it tastes great by itself or with cereal. It's 80 calories a cup and 7g of protein. Much better! :)

Unknown said...

Love to read..Thanks
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Jennifer Aron said...

I changed the recipe a little with the ingredients we had available while camping: used regular flour instead of whole-wheat, quick oats, ground chia seed instead of flax, and lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar. I didn't use measuring cups, but it seemed I had to add more liquid (almond milk) than perhaps specified, this might have been because of the chia. Added more brown sugar because I like sweet. Anyways, they turned out very good. They were "hearty" pancakes, as opposed to light/fluffy, more like a muffin or biscuit texture, but that's to be expected with the whole grains. As I type this, I realize I actually forgot to put Earth Balance or oil in the batter, no wonder they stuck to the metal shapes we used! We made heart and penguin shapes, and I had to grease them so we could get the pancake out, but maybe if I had remembered to add the oil we would not have had to. Instead of the banana syrup, we made a topping of caramelized pecans and bananas in brown sugar, maple syrup and Earth Balance. Well received!

 
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