These 4-ingredient chickpea flour pancakes are easy, fluffy, and high in protein pancakes made with only four ingredients. Bonus, these pancakes are made with no milk, oil-free, grain-free, and gluten-free!
Why Making Chickpea Flour Pancakes?
Chickpea flour pancakes are egg-free fluffy vegan pancakes made of chickpea flour, also known as besan flour.
Bonus, this is a 4-ingredient protein pancake recipe with 3 grams of plant-based protein per pancake. It’s such a healthy alternative to my classic Vegan Pancakes, Vegan Banana Pancakes, or Vegan Almond Flour Pancakes.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make this recipe for chickpea flour pancakes are 4 ingredients. Let’s see what you need.
- Chickpea Flour, also is known as garbanzo bean flour – I love to use Bob’s Red Mill’s flour for this recipe. Before you start using your flour, make sure it has no lumps; if so, break them with a fork before measuring the flour for full precision. Chickpea flour can be reused in many other recipes like my Chickpea Flour Tortillas, Chickpea Flour Banana Bread, or Chickpea Peanut Butter Cookies.
- Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk – it’s great to use vanilla almond milk to add a delicious vanilla flavor to your pancakes. Chickpea flour can be slightly bitter, and vanilla is a great way to cover the flour’s bitterness. You can also use other dairy-free milk, but I believe almond milk is the best milk substitute for pancakes. It makes fluffy vegan pancakes!
- Baking Soda or baking powder if you don’t like the flavor of baking soda.
- Unrefined Sugar – there are many options. I love coconut sugar or sugar-free erythritol. You must add a sweetener to your batter to balance the natural bitterness of chickpea flour.
How To Make Chickpea Flour Pancakes
- In a large bowl, whisk the chickpea flour, sugar, and baking powder – using a whisk is a great way to remove any lumps that easily form in chickpea flour.
- Then, stir in almond milk or water until the batter is smooth and slightly thick.
- First, make sure you use a non-stick pancake griddle or frying pan, or crepe pan to prevent the pancakes from sticking to the pan.
- Next, warm the pan over medium heat and add cooking spray or use a piece of absorbent paper to rub oil over the pan. Don’t add too much oil, or it will fry the pancakes.
- Then, scoop 1/4 cup pancake batter with a measuring cup and drop it onto the hot griddle. Cook the pancakes for 2 to 3 minutes on one side or until golden brown and bubbles form on top of the pancakes.
- Then, slide a flat tool under the pancake and flip. Cook on the other side for 1 more minute.
- You can serve these pancakes immediately or cool them on a cooling rack while you cook the remaining batter.
Pancake Toppings Ideas
These are the most fluffy vegan, gluten-free pancakes you’ll find, with a delicious sweet flavor.
They are delicious warm with a few of the following vegan pancakes toppings for your pancakes are:
- Liquid sweeteners like maple syrup, brown rice, agave syrup, apple syrup, or coconut syrup.
- Fruits – chopped bananas, blueberries, strawberries, fresh apricot, and apple slices.
- Nut butter – drizzle peanut butter or almond butter on top.
- Sliced almonds
- Vegan Whipped Cream
- Shredded coconut
- Vegan chocolate chips
- Date Caramel (Only 2 Ingredients!)
- Peanut Butter Caramel
Flavoring Chickpea Pancakes
Some people don’t appreciate the light earthy flavor of chickpea flour.
Below are some add-ons you can add to your pancake batter to increase their sweet delicious flavor.
- Vanilla extract – add 1 teaspoon.
- Ground cinnamon – add 1/2 teaspoon.
- Blueberries – fresh or frozen add 1/2 cup.
- Vegan chocolate chips – add 1/3 cup.
Frequently Asked Questions
This is a vegan recipe meaning the pancakes are egg-free and dairy-free. Therefore, these pancakes store very well in the fridge, in a sealed container for up to 4 days.
Yes, you can freeze pancakes in a zip-lock bag or sealed container and thaw the day before at room temperature.
Frozen pancakes rewarm very well in a bread toaster or warm pan.
Before you start this recipe, make sure you choose the right flour.
It can be confusing to pick chickpea flour at the store because many names can be used for bean flour. Chickpea flour is high protein gluten-free flour with a light yellow color.
Below are some recommendations to help you pick the right chickpea flour at the store to make these pancakes.
Chickpea flour or garbanzo flour
The flour you need in this recipe is chickpea flour, also known as garbanzo bean flour.
Both refer to flour made from ground chickpeas.
It’s a light and yellowish flour that can easily form lumps. That’s why it’s important to store chickpea flour in a sealed container at room temperature.
Besan flour or gram flour
Besan flour or gram flour are made from Chana dal or split brown chickpeas. This is not the same as chickpea flour, and it needs way more liquid to work with these flours.
Don’t use besan or gram flour for chickpea flour pancakes, or it will mess up your recipe.
Chickpea flour pancakes are soft, fluffy pancakes with a light sweet flavor. Depending on the chickpea flour brand you used, you may feel a slightly bitter aftertaste.
In fact, some chickpea flour can be stronger in flavor than together, and some people refer to a bitter aftertaste.
I absolutely love Bob’s Red Mill for this recipe and never notice this flavor in my pancake recipe.
If you do, you can hide the chickpea flour’s bitter flavor by adding ground cinnamon or vanilla extract into the pancake batter.
This recipe is created to use chickpea flour only. It won’t work with all-purpose wheat flour or almond flour, or any other flour.
Chickpea flour has particular properties, a high amount of protein that impacts how it absorbs liquid in recipes.
Now, I have other pancake recipes you might like if you don’t have chickpea flour.
An oat flour pancake recipe, an all-purpose flour pancake recipe, a buckwheat flour pancake recipe, and an all-purpose flour crepe recipe! There’s something for everyone!
This recipe makes 8 chickpea pancakes. A regular serving for breakfast is 4 pancakes topped with a little syrup and fruits.
This is a healthy pancake recipe, high in protein, fiber, and slow carbs to keep your energy level high and steady through the morning.
Below is the nutrition panel for 4 pancakes. Note that the sugar can be replaced by diabetic-friendly sugar-free sweeteners for sugar-free pancakes.
I recommend erythritol as a swap to sugar to bring down the total sugar to zero in this recipe.
– Calories: 260 kcal
– Carbohydrates: 44.8 g
– Protein: 10.8 g
– Fibers: 5.2 g
– Fat: 3.2 g
– Sugar: 22.8 g or 0 grams if you use erythritol
More Vegan Pancake Recipes
If you love vegan recipes for pancakes, I have plenty more for you to try!
More Chickpea Recipes
If you enjoy cooking with chickpeas, you’ll love these chickpea recipes:
Did You Like This Recipe?
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Chickpea Flour Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup Chickpea Flour - known as garbanzo bean flour (NOT besan or gram flour)
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder - or 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 tablespoons Sugar - coconut sugar or sugar-free erythritol/Monk fruit
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons Almond Milk - vanilla, unsweetened or plant milk of your choice
Optional
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, whisk the chickpea flour, baking powder, sugar until well combined, and no lumps show.
- Whisk in unsweetened almond milk until smooth. Note that chickpea flour makes lumps easily. To avoid that, whisk vigorously until no more is left. It's OK to have a few lumps, but the less, the better it tastes! You can also blend the batter in a blender for an ultra-smooth texture.
- Warm a non-stick crepe pan or non-stick pancake griddle under medium heat. Slightly grease the pan with vegetable oil, about 1/2 teaspoon. I suggest rubbing a piece of oiled absorbent paper on the pan to avoid too much oil. Adding too much oil will fry your pancakes, and it is not what you want.
- Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of batter per pancake, depending on the size you like.
- Cook 2-3 minutes on one side or until the sides are half set, bubbles form in the center, and it is easy to flip without breaking.
- Slide a spatula under the pancake and flip over. Cook 1 more minute on the other side or until the center is set and the pancake is fluffy.
- Cool on a rack and repeat until no more batter left. You should be able to make 8 medium size pancakes from this batter.
- Serve immediately with maple syrup, banana slices, and fresh blueberries.
Notes
- You can add 1/3 cup vegan dark chocolate chips or fresh blueberries to the batter before cooking.
- You can freeze the cooked pancakes in a zip bag or airtight container. Make sure they don’t overlap. It makes it easier to defrost one-by-one. Defrost 3-4 hours or overnight at room temperature. Rewarm in a pancake griddle or toast for a few minutes in a toaster.
- You can make the batter ahead and cook your pancakes the day in the morning
Like some of the others have noted, the batter comes out thick, almost cake-like, with these measurements. The pancakes had a strange taste to them, very chickpea-y, which I couldn’t get past. I’m not sure if more sugar or another type of plant milk (I used oat) will mask this taste, but won’t be experimenting again.
I am sorry you didn’t enjoy this reicpe, chickpea flour has a natural chickpea flour that almond milk or vanilla extract and pancake toppings cover very well.
OMG these came out AMAZING! I’ve been experimenting cooking and baking with different flours. Tried coconut flour didn’t work lol. Recently I cam across chickpea flour to make Burmese tofu and this morning I thought what about some Pancakes.. And here we are! These are great. I used Macadamia Milk instead of Almond. I want to try it with Pumpkin Puree. I LOVE anything Pumpkin. If you have any suggestions for adding the puree plz do share. Thanks!!
Thank you so much for the lovely feedback!
Being non gluten free, I usually don’t try these recipes out, but when I only had chickpea flour in the house and wanted pancakes, this was the only option. And WOW these were so good!! I used 1% milk and added a lot more to loosen the batter up. I recommend adding the vanilla extract and maybe adding some chocolate chips for the kids and raspberries ontop!
So glad i stumbled into this situation because they’re so good!!
Is there a specific chickpea flour brand that you use ? I did cook mine on a cast iron skillet with the recommended oil (during 1st round of pancakes I used grape seed oil and the 2nd round I used coconut oil) addition for cooking the pancake for the recommended time – and they still burned a bit on the outside.
I used the Gandhi Foods brand and I am seeing the only ingredient is gram whole. On the front it says “super fine besan- chickpeas flour)- is there a difference or is this all under same umbrella of chickpeas?
I wrote a paragraph about chickpea flour differences up in this post, go to the ‘what’s chickpea flour’ section to learn more. and I mentioned that besan/gram flour shouldn’t be used in this recipe. Chickpea flour made of garbanzo bean is the one I am using. But if the pancakes burn it’s probably more an issue of smoke point, try to use avocado oil, it has a higher smoke point than other oil and don’t burn food. Also, rub the pan/griddle with oil, don’t fry the pancakes in lots of oil. Enjoy!
Gram or besan flour is exactly that: chickpea flour.
Yes, that’s what I explain above in the post,
see quoted text below for details
Chickpea flour or garbanzo flour
The flour you need in this recipe is chickpea flour, also known as garbanzo bean flour. Both refer to flour made from ground chickpeas. It’s a light and yellowish flour that can easily form lumps. That’s why it’s important to store chickpea flour in a sealed container at room temperature.
Besan flour or gram flour
Besan flour or gram flour are made from Chana dal or split brown chickpeas. This is NOT the same as chickpea flour, and it needs way more liquid to work with these flours. Don’t use besan or gram flour for chickpea flour pancakes, or it will mess up your recipe.
I just made this recipe and the pancakes are FANTASTIC! This is my first time using garbanzo flour. It was on sale on the Vitacost website so I bought four boxes, lol! The only thing I did different was add about 1 tablespoon of melted coconut oil. I have tried so many grain free, vegan breakfast recipes (due to milk and egg allergies) and have been so disappointed every time, until now. This will be my go to when I’m in the mood for pancakes. Thank you so much for posting it.
I just made a half-batch for myself and I loved them! I used superfine gram/besan flour and date syrup instead of the sugar and it came out great. Curious why you advise against gram flour? If you use date syrup, just be careful because they brown very quickly (and the batter is brown, not yellow). Taste, texture and protein content are excellent! Thank you!
I just tried to make these and I’m not sure what I did wrong, but the batter was extremely thick and the pancakes were just awful. I used chickpea flour, not besan or gram flour. I added in the baking powder, stevia (I didn’t have monkfruit but I don’t know why this would make a huge difference), cinnamon, coconut milk and vanilla. I folded in some blueberries after I mixed the batter. The batter was incredibly thick so I added a couple more tablespoons of the coconut milk. I cooked them on my griddle in coconut oil and when I tried one, it was thick, heavy and oh so bitter. I couldn’t get it out of my mouth fast enough. My husband has had to go gluten free due to an autoimmune condition and I was hopeful to find a good gluten free recipe that didn’t include oats or bananas, but this wasn’t it unfortunately.
Coconut milk is also thicker/creamier than almond or dairy so I think that made the batter a little thicker too..
Your flour may have been old.
Ii made these pancakes for myself and my husband. They came out so delicious. Love the recipe. Thank you so much. Will make them again.
Thank you so much !
If the batter is too thick, it comes from the flour probably higher in fiber and all you have to do is either change flour brand (Bob red mill is great, no affialiation), or thin out the batter with water until thin enough to cook.
These are the best pancakes! I have made and tried A LOT of gluten free and egg free pancakes and these are by far the best. They don’t have that mushy consistency. They puff up and look and taste like actual pancakes. Good job on this recipe!
Thank you so much!
Hello! Should I pat down the chickpea flour into the measuring cup?
I’ve always noted you can ‘push it down’ to make room for even more flour
I don’t know if that’s called for though! As it will impact how fluffy or dry they are
In any baking recipes, when nothing is mentioned we always assume that you scoop and sweep don’t over pack flour in cups or the recipe would say, packed. Enjoy!
Thanks, tried them today after your reply and they were.. AMAZING!
Such a different feel from oat flour pancakes. I’ll add these for my snack on gym days. Thanks!
First time making these pancakes. They were good but too dry. I doubled the recipe and used both baking soda and baking powder. I had to add more milk for consistency. Did I cook them too long or is this common? Woukd adding coconut butter or oil help?
Depending on the variety of chickpea flour you used, they can be drier. While besan flour and garbanzo flour are not exactly the same thing, both having different amount of fiber and water absorption in recipes