Quinoa Pancakes

These Quinoa Pancakes are light, fluffy vegan pancakes made from uncooked quinoa. It’s the easiest healthy pancake recipe for a vegan, gluten-free breakfast naturally packed with proteins from quinoa.

Table of contents

+ View More- View Less

You know my passion for healthy pancake recipes, and I have shared so many with you, like my 3-ingredient banana oat pancakes or vegan buckwheat pancakes. But today, I felt like eating quinoa for breakfast, and I hadn’t prepared my quinoa breakfast bake the day before, so I started experimenting with pancakes.

To make this vegan quinoa pancake recipe, I took inspiration from my quinoa tortillas. I started with soaking raw quinoa in cold water to see how I could blend and turn this delicious, healthy grain into a light, fluffy pancake batter.

After experimenting I found the perfect ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients. My goal was to avoid the addition of wheat flour or any other flour to keep the recipe easy, healthy, and gluten-free.

My secret ingredients to make these pancakes super fluffy are the same used in my classic vegan pancakes. I use a combination of baking powder and apple cider vinegar. It’s hard to believe you can make pancakes from quinoa without quinoa flour.

Ingredients and Tips For Success

All you need are a few ingredients, but most of all a high-speed blender to pulse your quinoa into a fine powder that creates the best quinoa pancake batter.

• Uncooked Quinoa – white quinoa or red quinoa, both work the same. Make sure you soak the quinoa in a bowl with cold tap water. Then, drain it over a sieve and discard the soaking water. Give it a quick rinse to remove extra impurities present in the quinoa. Do not use cooked quinoa in this recipe.
• Flaxseed Meal also known as flaxmeal is your binder. You can use brown flax meal or golden flax meal which has a less bitter flavor.
• Plant-Based Milk – I love almond milk, but for a nut-free option, feel free to use soy milk or oat milk.
• Water makes the pancake light and airy.
• Pure Maple Syrup or any liquid sweetener you love like agave syrup. This adds sweetness to the batter, and you can skip it or also swap it for two pitted Medjool dates and blend it with the remaining pancake ingredients.
• Vanilla Extract for a boost of flavor.
• Lemon Juice or apple cider vinegar for a fluffier pancake texture.
• Cinnamon for flavor as well, you can skip it if you are not a fan of its taste.
• Baking Powder for ultra fluffy and light quinoa pancakes. You can use half the amount of baking soda instead but I found the pancakes a bit bitter with baking soda.

Preparation

I recommend picking a narrow blender, like a NutriBullet for this recipe or double it up if you have a large jug from a high-speed blender. This ensures that the batter blends well.

1. First, soak the quinoa in cold water, in a mixing bowl for at least an hour up to overnight.

2. Next, drain over a sieve, quickly rinse under cold tap water. Discard the water.

3. Finally, add the soaked quinoa in the blender jug.

4. Place all the ingredients in the jug.

5. Blend until smooth. It will look a bit grainy and that’s normal. If some quinoa grains stay unblended, strop blender, use a silicone tool to push the grain and batter from the side to the blade, and blend again.
6. Warm a pancake griddle over medium heat. Grease the surface with coconut oil, or plant-based melted butter, or any cooking oil.
7. Scoop out 3 tablespoons of batter per pancake and use the back of a spoon to spread the thick batter into a nice circle shape.
8. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until little bubbles form on the surface and the sides are dry.
9. Slide a spatula and flip the pancake on the other side. Cook for an extra minute until cooked through

Serving the pancakes

My favorite healthy pancake toppings for this quinoa pancake recipe are:

• A drizzle of maple syrup
• Homemade banana syrup
• Banana slices
• Fresh berries like strawberries or blueberries with Vegan Whipped Cream
• Date caramel
• Granola butter

Expert Tips To Bake Quinoa Pancakes

• Pick the correct blender size. This batter is small and blends easily in a narrow, high-speed smoothie blender rather than a large jug like Vitamix. When using a Vitamix, double up the recipe to make a large batch that blends easily.
• Soak quinoa for at least 1 hour for easier blending and easier digestion. Note that I made the recipe many times after soaking the quinoa for only 15 minutes. If you are using a high-speed blender, it will handle the batter very well.
• Don’t use quinoa flour. Quinoa flour is a gluten-free flour that is not made by grinding raw quinoa. Using quinoa flour won’t work in this recipe.
• Add berries or chocolate chips to the batter. Pour the batter into a mixing bowl and stir in 1/4 cup of blueberries or dark chocolate chips to flavor the pancakes.

More Quinoa Recipes

Quinoa Cookies

Banana Quinoa Muffins

Quinoa Tortillas

Quinoa Brownies

Quinoa Breakfast Bake

Quinoa Pancakes

These quinoa pancakes are light, fluffy vegan pancakes made from uncooked quinoa. It's the easiest healthy pancake recipe for a vegan, gluten-free breakfast naturally packed with proteins from quinoa.

4.84 from 12 votes

Print Review Save Saved!

Share on Facebook Pin Save in Email

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 10 minutes mins

Soak: 6 hours hrs

Total Time: 6 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Servings: 2 servings

Calories: 234.8 kcal

Author: Carine Claudepierre

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

• ▢ ½ cup Quinoa - uncooked, soaked, drained
• ▢ 2 tablespoons Flaxseed Meal - (note 1)
• ▢ ¼ cup Almond Milk - (note 2)
• ▢ ¼ cup Water
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Maple Syrup
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• ▢ 2 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice - (note 3)

Instructions

• Note: this recipe makes a small batter that blends much better in a narrow jug like a NutriBullet. For a high-speed blender with a large jug like Vitamix, I recommend doubling the recipe so the batter volume is bigger and easy to blend.
• Place the uncooked quinoa in a bowl and soak overnight or at least 1 hour at room temperature. The longer you soak quinoa, the easier it gets to blend and the easier you can digest it.
• Drain over a sieve and rinse the quinoa under cold tap water. Transfer the drained quinoa to the jug of a blender.
• Add all the remaining ingredients to the blender, except the baking powder.
• Blend on high speed, stopping and scraping down the sides of the bowl if needed, until it forms a smooth, thick, slightly grainy pancake batter. You should not see any piece of quinoa. It should be ground. It's normal if the batter looks gritty.
• Transfer the batter to a mixing bowl and stir in baking powder.
• Warm a pancake skillet over medium heat, grease the surface with cooking spray, then pour 3 tablespoons of batter per pancake.
• Cook 2-3 minutes on one side, or until light bubbles form on top and it gets easy to flip.
• Flip and cook the pancake for another 1-2 minutes until cooked in the center, fluffy, and soft.
• Serve as a stack with fruits and maple syrup.

Notes

Note 1: Ground chia seed works instead of flax meal if desired.

Note 2: Any plant-based milk can be used, like soy or oat milk.

Note 3: Apple cider vinegar or lime juice can replace lemon juice.

Share on Facebook Pin Recipe

Nutrition

Serving: 2pancakes | Calories: 234.8kcal | Carbohydrates: 38.2g | Protein: 7.5g | Fat: 5.9g | Saturated Fat: 0.6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3.6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1.4g | Sodium: 577.5mg | Potassium: 324.8mg | Fiber: 5.3g | Sugar: 6.4g | Vitamin A: 7.4IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 386.1mg | Iron: 2.9mg | Magnesium: 115.4mg | Phosphorus: 349.2mg | Zinc: 1.7mg