Vegan Pancake Recipe

Vegan pancakes are yummy. That is something I discovered yesterday, when I came home from work late, clapped my hands together and declared I was going to enjoy pancake day too. (I didn’t have the time or inclination for some inspired photography, hence the hastily-taken iPhone snaps below, taken before I decimated that plant-based pancake.)

Since my 30th birthday, I’ve been moving into a more vegan lifestyle, having been a vegetarian for over 20 years. It’s been a constant learning curve, and I’ve discovered that, actually, I can eat so many more things than I initially imagined. Pancakes are one of those pleasures I thought I might have to do without, but it’s not so.

Here’s a basic vegan batter recipe – I think it’s actually American, and so the pancake batter came out much thicker than I originally anticipated:

Vegan Pancake Recipe

• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 cup almond milk (any plant-based milk is fine, I just opt for almond)
• 2-3 tbsps vegetable oil (I opted for rapeseed oil)
• couple of large pinches of salt

As with normal pancake batter, whisk until smooth. Although the recipe I was working with said 1 cup flour to 1 cup milk, I found this was waaayyyyy too thick, unless you prefer to create a thicker, smaller “scotch pancake”. I was aiming for the thinner crepes really, so I just kept adding almond milk to the batter until I got the consistency I wanted.

I heated a drizzle of rapeseed oil in the frying pan, and ladled my vegan batter in.

From thereon in, it was plain sailing.

My batter browned, my pancake flipped neatly, and after adding lemon and sugar to my hot crepe, I happily munched my way through a few of them.

Vegan Pancake (left) vs Traditional Pancake (right)

I asked Rich to do a taste test – he made his own traditional pancakes using cow’s milk, eggs (organic free range), flour and butter in the pan. He said that whilst he thought his pancakes had extra flavour, mine were “fine”.  I think his browned more possibly a) because I took mine out of the pan too soon because I was hungry and b) mine had less fat in it than his. I can live with his “fine” though! Coming from Rich, that’s virtually a compliment!

So you see, a little more proof that choosing vegan is not to choose to go without. It’s just a little bit different.

And whilst I won’t be giving up almond milk or vegetable oil for Lent, I will be giving up one of my great foodie loves – crisps! If you know me well, you will know what a commitment this is for me (although in the grand scheme of things, it’s nothing). But a little hardship once in a while is food for the soul. It lets us appreciate how much we really do have, which in turn perhaps makes us more inclined to help those that don’t have much at all.

I hope you enjoyed your Pancake Day! Are you giving up anything for Lent?