Green Vegan Chickpea Pancakes

Green_vegan_chickpea_pancake

We hardly need to mention that we love pancakes in our family, do we? A quick look through our insta feeds and cookbooks and you’ll find a wide variety of them. There are small and thick banana pancakes served in bowls for luxurious weekend breakfasts, baked fat almond pancake for a light summer dinner, an impressive pancake layer cake for birthday celebrations and of course the regular thin pancakes aka crêpes that we make almost weekly for dinner. We put lots of savory (or sweet) toppings/fillings on our dinner pancakes and then either fold them or roll them up. And we save the leftovers in a lunch box or have as breakfast the morning after.

Most of our pancake recipes include eggs but today we are sharing one of our favorite vegan (and gluten free) versions. It’s a thin and soft take on socca. You only need two ingredients to make this: chickpea flour (besan) and water, but we like add salt and herbs for more flavor and a nice green color. We made these pancakes for lunch and topped them with mashed avocado, pesto, red cabbage sauerkraut (check out the recipe in Green Kitchen at Home), lettuce and tomato. It was what we had in the fridge and it turned out to be a good and simple combo (no extra cooking needed). But don’t feel obliged to follow us, you can top it with whatever you have at home. If you are not vegan, some goat’s cheese could be good on top as well.

Everyone always say that it’s good to let a pancake batter rest before frying but it is actually extra important when making eggless pancakes or they will be very difficult to flip. At least one hour, just trust us on this or your pancakes will fall apart in the pan. A good quality non-stick pan also makes the flipping a lot easier. We like this ceramic non-stick pan.

Check out this little video from our YouTube channel where we show how to make it.

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Apart from our usual recipe videos, we will also film a Q&A and behind-the-scenes later this week. So if you have any questions about recipes / meal prep / vegetarianism / our kitchen / kids / books / photography / videos / food styling etc you can ask them here in the comments and we will try to answer them in the video. Thanks!

Green_vegan_chickpea_pancake_2

Green Vegan Chickpea Pancake with Avocado, Pesto and Krauts
Makes 4

If you experience problems flipping them, try adding 1-2 tbsp potato starch, corn starch or arrowroot powder to the batter. That will help them hold together even more.

100 g (1 cup) chickpea flour (besan)
300 ml (1 cup + 3 tbsp) water
1 pinch salt
2 handfuls fresh herbs (we use parsley and basil)

Coconut oil, for frying

Filling
2 avocado
2 tbsp pesto
mâche lettuce or baby spinach
sauerkraut
cherry tomatoes, chopped

Mix chickpea flour, water, salt and herbs in a blender (or whisk together in a bowl and finely chop the herbs). Leave to rest for about 1 hour (or up to 48 hours in a sealed jar in the fridge). Heat coconut oil in a non-stick pan on medium heat. Add a thin layer of batter (we add 1/3 cup but the amount depends on the size of your pan) and tilt the pan around to make sure it is evenly distributed. Wait 30-60 seconds for the batter to solidify and bubbles start appearing. Carefully loosen the sides with a spatula before flipping the pancake. Slide it onto a plate when both sides are golden. Fry the remaining the pancakes. Divide the avocado and discard the stone. Mash the flesh with a fork. Add avocado on one side of each pancake, drizzle with pesto, add lettuce, sauerkraut and cherry tomatoes and fold it like an omelet. Enjoy!

39 Comments

  • Pernille
    Hej:-) Would love to try and make these amazing-looking pancakes. One question though. I watched the video and can see that you guys are using a blender for the dough. We live in a tiny house with a 12 volt system which means we do not have the option of using a blender. Would it be worth trying anyway, mixing the dough by hand - thoughts? Thank you very much for your time and great work! Cheers - Pernille
  • Alex
    Hi there, Could I use soaked chickpeas instead of chickpea flower? Best Alex
  • Joanna
    I have prepared the batter exactly according to the recipe and kept in the fridge overnight. Even though I have a non-srick pan, the pancakes keep sticking to it. It is impossible to flip them. Any advice?
    • Hi Joanna, I am not sure why it doesn't work for you. You need the pan to be hot before adding the batter and making sure the pancakes are set before trying to flip them. You can try adding a little extra starchy flour to them to see if they are easier to flip. Potato starch or arrows root are usually good. Or simply add a little extra chickpea flour. Good luck! /David

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