Vegan? Pancake Day? Surely Not?
Yet another day that traditionally depends on cow milk and chicken eggs. Well, not to worry. Because I’m here to provide you with some #plantbased recipes! Why should vegans miss out on all the fun? I had to hand Leeds’ edgy answer to Mary Berry, third year Sociology student Claudia Cooper to do all the cooking. Not a vegan herself, but Claudia really cooks up a vegan storm in the kitchen. As for me, I did most of the tasting. It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it.
First of all, we went for a thicker, more American-style pancake. Chef Claudia recommends the following mixture ingredients to make 2 small-medium sized thick pancakes:
- Plain Flour – 60g
- Ground Almonds – 30g
- Baking Powder – Couple of pinches
- Soy milk/Plant milk of your choice – to your desired mixture consistency (aka the more you add, the more runny it is gonna get so don’t go crazy or your pancakes won’t turn out right)
- Pure/porridge Oats – 20g
- Dash of vanilla extract
- Coconut oil for frying, or any oil of your choice (olive oil etc)
Mix all the ingredients together with a whisk in a measuring jug – I recommend a measuring jug over a mixing bowl because it allows for simple and effective pouring into the frying pan. We decided to experiment with the ground almonds and the oats to make more indulgent, earthy pancakes, to give them something different and special. I tasted them, alongside three non-vegans, and they rated at a pretty solid 9/10 points. We served ours with vegan ice cream – Swedish Glace Vanilla Ice Cream – and golden syrup.
Next, we tried to recreate a banana style pancake. Chef Claudia used a pretty similar recipe to the one above, but also added 2 mashed ripe bananas. These pancakes weren’t quite as aesthetically pleasing… we think the ratio was off. Maybe too much banana. But they still tasted pretty damn good, like banana bread, and served with vanilla ice cream and summer berries, they still got finished off pretty quickly. Yorkshire lad Jake Braybrook gave his analysis: “Nice them, yano, if you fancy treatin yer sen fer breakfast.” Translation: A delightful breakfast time treat. Southern belle Maddie Green commented that the banana pancakes are “a nice, healthy alternative… peng”. What more is there to be said?
Finally, we went right back to basics to create a simple crepe-style pancake. Chef Claudia created a simple mixture of soy milk, plain flour and vanilla extract. We served ours with Sweet Freedom chocolate-coconut sauce. Other ideas for vegan pancake toppings are: lemon & sugar, agave syrup, maple syrup, orange juice, (vegan) chocolate spread, peanut butter & banana, blueberries, strawberries & kiwi, icing sugar, soy yoghurt, walnuts and there are probably many more toppings and combinations to be thought of. You could even take things up savoury sweet by leaving vanilla extract from your pancake mixture, serving your pancakes with tomatoes, mushrooms, vegan sausages and more. The possibilities are endless! Happy Pancake Day, everyone! Have a flippin’ fantastic one.
Images are authors own.