Who doesn’t love a short stack of pancakes? There’s more reason to give ’em a try now, with this vegan pancake recipe makeover.

A pancake breakfast is as comforting as it gets, but did you ever take the time to consider what really goes into each cake? This vegan pancake recipe gives your body the nutrition it deserves and needs first thing in the morning so that you can take on the day with your best foot forward. Overall, the pancake has room for vast improvement. Fortunately, I’ve come up with a vegan pancake recipe that not only does a wholesome breakfast justice in terms of each ingredient consumed, but also keeps the ingredient list animal-friendly. 

Because you arise with an empty stomach, whatever you eat first in the morning will set the stage for the day, and pancakes are truthfully not all that nourishing. The typical ingredients in a classic pancakes recipe are white flour, white sugar, butter, eggs and milk. Sure, the list is short and simple, but the white flour and sugar are empty carbohydrates that dehydrate you without the benefit of fiber, and the butter, eggs and milk are difficult to digest, especially when combined with flour.

This vegan pancake recipe replaces white flour with whole-wheat flour, which makes a big difference for digestion. During the refining process, white flour is stripped of its fiber-rich bran and left with only 2.6 grams of fiber per cup. Whole-wheat flour, on the other hand, has 12.8 grams of fiber in the same serving. Another swap is replacing the traditional recipe’s white sugar with a banana. The banana has many roles — it acts as a sweetener and binder and it provides a fluffy texture. The banana also provides you with energy and fiber.

This vegan pancake recipe also calls for frying with coconut oil, which has a high burn temperature and is thus among the healthiest oils to cook with. It also leaves behind a distinct taste you’ll be craving long after the plate is licked. Feel free to adorn your vegan pancakes with toppings of your choice. I like adding fresh fruit and jam. Enjoy!

Easy Vegan Pancakes

Makes 6-8 pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour (or any flour you like)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
• Extra coconut oil for frying

Directions

In a medium bowl, mix together the mashed banana, almond milk, and oil. In a separate, smaller bowl, combine the whole-wheat flour, baking powder and sea salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until evenly combined. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, brush the bottom with coconut oil and scoop pancake mixture into pan, two at a time. Cook until bubbles form and then turn each pancake over to cook on the other side. It will take about 1 minute more to cook and then the pancakes are ready to serve. Continue brushing pan with coconut oil and frying the pancakes until the batter is finished.

 Photo Credit: Dvorty Girl, GlowKitchen

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ColumnBreakfast is in.

Any foodie-wise restaurant knows to wrap hors d’oeuvres, entrees and even the table rolls in bacon, but lately, eggs have been showing up to the dinner table at every opportunity. On pizzas, astride mashed potatoes, in ramen: This is much more than the classic Caesar salad preparation of soft-boiled egg beside dressed hearts of romaine. But it’s not just eggs and bacon. For better or for worse, breakfast is in.

In a stagnant economy and dismal state of global affairs, we’re in dire need of comfort food.

A waffle sandwich for lunch? Yes. A food truck that only serves up buttermilk creations? Certainly. Breakfast food isn’t the sexiest, but it’s cozy and warm, reminding us of a lazy Sunday brunch spent with friends or alone with the Times and the French press.

Are we really having a brinner love affair? If it’s an officially defined word on Urban Dictionary, the answer is “yes.”

(brin-ner) adj. breakfast eaten at the time in which you eat dinner.

But why? When it comes to food, most of us are obsessed with instant gratification, and fried eggs solve that problem far more quickly than a plate of artisanal cheese with fruit compote, let alone a a fennel emulsion. As Shawn LaPean, executive director of Cal Dining at the University of California- Berkeley says, “eating weird is the new normal.” Which means breakfast for dinner is just as marketable even in the upscale food world as foie gras bread pudding. (Some days, I think being a foodie is no more than a glorified version of our meat-and-potatoes humanity – fancified with pancetta and foccacia, or pork belly and polenta.)

Feel the need to get on the breakfast train? Here are five ways to bring home the bacon.

Waffles

Make them with sweet potatoes. Then make a sandwich. Or add chicken friend steak. Whatever you do, don’t serve them with maple syrup.

French Toast

Completely acceptable for dinner these days, as long as you use fancy bread. (But god forbid, no matter how tempting, please don’t prep it in a slow cooker.)

Pizza

Just put an egg on it. Or two.

Crepes

They’re French! And classy! As long as they’re made with buckwheat and not smeared in Nutella.

Pancakes

Like crepes, but not. If they’re fluffy and include a fancy dairy product (think: Ricotta) you can feel fine about eating them for dinner.

No matter how much you love breakfast – and if the restaurants of Brooklyn, San Francisco and Portland that are jam packed at 10 a.m. on a weekday morning are any indicator, most of us really do – proceed with caution. Replacing real meals with mashups of whatever-we-feel-like foods might have us running towards the brink of self-destruction. Breakfast for dinner (or lunch) is almost as bad as gourmet junk food, and if those trendy food carts and waffle windows don’t watch it, their culinary prowess just might risk the reputation of a Maple Bacon Sundae.

At least there’s always gourmet granola, with hemp milk, of course. Can someone just get me some real dinner, like a taco?

Oh, you want to serve them on a waffle? Even that is too underground for this columnist.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: Anna Brones, manray3, jamieanne, rick, avlxyz, d.loop

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ColumnCongratulations to our winning Foodie Underground entry by Johanna Kindvall!

Last week, in celebration of Foodie Underground‘s one-year anniversary, we asked for your own foodie submissions. We received many interesting, creative recipes, photos and artwork.

As I wrote last week, writing this column has been an exploration of how food is appreciated and enjoyed in all circles. Not just amongst professional chefs and wine connoisseurs, but people who enjoy finding, cooking and eating food, thinking about where it comes from, and what it means. Our submissions were an excellent reminder of that.

Everyone has a recipe or food story to tell. And being more active in the underground food movement is in turn making it more mainstream. Even renegade markets are getting mentioned in the New York Times. The more attention we get on underground markets, local farmers, sustainable culinary options and beyond, the more potential we have to really create a food system that sustains us in way that’s beneficial for us and the environment.

We could only choose one winner for our contest, and we’ve chosen Johanna Kindvall.

A food blogger, Johanna submitted not only a recipe and a story, but a visual interpretation of herself and her husband making potato pancakes. Since we’re suckers for food illustrations here at EcoSalon, and I’ve got a personal thing for Scandinavian inspired recipes, our editors agree the prize goes to Johanna. We appreciate everyone who participated – we loved seeing your artwork, reading your essays and learning about why food is special to you.

Congratulations to Johanna! Here’s her winning story and illustrations:

“What can be more foodie underground than making potato pancakes while house squatting in London? The fact is that next door to one of the Rolling Stones in Chelsea, my husband M learned how to make Potato Pancakes. It was during the punk era and M had just been thrown out from home. House squatting was one way to survive while struggling with his studies at the AA.

The recipe is simple: (for two people) Peel two potatoes. Cut them in smaller pieces and mash them in a blender. If the potatoes are too watery you need to squeeze out some of the liquid before adding two small eggs. When the mixture is blended add some flour and season with salt. Heat up a standard frying pan with some butter. Pour about five – six small amounts of batter into the pan and fry over medium heat until golden brown, turning once only.

The pancakes can be served with many different things. Back in Chelsea, M ate them with just butter and sugar. Today we serve them with a variety of small sides, for example, lingonberry jam, freshly grated carrots, sautéed bacon pieces, goat cheese, sour cream and caviar.”

Johanna won these beautiful Festival Sol Mini Bowls from VivaTerra. Stay tuned for more contests on Foodie Underground!

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, finding what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

The post Foodie Underground: And the Underground Winner Is… appeared first on EcoSalon.

Recently when I was in Portland for the IACP conference, every menu seemed to have rhubarb on it. I ordered rhubarb crisp, rhubarb compote, rhubarb this and rhubarb that. Rhubarb is one of the shortest season produce items I know, which makes it all the more special. I’ve been hankering to make something with it myself and Mother’s Day weekend seems like the perfect time. I’m going to pick up some rhubarb at the farmers market this weekend and make this Spring Rhubarb Crisp, from fellow Oaklander, Romney Steele, out of her wonderful book My Nepenthe.

And while we’re on the subject of Mother’s Day, if your mom is a pancake fan, check out these genuine buttermilk pancakes from Culinate. You can mix the dry ingredients up the night before to save time. Why not make rhubarb compote to go with?

If your Mother’s Day brunch plans are savory, as are mine, this springy golden beet salad from The Kitchn is healthy, easy and super green. No waste here since you mix the beet tops in with the roasted beets and serve them all together. I’m serving this with my leek tart.

Image: garyknight

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