Grain-free Pancakes with Banana, Peanut Butter and Superfood

Trying to cut down on carbs, we created this delicious grain-free pancakes recipe with goodness from bananas, peanut butter, and superfoods like hemp hearts and flax seeds. It’s naturally gluten free and dairy free as well.

I love pancakes. When my diet changed, we experimented until we created tasty grain-free pancakes. From the start, I knew we would succeed, after all, it includes two of my favorite healthy foods (peanut butter and banana).

My dietary restrictions and requirements have refined over the years, from eating everything to first losing gluten, then dairy. Last year, DNA testing suggested more changes.

Initially, the most difficult seemed like it would be avoiding grains and certain other carbohydrates in the early part of the day.

Rather than feeling sorry for myself, we just refined our best recipes. These grain-free banana pancakes are no exception.

We started with our simple GF-DF pancake recipe with only three ingredients: banana, egg, and gluten-free flour. Clearly, the last one had to go.

My sister had told me she sometimes substitutes peanut butter powder for flour, so starting there, we experimented, but with creamy peanut butter rather than powder. A one-to-one substitution didn’t work.

Plus, we wanted to add some more healthy superfoods, so out came a bunch of different seeds.

I won’t bore you with the list of fails, just with our end result, a tasty grain-free pancake that is also gluten-free, dairy-free, and low FODMAP when made with greener bananas.

What you need to make our grain-free pancakes

• Banana
• Egg
• Peanut butter
• Ground flaxseeds
• Hemp hearts
• Cinnamon (optional)
• Cooking oil spray
• Frypan

Health benefits of the key ingredients

Disclaimer: Statements regarding health benefits are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition.

Banana

Did you know that bananas may support gut and heart health while giving us an energy boost and mood support? They may even aid in managing heartburn. Source: BBC Good Food

Peanut butter

This heart-healthy choice is known to foster strong bones while lowering the risk of some cancers and diabetes. In addition, peanut butter may aid in the prevention of gallstones while protecting against neurodegenerative diseases (like Alzheimer’s). Source: NDTV Food

Flax seeds

These tiny seeds are full of heart-healthy fats, according to Health.com. It goes on to say that they may lower blood pressure, improve cholesterol levels, and support digestive health.

Hemp hearts

Hemp hearts, or hemp seeds, may improve heart health and skin conditions while reducing inflammation and relieving symptoms of arthritis. Source: Hemp Wellness

Step-by-step to our grain-free pancake recipe

While the full recipe details are at the bottom of the page, here are the basic steps:

1. Add ingredients in this order, mixing in each one before adding the next:
   • Banana (mashed)
   • Cinnamon (optional)
   • Egg
   • Flaxseed
   • Peanut butter
   • Hemp hearts
2. Preheat a lightly sprayed pan for 2 minutes on high heat, then lower to medium-low heat before adding batter as three pancakes.
3. Flip the pancakes after 6-7 minutes, then cook for an additional 3 minutes.

Tips for making these grain-free pancakes

• Our grain-free banana pancake sweetness is related to the ripeness of the banana. As bananas ripen shifting from green to yellow, the starch is converted to sugars. As a result, yellow bananas (with some brown spots) are sweeter, while greener bananas taste starchier.
• If you are following a low FODMAP diet, you can have more green banana than yellow. Monash University explains it in detail here.
• The banana will always be a bit lumpy, but this is okay.
• It works best if you stir in each ingredient one at a time.
• While you want to mash the banana with your fork, you want to stir the peanut butter. As we learned the hard way, attempting to mash in the peanut butter only results in it getting stuck in the tines.
• While we have used the ingredients of our base recipe to make banana muffins, it doesn’t work so well with this recipe. It’s clearly better suited for pancakes.

Serving suggestions

Personally, I like them exactly the way they come out of the frying pan, especially if the banana was only slightly green. They are sweet and delicious, and for my palette, don’t need another thing.

However, I also like variety, which either comes from additions before cooking, in the pan, or as a topping added afterward.

• To the raw batter:
  Add cut-up strawberries (or blueberries if you are not following a Low FODMAP diet) or walnuts pieces.
• At the start of cooking – after putting it in the pan, before it solidifies:
  If I am craving sweets (and not concerned about sugar), I will add some gluten-free, dairy-free dark chocolate chips to each pancake.
• As a topping:
  Strawberry jam.

I am not a fan of maple syrup on pancakes, as I think it makes them too sweet.

Our grain-free pancakes recipe

This recipe was created by Rhonda and Jeff Albom

Read next: 19 Gluten-Free Pancake Recipes: Quick Breakfast Ideas

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What do you think, are you ready to give these grain-free pancakes a try?

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