Recipe | 'Healthy' Blueberry Pancakes
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The theme this weekend was me me me. I needed some me time, I needed to sleep in, I needed to shop until I dropped, I needed to have a long bath & buy myself a terribly expensive shampoo (Aveda - I hope it's as good as they say it is...) I needed to take myself on a cinema date to a silly cheesy movie and burry my head in a bucket of popcorn, oh and I needed pancakes. So far so good.
It is no secret that my favourite meal of the day is Breakfast. I put a lot of effort into making a nutritious breakfast every morning. Smoothies are my go-to in the summer & porridge topped with stewed fruits & yoghurt in the winter. I love having a simple egg, ideally poached or boiled with a buttery piece of toast, with a side of avocado.
Oh but pancakes! Pancakes are my favourite. They are my weekend guilty pleasure. The thing I look forward to most when I go to bed on a friday night. Those warm little bundles of joy! Would you look at 'em?!
If there's one recipe I experiment with on a weekly basis - it's pancakes. The variations are endless. Once you have a good base recipe, they are pretty hard to fail. I've always used the 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of self raising flour, 1 egg ratio from a Jamie Oliver recipe and it's always worked very well, but recently I've been trying to be healthier, so I made this one up. (I already shared a healthy version of pancakes over here - but these are the better version for sure!)
They are jam packed with antioxidants, healthy fats, protein, fibre for days, magnesium, potassium.. the list goes on. They are gluten free (if you want them to be) which will make you feel as light as a feather. If you have rice malt syrup on hand like I used in this recipe then these are also (almost*) sugar free, which if you ask me is a huge plus. It won't make your sugar levels spike through the roof then make you feel tired, groggy and hungry in a couple of hours.
*fructose is still present in small doses from the banana and blueberries.
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Ingredients (serves 2 or 1 if you're very hungry...) :
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup of Almond milk
- 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour + 1/4 cup of psyllium husk (can be replaced with flax meal or ground almonds) or 1 cup of all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp of Chia seeds
- 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- a big handful of blueberries
- 1 tbsp of rice malt syrup (healthy alternative to sugar, taste like golden syrup without the nasty effects of fructose!)
- a tsp of coconut oil (for the pan)
- Maple syrup or rice malt syrup to serve.
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Notes :
> Puree the banana with the almond milk and the vanilla. Add your beaten egg to the mixture. Combine.
> In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients (Flour, Psyllium, Chia seeds, cinnamon, baking powder, salt)
> Pour the banana mixture in the dry ingredients bowl. Stir until all combined.
> Gently add in your blueberries.
> Heat a tsp of coconut oil in a frying pan. Pour a big tbsp of batter, shape it as you like. Let it be for a bit. Flip when bubble start appearing at the surface. Cook for about a minute on the other side. (Always check the first pancake to adjust sweetness/cooking time)
> I served mine with a dollop of greek yoghurt, some extra blueberries, a few strawberries, a sprinkle of almonds & a drizzle of rice malt syrup. I guess maple syrup would be nice too so would blackberries & raspberries, maybe some butter if you're feeling indulgent.. Go wild!
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{ You could make these vegan by taking out the egg. The banana is enough to hold everything together. The consistency is a bit more 'gooey' (I refuse to use the dreaded word that starts with an m and ends with an 'oist'... ;) I prefer it with the egg because it makes them fluffier, but give it a go! }
