Chickpea Flour Roasted Red Pepper Loaf

This is a fully grain-free, low-fat, robot-friendly loaf, that is still nice and sliceable and portable. Perfect for a picnic, or (my favorite) topped with a thick slice of tomato and an over-medium egg for breakfast in the morning.

Bits:

Dry
- 1+ Tbsp mustard seeds (and optionally a little oil for frying)
- 200 g chickpea flour
- 2 Tbsp corn flour (it’s finer than corn meal, but coarser than corn starch)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp berbere spice mix (optional, but recommended if you can find it. I put it in everything.)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp zatar
- ~1 Tbsp black and white sesame seeds
Wet
- 5 roasted red peppers (from a jar. I think this is about 200 g)
- 175 g carrots
- 1/4 cup / 70 g roasted mashed yam/winter squash/pumpkin
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt (I used nonfat)
- 1-2 Tbsp date syrup (about 20-40 g)
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Algorithm:

Heat oven to 300F. Line a baking sheet with parchment and lay roasted red peppers flat on the parchment. Optionally, blot them dry with a paper towel. Put the tray in the oven to dry out the peppers while you prep the other ingredients, about 20 minutes.
Line a 9”x5” standard size loaf pan with parchment paper. Lightly grease paper with butter.
Peel and grate the carrots. Set aside.
Add about ¼ tsp – ½ tsp oil to a small frying pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start popping, put a lid or plate over the top and move the pan off the heat.
Combine dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl (sift chickpea flour as it tends to clump!).
Add wet ingredients except the roasted red peppers and carrots to a small mixing bowl and stir until pretty much smooth.
Take roasted red peppers out of the oven. Chop into roughly ¾” square bits. Set aside. Turn the oven heat up to 350F.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients except the carrots and roasted red peppers.. Fold with rubber spatula until almost combined.
Gently stir the carrots and roasted red peppers into the mixture until just combined.
The mixture will be thick, more like a rough cookie dough, than a runny batter. Smooth the mixture into the prepared bread pan and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
Bake 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center comes out *almost* clean. Check after 20 minutes and put a foil hat over the top when it starts to look darker on top.
Enjoy warm or at room temperature. Wrap any leftovers tightly in plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to a week.

Savory Tomato Chickpea Flour Pancakes with Tomato Ginger Chutney

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Grain-free && Low-fat && Vegan

I can’t even try to pretend; I’m a bit obsessed with pancakes. These savory pancakes are the perfect excuse to have pancakes for lunch or dinner without feeling too weird about it (honestly, I wouldn’t judge either way). Like my breakfast pancakes, these are made with only chickpea flour, and are also secretly packed with shredded carrots. So there’s your protein and your vegetable, check and check! You can also change it up by using shredded zucchini, hearty greens, onions, or whatever you fancy, instead of, or in addition to, the carrots.

Instead of syrup, these are topped with a bright, flavorful tomato ginger chutney. If you’re not vegan, I’d also suggest adding a dollop of yogurt and/or an over-easy egg to these to really round out the meal.

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Savory Tomato Chickpea Flour Pancakes with Tomato Ginger Chutney

Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s Vegetarian India

Bits:

For the tomato ginger chutney:

3-4 large (24 oz total) tomatoes, finely diced
4 tsp peeled and minced (or grated) fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chili powder (such as cayenne)
1 tsp whole yellow mustard seeds
6-8 fresh curry leaves, finely chopped

For the pancakes:

150 g chickpea flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp rasam powder spice mix (substitute curry powder if you don’t have rasam)
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/8 tsp asafoetida (hing)
1 1/4 cups water
1 large tomato, finely diced (about 1 1/4 cups)
1 cup diced onion
1 jalapeño, finely diced (ribs and seeds discarded for milder heat)
Butter, ghee, or oil for greasing the pan

Algorithm:

Start by making the chutney:
- Put a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds and curry leaves.
- When the mustard seeds begin to pop, add the remaining ingredients to the pan, and bring to a low simmer. Stir every minute or so for about 10 minutes, until some of the juices have evaporated off and the chutney has thickened slightly. Keep over low heat, stirring occasionally when needed, to keep warm.
Make the pancakes:
- Preheat a large frying pan on the stove over medium heat.
- Sift the chickpea flour into a bowl. Add the salt and spices through asafoetida, and stir to combine. Slowly add the water, mixing with a fork continuously to maintain a smooth consistency, until you have a thin, smooth batter.
- Add the tomato, onion, and jalapeño to the batter and stir to mix.
- When your frying pan is hot, add the minimal amount of low-fat butter to coat the bottom of the pan (or more if you can tolerate it in your diet). Use a 1/4 cup or 1/3 cup measuring cup to scoop the batter into separate blops in the frying pan to make the pancakes. Cook until the edges look dry and bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes before flipping the with a spatula; cook for two to three minutes on the other side. When done, remove the pancakes to a plate and set aside. Repeat with remaining batter
Top pancakes with the tomato ginger chutney. (If you’re not vegan, the pancakes and chutney are extra tasty with an added dollop of yogurt or topped with an egg!)

Robot Pizza with Roasted Garlic Sauce

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Grain-free && Low Fat && Vegan Option

Hey. So, I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus. I will catch you up later. But I’ve been thinking a lot about resuming my food blogging! Also, I just saw this perfectly good post I wrote up **PRE-PANDEMIC** sitting here. I didn’t post it right away for reasons, which I will include in the catch-up post. For now, I’ll just say: Thanks for sticking with me. I plan to be back soon. In the meantime, please enjoy some pizza!

Original post:

This was a bit of a project, but so worth it when you want to kick back with some comfort food (and possibly your spouse has been making you super jealous with real pizza that comes in a cardboard box with a tiny plastic table in the middle and is delivered by a guy wearing a cap who inevitably rings the doorbell when the husband’s in the bathroom, leaving you to get the door. Ahh, the true American pizza experience).

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Robot Pizza with Roasted Garlic Sauce

Makes two 11″ pies; serves 3 to 4

60 minutes (including about 45 minutes for roasting garlic. Use extra between-time to cook a vegetable, or throw together a salad to make a complete meal! Let’s be honest, a few leaves of basil on a pizza does not count as a serving of vegetables.)

Bits

– For the crust

Corn flour for dusting
315g chickpea flour
65g Greek yogurt (or substitute vegan yogurt for vegan option)
20 g yam
1+ tsp salt
½ tsp cumin
¼ tsp turmeric
pinch of asafoetida (or garlic powder)
4-5 Tbsp water

– For the roasted garlic sauce:

Dry:

¼ cup chickpea flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp dried thyme (or Italian seasoning or ground sage)
¼ tsp cumin
½ tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp nutritional yeast

Wet:

1 head garlic
½ cup water
¾ cup milk of choice (skim cow milk to keep the dish nearly non-fat, or alternative plant-based milk for vegan option)
1 tsp of Dijon mustard
2 tsp tamari

– Suggestions for the topping (or use toppings of choice):

2 medium slicing tomatoes
4 sliced peppadew peppers
Handful of basil leaves
¾ cup low fat cottage cheese, strained/drained of excess liquid (omit to make vegan)

Algorithm:

Adjust oven racks to top and bottom thirds of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 450ºF. Sprinkle a couple good pinches of corn flour over two baking sheets.
Slice the top off of your head of garlic and wrap it tight in aluminum foil. Bake it in the pre-heated oven for 40 to 45 minutes until garlic is browning and soft throughout.
Combine the crust ingredients except the water in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add 4 Tbsp of water and stir to bring it together into a rough dough. Knead with your hands, and add the remaining little by little until the dough just comes together, but is still dry and kneadable. Knead a few times in the bowl until the dough is smooth. Set aside.
Put the dry ingredients for the garlic sauce in a small mixing bowl and set aside.
Prep your pizza toppings of choice: slice fresh tomatoes, tear some basil leaves, slice some peppers, put some cottage cheese in a cheese cloth and squeeze out the excess liquid… etc.
When the garlic is done roasting, use a knife to remove the soft garlic cloves from the papery encasements in the bulb, and place in a small food processor or blender. Add ½ cup water, and blend until smooth.
Add the blended garlic to a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the remaining wet ingredients for the sauce to the saucepan and stir to combine.
When the contents of the saucepan are hot but not boiling, pour a small amount into the bowl with the dry ingredients to make a paste. Continue pouring the wet ingredients little by little into the mixing bowl holding the dry ingredients, stirring in between additions, until you get a thin sauce. When most of the wet ingredient mixture has been incorporated, pour the contents of the mixing bowl back into the saucepan and warm over medium heat, stirring continuously for about 3 minutes until the sauce thickens noticeably. Remove from heat and set aside to cool until ready to use.
Split ball of dough in half. Spread a pinch of cornflour on a smooth surface or cutting board and use a rolling pin to roll one of the halves into a flat circle (or a rough approximation of a circle) of desired thickness. I rolled mine pretty thin, about ¼-inch thick. Repeat with other half of the dough.
Divide the garlic sauce between the two pizzas and spread into a smooth layer. Add other toppings of choice (except basil; that’s best added after baking). Bake pizzas in the oven and bake for about 12-15 minutes until the edges of the crust start to brown.
Remove baking sheet from oven and let pizzas cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet. Scatter reserved basil leaves on top of the pizzas. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and/or chili flakes as desired. Cut into slices and serve!

Carrot Chickpea Flour Pancake with Charred Green Beans and Tomatoes

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Grain-free && Low-fat && Vegan option

I have been a bit obsessed with pancakes lately. Of course they need to be made with chickpea flour, and be low- to no-fat, but beyond that, anything goes! This pancake is something I’ve been making for dinner; it’s a little sweet as it’s made with grated carrots, but it’s not sweet like a breakfast pancake (there’s no additional sweetener). It’s topped with spicy, savory charred green beans and cherry tomatoes. I am going to be very sad when those bright plump cherry tomatoes go out of season (in about two seconds from now), but maybe I’ll find something else for the fall or winter to substitute that goes just as well.

For now, I’ve been making extra green beans and cherry tomatoes (about 1 ½ times the amount given in the recipe below) and using the extra to top a good red lentil dal.

The recipe for the pancake is roughly based on Anna Jones’s carrot pancake in her excellent book “A Modern Way to Cook“. The charred vegetable recipe is adapted from the recipe “Blistered Green Beans and Tomatoes with Honey Harissa and Mint” from the New York Times Cooking.

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Carrot Chickpea Flour Pancake with Charred Green Beans and Tomatoes

Bits:

Carrot chickpea flour pancake:

150g chickpea flour
½ tsp salt
⅛ tsp pepper
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp coriander
½ tsp curry powder
¼ tsp baking powder
1 cup milk of choice
2 medium (~200g) carrots, peeled and grated (you should have ~125g, or 1 ½ cups after peeling and grating)

Green beans and cherry tomatoes: (hint: make extra to eat on top of your favorite dal!)

1 lb green beans
10-12 oz cherry tomatoes
2 tsp berbere spice mix (use extra if you like extra spice; substitute a mild curry powder if you don’t like much spice)
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp lime juice
½ tsp honey

To finish:

Plain Greek yogurt (optional) for serving
Fresh chopped parsley for garnish

Algorithm:

Move oven rack to highest position, and preheat broiler on high.

First start the pancake cooking: Combine all pancake ingredients. Preheat a 12” non-stick frying pan / skillet on medium-high. When hot, if your pans have lost a lot of their non-stick-ness like mine have, add a teaspoon of reduced fat butter, or oil of choice and swirl it around the pan as it melts to create a better non-stick surface. Pour the batter into the frying pan and smooth it around with a spoon or spatula. Cover with a lid and reduce heat to medium-low. Let cook undisturbed for at least 20 minutes. The pancake is done with when the top is dry all the way across. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, start a medium saucepan of water boiling. Chop ends off of green beans and cut into desired size pieces. Boil green beans for 4 minutes and refresh in cold water.

Halve the cherry tomatoes (unless they’re already tiny).

Combine the berbere spice mix, salt, lime juice, and honey in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and place the green beans and cherry tomatoes on top. Pour over the berebere mixture and toss until the beans and tomatoes are evenly coated. Spread the beans and tomatoes out into a single layer on the baking sheet and place under broiler. Let cook for about 5 minutes. Check the contents of the baking sheet often, as the difference in time between nicely charred and burnt to a crisp is surprisingly short under a hot broiler.

To serve, slide a spatula under the pancake to loosen it from the pan. Once it’s loosened place a large dinner plate or serving plate over the pan and quickly and carefully flip the pancake onto the plate. Top with charred green beans and tomatoes, or alternately, slice the pancake like a pizza and let individuals top their portions with their desired amount of vegetables. For non-vegans, a dollop of plain greek yogurt is nice. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley.

Fudgy Protein Brownies

Grain-free && Low-fat && Sugar-free

These brownies are kind of amazing, if I do say so myself. They are dense and fudgy, and they hit you in the face with deep chocolatey flavor (far from the cringe-inducing sweetness that hits you in the face with other desserts). The flavor is so intense without being overly sweet, I’ve actually been eating them with berries or other fruits on top or on the side; it’s the perfect desert when you need serious chocolate (see Figure 1 below).

Fig. 1 Fudgy Protein Brownie topped with some fresh Pacific Northwest blackberries.

And best of all, I can actually eat them! That means they’re grain-free, low-fat, and low “sugar”. The trick (in addition to my usual bag of tricks) is that they’re sweetened with erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol; it passes through your body with almost no effect. Just like a neutrino. So it tastes sweet, but has no calories and doesn’t raise your blood sugar (i.e. has no glycemic load). I’ve been reading up on erythritol, of course, to learn more about it and make sure it’s safe, particularly as it seems too good to be true. I will let you do your own research, but it seems like it *is* actually as good as it promises. The only potential ill effects I’ve read about is that in large quantities it can cause temporary stomach upset and digestive trouble because the erythritol molecules reach your intestines without having been broken down; however, in “reasonable quantities” (like when you substitute 1 to 1 for sugar), for most people there’s no trouble. Each of these brownies has just 3/4 of a tablespoon of erythritol, which is less than the amount sugar than you’d find in a regular brownie. I am the last one who would want more digestive trouble in my life, but even I seem to tolerate “reasonable quantities” of erythritol perfectly fine.

To make the deal even sweeter (figuratively, not literally) I’ve added some protein powder into the recipe. High protein, low fat, no glycemic load, tastes like dessert… I’ll be making these on repeat.

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Fudgy Protein Browines

Makes 16 brownies (one 8”x8” pan)

Nutritional Info:

Total: 20.5g fat, 98g protein
Per brownie: 1.3g fat, 6.1g protein

Bits:

Dry

1 cup (120g) chickpea flour
1 cup (90g) cocoa powder (non-alkalized)
¼ cup (4 Tbsp) plain protein powder (I like NorCal Organic Pea Protein Powder)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp salt
⅛ tsp cloves

Wet

90g egg whites (equivalent of 2 large eggs)
¾ tsp vanilla
¾ tsp hazelnut extract
¾ cup erythritol
425g (1 can) canned pumpkin
1+ Tbsp water

Algorithm

Line an 8” square baking pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350°F.
Sift together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Mix wet ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl; stir until smooth and fully blended.
Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir together with a spatula until fully blended and no dry pockets remain.
Spread batter evenly in bottom of parchment-lined pan. The batter will be thick; smooth with a spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until the middle is firm starts to look dry (a toothpick inserted in the center may not come out clean). Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool completely before removing and slicing.

Parsnip Date Hazelnut Chickpea Flour Loaf

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Grain-free && Very low fat && Slightly and naturally sweetened

This quick loaf coffee cake is perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. But, parsnips in a coffee cake you may ask? To which I’d reply, sure, it’s no stranger than putting carrots in a cake, which many would argue is much more delicious than strange. Parsnips are just another root vegetable, and they’re even carrot shaped, if that helps to put you more at ease. While maybe not be quite as sweet as carrots, they have a little more of an earthy, and almost creamy, flavor that’s hard to describe; well worth a try. Parsnips really have their heyday in fall when everyone starts to get excited about root vegetables, but like carrots, they seem to be available and delicious year round.

Made with 100% chickpea flour, it’s totally grain-free, and the only fat comes from the chickpea flour. It’s also sweetened only with a little bit of date syrup, making it pretty guilt-free for breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, or dessert… you might even be able to pass it off as a dinner item; after all, chickpea flour is high in protein and parsnips are a vegetable. I say go for it!

For this loaf I recommend using a store-bought date syrup like The Date Lady‘s, which seems to be have a somewhat greater concentration of sweetness than the home-made stuff I’ve posted about (see my recipe for 110010 Birthday Cake for how to make your own date syrup. As the store-bought kind seems to be darker and a little sweeter, I have my suspicion that after blending the dates and water to make syrup, it’s probably cooked down a little to concentrate it; I need to do an experiment to check my hypothesis, and will be sure to report back when I do. But unless you have time to do the experiment yourself, try to go with store-bought.)

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Parsnip Date Hazelnut Chickpea Flour Loaf

30 minutes prep time, 45-55 minutes bake time

Makes 1 9″x5″ standard-sized loaf

Bits:

Dry:

150 g chickpea flour
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp ground fenugreek seed

Wet:

200 g grated parsnips (start with about 300 g / 2 large parsnips, then peel and grate to get 200 g)
¼ cup (70g) roasted mashed garnet yam (or butternut squash)
3 Tbsp (50 g) egg whites
½ cup (125 g) nonfat greek yogurt
1 Tbsp nonfat milk
2 Tbsp (40 g) date syrup
1 Tbsp lemon juice
¼ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp hazelnut extract (or omit and increase vanilla extract to ½ tsp)
¼ tsp almond extract

Algorithm:

Line a 9”x5” standard size loaf pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Combine dry ingredients in medium mixing bowl (sift chickpea flour as it tends to clump).
Grate parsnips, if not already grated, and measure out 200 g. Set aside.
Add wet ingredients except the parsnips in small mixing bowl and stir until pretty much smooth.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Fold with rubber spatula until almost combined.
Add the parsnips to the batter and fold until combined.
Bake 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center comes out *almost* clean. Check after 20 minutes and put a foil hat over the top to prevent dark spots.
Be a boring grown-up and clean up your mess while the loaf bakes.
Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove the loaf from the pan, unstick the parchment, and let cool completely on a wire rack (best if you can leave it for at least 45 minutes to an hour, if not longer) before wrapping it up and putting it away).

Keeps for 2 weeks tightly wrapped in plastic in the fridge. Also freezes fairly well, but texture may suffer a little.

Chickpea Flour Flat Bread (+Caprese Sandwich)

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Very low fat && Grain-free && Vegan option

Giving up grains does not have to mean giving up bread! At least, if your definition of bread is a little flexible. I can’t say I have a recipe for sourdough or a nice crusty french baguette that will fool you into thinking you’re eating regular wheat flour bread, but this chickpea flour bread still unmistakably bready, and versatile enough to fill in just about wherever you need it. It’s light enough to use for a sandwich, and perfect for topping with chutneys or spreads and dipping into soups. My partner (human, with no dietary restrictions) isn’t really a fan of beans (I still don’t know how that’s possible), but he voluntarily gave this bread a taste; he said it’s “passable” and he’d eat it without complaint if served to him… coming from him, that’s a big success!

A couple of the keys to making this recipe work so well are the milk and the roasted yam (always!). You can still make bread if you use water instead of milk and omit the yam, but the bread will be a bit more dry and will taste more reminiscent of beans, so I recommend using milk and yam if at all possible. At this point I’ve just been keeping some roasted yam in my fridge at the ready at all times, since it’s so useful in baking with 100% chickpea flour. It’s super convenient to have handy whenever the need to bake strikes me, and it’s also tasty on its own, mixed into some dal, or as a side in a larger meal if I find I have extra leftover.

Lately I’ve been craving a good savory, juicy sandwich (which is a little weird because I’m not normally much of a sandwich person), so I used the flat bread recipe below to build a reasonable facsimile of a caprese sandwich (see further below): tomatoes, basil, strained low fat cottage cheese (in place of the fresh mozzarella), and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, plus a extra sprinkle of salt and pepper for good measure. In my pre-cyborg days when I tolerated fat better but not at all tomatoes, I’d make myself caprese salads and sandwiches with fresh mozzarella but subbing thick slices of roasted beet for the tomato; it’s not exactly the same, but it’s quite delicious in its own right. Try it out if you can’t have tomatoes, or if you want a new spin on a classic caprese.

I’m hoping to develop a grain-free yeasted loaf bread recipe, and I think I’m close to having a 100% chickpea flour quick-bread that could be sliced and used like sandwich bread too. Stay tuned!

Chickpea Flour Flat Bread

Makes six 4″x 4″ “slices”, or two large naan-style flat breads

Note: About 1h 30 mins total time, including 1 hour rise time.

Bits:

1 cup nonfat milk, warmed to about 110ºF (warm to the touch, but not hot; I microwaved a cup of cold milk from the fridge for about 40 seconds) (Substitute plant-based milk for vegan option)
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp (half packet) active dry yeast
270 g (2 ¼ cups) chickpea flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground cumin
90 g (about ½ cup) roasted, mashed yam (optional, but recommended)

Algorithm:

In a small bowl, combine milk, sugar, and yeast. Set aside for 10 minutes for the yeast to wake up. If using water instead of milk, you should see some foam on the surface, but foam will be harder to see if using milk.

Sift the chickpea flour into a medium mixing bowl. Add the salt and cumin, and mix through. Pour in the milk-yeast mixture and add the mashed roasted yam into the chickpea flour and stir gently by hand until you get a very wet dough.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot for 1 hour; the dough will rise a bit, but not quite double in volume.

Put a large baking sheet into the oven and preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Tear off a large piece of parchment paper about the size of your baking sheet and set it on the counter. Take a large pinch or two of chickpea flour and rub it around the surface of the parchment paper; a very fine layer should stick; discard excess flour.

For “sandwich bread” squares, pictured above, scoop the dough out onto the parchment. With a rubber spatula, spread the dough out into a large thin rectangle, about 8″ x 12″ and 1/4″ thick. For large naan-style flat breads, scoop the dough into two equal mounds on the parchment paper. With a rubber spatula, spread the dough out into ovals about a 1/2″ thick.

When the oven is done heating to 425ºF, remove the baking sheet, slide the parchment with the dough on it onto the sheet, and place back in the oven. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until top is fully set, but don’t let it brown. Remove from oven and let cool on the hot baking sheet for 10 minutes. For sandwich bread, slice into six equal 4″x4″ squares (and slice off any rough edges, if you’d like). Top as desired, and enjoy!

Chickpea Flour Buttermilk Pancakes

Grain-free && Very low fat

Fluffy buttermilk pancakes. Robot compatibility verified.

My pancakes don’t always come out picture-perfectly round, like so many pancakes you may see on the internet. Good thing you can’t taste shapes.

These pancakes are sort of where my fat-free, grain-free baking all began. When I had to cut out grains and fat from my diet because of my gastroparesis, obviously that had no affect on my weekend morning cravings for a warm fluffy stack of pancakes. I had a good recipe for chickpea flour buttermilk pancakes in my copy of the Chickpea Flour Cookbook by Camilla V. Saulsbury (check out her blog https://powerhungry.com/ for lots of great grain-free recipes!), but they contained more fat than I could tolerate as written. So I’d been making them just with the fat cut out, but they seemed to be dissatisfyingly dry; not really a surprise with the fat removed, but, I thought, what can you do? Right around then autumn was getting into full swing and to distract myself from the inevitable disappointment of the end of the summer berry season, I was amping myself up for all the delicious squashes and root vegetables just coming into season. I wanted to make pumpkin pancakes that came out as fluffy and delicious as the chickpea flour buttermilk pancakes I’d been making, but I couldn’t find a grain-free and low- or non-fat pumpkin pancake recipe anywhere (I knew that was a tall order), so I resolved to make one up myself.

That was when I discovered pumpkin, squash, and sweet potato are excellent stand-ins for the fat in a recipe! (Of course I wasn’t the first person in history to discover this, but it was a totally new concept to me, and seems to not be a super-well-known baking fact in general.) The pumpkin/squash/sweet potato (whatever you decide to use) makes these pancakes tender and moist, while keeping them enjoyably light and fluffy. At the time I was a little disappointed the pumpkin flavor didn’t really come through, but that keeps the flavor of these pancakes pretty classic and well-suited for any time of year!

strawberry maple pancake

Cooking pancakes seems so straightforward on the surface: pour batter into pre-heated pan, cook a couple minutes, flip, cook another minute, devour. Pretty much every pancake recipe I’ve seen is written that way. Maybe it’s just me and my obnoxiously persistent attention to detail, but there seems to be a lot more nuance to it than that. In the 13 years since I’ve been making pancakes (yes, apparently I needed to earn a college degree before I could embark on the journey of trial, error, and self-discovery that is pancake-making), I feel like I’ve learned a lot. For years my pancakes were flat and heavy (and that was with regular white flour and as much fat as a normal pancake recipe calls for). Finally my pancakes are actually something to be desired, and part of that is technique, so I figured I’d share a list of pancake-making tips that could have saved me years of floppy lifeless pancakes, if only I’d known! These tips apply to standard grainy/fatty/sugary pancakes the same as they do for my grain-free, no-added-fat, slightly-sweetened pancakes in the recipe below.

Pancake cooking tips:

Batter consistency is important. I saw many a recipe that said the batter should be between spoonable and pourable, whatever that means. A thicker batter will result in taller pancakes, but you risk burning the outsides of your pancakes waiting for the middle to cook through; if you turn down the heat to avoid burning anything, the shock of the heat won’t be strong enough to kick the leavener into action quickly, resulting in heavy pancakes with not much rise. Similarly, if your batter is too runny, there won’t be enough structure in the batter for the pancakes to hold together and rise tall; instead they’ll just spread, and might come out with a light texture, but they’ll be very flat. The way I’d describe the batter consistency that I’ve had luck with is “thick but still pourable”. Hopefully if you follow recipes as written, particularly if you weigh your ingredients, rather than measuring by volume, the batter consistency will come out right. I weigh my ingredients, but sometimes depending on the day of month and the phase of the moon, my batter will come out a little too dry or too wet, and will need some tweaking. Recognizing a good consistency comes with experience to some extent, but feel free to tweak your batter as you cook, if your pancakes are coming out too thick (add buttermilk) or too runny (add flour).
Pre-heat your pan while you make the batter! This will help your first batch come out right, and help ensure consistency between batches.
Pancakes are sensitive to the exact heat of the pan. Every pan and every stove is different, so it will just take some trial and error with your particular set up to know what the best heat is to cook your pancakes properly. Adjust as you go, if needed. Once you find the right heat setting, get out a fat sharpie, make a big mark on your stove dial, and label it in big, delicious letters “PANCAKES”, so you can find the right heat level again easily for future pancake-making (…not really).
The first batch in the pan is always wonky. Is it just me? Maybe. I think it may be the fact that the pans start clean and maybe don’t get coated with an invisible layer of oil/butter/pancake magic that seems to stick around after the first batch. Also, the first batch is really a test batch that you should use to gauge the heat of your pan on the stove and the consistency of your batter. Start with only one or two pancakes in the pan for your first batch, just to be safe and get that pancake magic in there, so your following batches will come out correctly and consistently.
Pancakes take more than the one to two minutes to cook than many recipes suggest they do. “Pancakes are so simple and only take a couple minutes to cook!” Hah. Disagree. That said, they shouldn’t take 10 minutes per side either… If they cook in one to two minutes I’d guess they’ll come out burnt on the outside and underdone in the middle, so turn the heat down. If they take 10 or more minutes to cook they’re going to be flat and you’re going to get very bored very fast, so turn the heat up. Set your expectations properly.
Wait until your pancake looks ready to flip before flipping it. This one’s probably the most useful tip. The tell-tale signs that a pancake is ready to flip are: 1. the edges of the pancake should look dry on the surface, and 2. little air bubbles should be rising up and popping on the surface in the middle of the pancake (which should not look as dry as the edges). Once you see both of these signs, flip away.
Pancakes that wrinkle when you try to flip them likely need more time to cook through on the inside before you try to slip the spatula between the pancake and the pan, even if the outside looks dry and cooked. I’ve found this to be an issue with chickpea flour pancakes in particular. This also brings back into focus the delicate issue of pan temperature; the inside needs to cook through without the outside burning, so if your pancakes wrinkle up when you try to flip them, maybe turn the heat down a hair and given the pancakes an extra minute to cook. But also, don’t worry about it too much; like I said, you can’t taste shapes.
Use two spatulas to lift your pancakes from the pan. Don’t be stubborn about trying to avoid getting extra utensils dirty. This also helps your pancakes not wrinkle.
Don’t keep your cooked pancakes in a warm oven while you make the rest. In my experience this just dries them out. If you really need to, re-heat any cold pancakes in the microwave for a few seconds; they’ll taste just as good as straight from the pan.
Note specific to chickpea flour pancakes: The inside of the pancake tends to firm and fluff up as it cools. If you try biting into a chickpea flour fresh off the skillet, it may seem a bit mushy and possibly even under-cooked. Give them a couple minutes to cool on a plate, and then the texture will be fluffy and amazing! (IMHO)

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Robot-compatible Chickpea flour Buttermilk Pancakes

Note: These pancakes freeze and reheat in the microwave pretty perfectly! I recommend making a huge batch and always having some in the freezer for instant pancake gratification. They’ll keep just fine in the fridge for at least a week too.

Makes about 17 pancakes with about a 5″ diameter (I use a not-quite-full 1/3 cup measure to scoop the batter)

Bits:

Dry:

313 g (2 1/2 cups) chickpea flour
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice (I make my own with this recipe: https://thepioneerwoman.com/food-and-friends/how-to-make-pumpkin-pie-spice/)

Wet:

144 g egg whites (or about 3 large eggs, if you don’t mind the fat from the eggs)
325 g (about 1 1/4 cups) roasted and mashed pumpkin / winter squash / sweet potato (NOTE: Canned pumpkin will work too, in a pinch, but roasted pumpkin / squash / sweet potato will make a noticeably softer, fluffier pancake! My favorite is roasted red kuri squash, but I most frequently use roasted sweet potatoes as they are cheap and accessible year round.)
2 cups low-fat buttermilk
2 1/2 tsp sweetener of your choice (I have been using coconut palm sugar lately, because I have some to use up; brown sugar or white sugar will all work fine.)
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp lemon juice
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Reduced-fat butter (it exists!) for greasing your pan, if your pan needs help to prevent sticking

Algorithm:

Preheat a large, ideally non-stick, frying pan on medium heat on the stove (see pancake-cooking tips above).
Sift flour into a large mixing bowl. Add remaining dry ingredients and stir to combine.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine wet ingredients except the butter. Stir together, mashing as needed to be sure the pumpkin/squash/sweet potato is smoothly mixed through.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and stir gently / fold vigorously with a rubber spatula until combined. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl when mixing, to ensure there are no surprise pockets of dry ingredients.
Put reduced fat butter if needed into your frying pan in order to prevent sticking. Make sure the surface of the pan is coated evenly. The pan should be heated such that butter should sizzle, but not immediately brown when added to the pan.
Use a scoop (I use a 1/3 cup measure) to pour batter into pan. The pancake is ready to flip when the edges look dry, and air bubbles rise up and pop in the middle (see tips above). Flip and cook each pancake for another minute or two. The pancake is done when the spatula slides easily under the pancake and the bottom is golden brown.
Top with jam, fruit, or maple syrup, and enjoy!