A healthy makeover to the pancake breakfast, you’ve got to love it. I’m still on a buckwheat bender. The more I find out about what you can do with this humble seed (and how good for you it is), the more I want to cook. And eat.
I started thinking about pancakes, and was going to make a weekend pancake breakfast using buckwheat flour instead of regular flour. I have that in my pantry anyhow as it’s great in baking. So far, so easy. I also had buckwheat groats (the hulled seeds) around, which I usually use in muesli and my oat, chia and buckwheat breakfast bowl. So I started soaking some of those the night before, with some vague notion of using whole groats in the pancake batter.
Then I remembered you can make pancake batter with the soaked groats themselves. Rethink.
Cue Sunday morning. Weary and sleep deprived as per life with a wee babe. Soaked groats ready to go. This seriously couldn’t have been an easier breakfast to whip up, even in that state.
I really adore tamarillos and they’re in season right now. I had a batch of tamarillo and apple compote in the fridge which was perfect with these nutty flavoured pancakes. And to top it off, I treated myself to a jar of Raglan Coconut Yoghurt this week. Oh my. It’s a love story. Snowy white, creamy and tangy, it’s some kind of perfection. It’s pretty expensive so I can’t see it becoming a regular in my kitchen, but it is amazingly delicious.
Back to the pancakes. They’re not the light and fluffy white pancakes you’re used to, but they do have a lovely texture and lightness, and they partner well with all the usual toppings. I really encourage you to give them a try.
And let’s not forget the health benefits of eating soaked seeds and nuts. I’m still learning about this and am no great expert, but I understand it significantly increases the nutritional value of the seeds and your body’s ability to absorb them. Bonus.
I suspect this recipe could easily be made vegan by using an egg replacer like chia or flax seed, but I haven’t experimented with this yet. If you try it, let me know how it goes.
You need to start this recipe the night before (to soak the buckwheat), and you’ll need a food processor or high speed blender.
INGREDIENTS
For the pancakes:
- 1 cup buckwheat groats
- 1-2 cups soy milk (or milk of your choice)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp cinnamon optional
- 1 tbsp maple syrup optional
- Zest of an orange optional
- 2 tsp baking powder check label if gluten free
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
For the tamarillo and apple compote:
- 3 tamarillos
- 3 apples I used granny smiths
- 2 star anise
- 2 tbsp raw sugar
- A strip of orange zest
- Juice of an orange
INSTRUCTIONS
For the pancakes:
- The night before your pancake feast, put the buckwheat in a bowl or jug and cover with plenty of water. Give it a stir to ensure it all sinks and is covered by water. Leave the bowl on the bench at room temperature overnight.
- The next morning the volume of the buckwheat will have almost doubled. Drain it in a sieve and give it a good rinse under a tap. It'll be a bit slimy - this is nothing to worry about, it's just starch released during the soaking process and it'll easily rinse away.
- Start heating your frypan over a medium heat. I added a lick of coconut oil.
- Tip the buckwheat into your food processor or blender. Add milk until it comes up to the same level as the buckwheat, or just covers it.
- Add eggs, cinnamon, maple syrup and orange zest. Blend until the batter is pretty smooth. The soaked buckwheat blends easily, so this will only take 30 seconds or so.
- Add baking powder and vinegar, then briefly blend to combine. The acid activates the baking powder, so you want to do this just before you start cooking the pancakes.
- Pour batter into your frypan and cook as per usual for pancakes, flipping when you see small bubbles appearing in the surface and the bottom is golden brown.
- Makes about 10 small pancakes.
For the tamarillo and apple compote:
- Tamarillos are hard to peel with a peeler, but easy if you blanch them first. Cut a cross in their bottoms, drop them into boiling water for a minute, then remove and drop them into cold water. The skin will then peel off easily by hand.
- Add peeled and chopped apples, chopped tamarillos, spices, sugar, orange zest and juice to a sauce pan. Cook over a low to medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until the tamarillos have released their gorgeous ruby red juices and the apples are cooked. I prefer my fruit to still have some texture to it, rather than cooking it into a puree.
- I then stir through the fruit and pick out the whole spices and orange zest. Biting into a whole clove isn't that nice. You could use ground cloves if you can't be bothered with this - maybe half a teaspoon.
- Cool and keep in the fridge until you need it, or eat it hot straight away if you just can't wait.
- Makes about two cups.
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