Yes, really, fluffy vegan gluten free pancakes without eggs! And even if you do eat wheat flour, trust that these are actually good but I, too, eat gluten. So if you just feel like trying something new, or need to eat to eat gluten free, they’re great either way. Bonus, these are totally sugar free and sweetened only with banana.
The bananas are key in this recipe. They hold everything together so multiple flours aren’t needed, and make the vegan recipe possible. Keep in mind that they make the pancakes rather sweeter than usual, so you can use less maple syrup, or leave it off altogether.
I think topping them with something a little tart, like a blueberry sauce, is excellent, as is nut or seed butter. I usually serve these banana pancakes with extra banana, cinnamon, and a touch of maple syrup. You can see that these are also topped with a few lilac blossoms, which are edible, and delicious (you could also top these with lilac syrup)!
This recipe uses only buckwheat flour, no blends or starches needed. You’ll need just 8 ingredients in total, including vanilla, and everything is mixed in one bowl.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Buckwheat flour: I haven’t tried making these with any alternative flours to the buckwheat. I don’t recommend messing around with that unless you’re very used to working with gluten free flours, and please don’t sub coconut flour.
- Milk: any thinner non-dairy milk is fine – think almond milk, cashew milk, or oat milk. If dairy is no problem for you then feel free to use dairy milk.
- Add-ins: consider this a base recipe that you can add to. Extra spices like cinnamon or nutmeg, chocolate chips, blueberries, and so on.
- Oil: this can be any light-tasting oil, or something like melted butter. I don’t recommend omitting the oil as it will cause the pancakes to stick during cooking.
Recipe Notes
There are a handful of ways to make pancakes that are both vegan and gluten free. One is to use a mix of multiple different flours and starches, which I don’t love as I prefer to keep the number of ingredients as low as possible. Another method, utilised here, is to add a natural binding agent into an integral part of the pancakes. Bananas!
Any type of frying pan will work. If it tends to be sticky on a good day, make sure you add enough oil to prevent this as gluten free pancakes can be a bit trickier to flip. I use a well-seasoned cast iron pan.
As with wheat-based pancakes, you flip them when you see bubbles forming around the edges. They do brown and cook quite quickly due to the banana adding a higher natural sugar content, so keep an eye on them. The exterior is almost caramel-like and very nice.
How to Store
Storage: keep leftover pancakes in a sealed container at room temperature for a couple of days, or refrigerate for longer. They’re a good little snack cold, too.
Freezing: these will freeze well, stored in an airtight container, for up to three months. Thaw as you usually would for pancakes.
About Buckwheat
This is my favourite gluten-free flour. Despite the name, buckwheat is actually a seed, so the flour is totally grain free and ideal if you’re celiac or otherwise can’t have wheat. It has a really nice flavour, especially in combination with banana and cinnamon, and works well in pancakes. It’s cheap, too. Win, win.
Buckwheat tends to be pretty widely available and can often be found even when other types of flour might be in short supply. Depending on where you live, you might be able to get both light or whole grain buckwheat flour. Both work well for these pancakes.
You can make your own buckwheat flour by grinding buckwheat groats into a fine flour using a high speed food processor or dry-ingredient safe blender (or a mill, of course). This will be whole grain flour.
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Expert Tips
- Sift baking soda: because the batter is mixed in one bowl and dry ingredients are added second, you can get some pieces of baking powder or soda that will be unpleasant later. If you have lumps in either, sift them when adding to the batter.
- Mix away: because this is gluten-free, you can whisk without fear of over-mixing. Don’t whisk again after the first time, though, as you might knock some of the air out from the leavening agents.
- Blend the bananas: if you don’t like the possibility of banana chunks, use an immersion or standing blender to mix the wet ingredients until very smooth.
- Measure by weight: it’s always more accurate and I highly recommend using weights over cup measurements, but for gluten-free recipes it is particularly helpful as the density of flour varies so much between brands. If you’re grinding your own buckwheat flour, you must weigh it for this recipe.
More Gluten Free Recipes
Almond Flour Brownies
Buckwheat Trail Mix Cookies
Ultimate Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies
Gluten Free Date Squares
If you make these Gluten Free Banana Pancakes or any other vegetarian breakfast recipes on Occasionally Eggs, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more OE, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, purchase the Occasionally Eggs cookbook, or subscribe for new posts via email.
Gluten Free Banana Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 overripe bananas mashed
- 180 ml non-dairy milk
- 2 tablespoons oil olive or another light, liquid oil
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 120 grams buckwheat flour*
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Coconut oil for cooking
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add enough coconut oil for a thin layer to cover the bottom.Coconut oil
- In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add the milk, oil, and vanilla, and whisk to combine.2 overripe bananas, 180 ml non-dairy milk, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon to the bowl with the banana mixture. Whisk to combine.120 grams buckwheat flour*, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Scoop about 3 tablespoons of batter for each pancake into the now hot pan, and cook until you see bubbles forming around the edges before flipping, 30-40 seconds. Carefully slip and cook for another 30 seconds on the other side, repeating until all of the batter is used.
- Keep the pancakes on a baking sheet in a warm oven (about 100°C or 200°F) until the batch is finished.
- Serve with extra banana, berries, or any toppings you like. The pancakes freeze well for up to three months.
Notes
* For American cup measurements, please click the pink link text above the ingredient list that says ‘American’.
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
This post was originally published in August 2015. It has been updated with new pictures, text, and improvements to the recipe as of April 2020.
Joy says
Yum! Tried making this one for my kids and they love it! Definitely recommended. Surprisingly perfect combination too for my hemp coffee.
Sue Murray says
This is by far the best vegan and gluten free pancake recipe I’ve tried and I’ve tried many. Very simple to make in one bowl. They are fluffy and hearty but so filling you feel too full. Absolute ten out of ten!
Anita says
I love buckwheat and these were great! I used the batter to make both pancakes and waffles and it worked well as both. Waffles need to be cooked at a lower temperature for longer as the bananas will burn before the rest is cooked through. Will make again!
Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says
Good to know about the waffles, thanks Anita!
Kristen Kemp says
Hello! Is there another flour I can use if I don’t have buckwheat! I’ve been looking for a sugar free or low sugar recipe so this would be perfect! Thank you!
Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says
Hi Kristen, as I note above in the substitutions section, I haven’t tried this recipe with an alternative flour. I think you could probably use spelt or a wheat based flour but the amount might be different, or a GF blend, but I haven’t tested so I can’t be sure.
Autumn Bayne says
Hello,
Why no eggs? What is in this recipe that would be a good substitute for eggs?
I see that in some of your other recipes that eggs are included.
I can’t have chicken eggs so I buy range free duck eggs.
I really want to try this recipe out and was wondering would it be
okay to add an egg in this?
Separate the egg so that I’m stirring the yolk with other wet ingredients,
whisk whites to stiff peaks, then folding them in after all other ingredients
have been combined.
Would love your thoughts!
folding in the whites last
Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says
Hi Autumn! The banana acts as a binder in these, so no egg is needed. You can certainly add an egg as you described and they should turn out very well.
Elizabeth Kaufman says
First of all, let me say how much I really appreciate this blog. Your recipes are inventive, relatively easy to make, and they really fill a hole from switching over to gluten free vegan.
The pancake batter, for me, came out very thick and so I added quite a bit of water. Maybe I did something wrong in mixing? Then, the batter stuck to the pan quite badly. My experience with alternative pancakes is that they don’t cook all the way through, and these do – but how to deal with the sticking to the pan? I did use coconut oil to coat pan and used cast iron, which usually doesn’t cause things to stick? Any advice?
Thank you! Elizabeth K
Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says
This is a really old recipe but I’ve never had issues with the pancakes sticking to a pan like you describe – I haven’t yet tried them in cast iron but will soon. The only thing I can think of here is maybe the added water messing with the composition of the cakes and making them stick, but I’m also not sure why they turned out so thick for you. Maybe your flour was very dense? I’ll do some testing and update this recipe and get back to you soon!
Leora Kenick says
Look for egg replacement somewhere, you will find that banana is one of the replacers, but I don’t remember if anything else was included with it!!
Joy Gershman says
Trying 1.5 bananas to cut down on sugars. Replaced with some coconut cream and it worked!
Joy Gershman says
I have tried several gf vegan pancake recipes and this one is THE BEST!! It's the first one that is actually fluffy! Made it twice now, 2nd batch doubled and still delicious! No sweetener needed as the bananas make it plenty sweet (coming from a maple loving Cdn!) And the buckwheat taste isn't too strong either. Thank you thank you! (Found you on pinterest even though I'm almost never there)
The Vegan Junction says
Those do look nice and fluffy! Yumm.