These healthy vegan crepes made with spelt flour and a little coconut sugar are surprisingly simple and easy to make. If you can make pancakes, you can make these!
It’s finally sunny this evening after a solid week of rain. Graham said today that we had rain all winter, and it’s not supposed to rain in the summer! He’s very much a prairie boy and we’re used to very hot, sunny summers with thunderstorms at night and very little rain during the day. I don’t mind the cooler weather but the rain has been a little much. We were supposed to go to Sweden this week but didn’t make it due to train issues, so we took a week at home instead. I’ve been working all week photographing recipes for a project so I was stuck inside most of the time anyway.
I’ve had more healthy vegan crêpe failures over the past few years than I care to count. I’ve tried using chia, flax, banana, nut butter, agar, potato… they either didn’t work or tasted like the bottom of a shoe. I had been regularly making them with eggs but my egg consumption is virtually nil these days and I needed an egg-free version.
Turns out the easiest, foolproof way to make healthy vegan crêpes is with a little arrowroot flour! My favourite vegan pancake recipe also uses arrowroot, so why not? I also find the vegan recipe to be a little lighter than making them with eggs, and they sit easier in my stomach. These are, of course, not the very fatty and buttery crêpes I grew up with (my mom loves butter) but I definitely prefer them this way. Sorry mama.
This is a sweet recipe, but I often cut the sugar down to a pinch and fill them with vegetables for a quick and easy dinner. I’ve included some sweet topping ideas at the bottom of the recipe if you don’t want to use strawberries or if they’re out of season. You can just have them very simply with a little maple syrup if you’d like, but it makes it a little special to add something extra. The actual crêpes are not extremely sweet on their own.
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Healthy Vegan Crepes
These healthy vegan crepes made with spelt flour and a little coconut sugar are surprisingly simple and easy to make, with just a handful of ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 cup light spelt flour*
- 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot flour
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups oat or almond milk
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil melted, plus extra for cooking*
Instructions
- Place the flour, coconut sugar, arrowroot, vanilla, and salt into a large bowl and whisk to combine. Make a well in the centre and pour the milk and oil into the dry ingredients. Gently whisk until just mixed.
- Heat a large, flat bottomed pan on medium heat with a teaspoon of oil. Make sure the pan is hot before adding your first crépe, and then ladle in about a quarter of the batter (I use a smaller ladle) and rotate the pan to coat the base of the pan in batter. Cook for about a minute and 30 seconds, then flip and cook for another minute on the other side. Repeat for the remaining batter and serve hot.
- The crêpes pictured were served with coconut whipped cream, strawberries, and lemon zest.
Notes
* You can use whole spelt flour as well, and I generally do. For a more traditional crêpe use light spelt, and if you're serving them for breakfast definitely use whole-grain.
** I've also made this recipe with nut oils like hazelnut and walnut, and they were delicious alternatives to coconut oil.
• Flip confidently! If they break it may be either that your pan was too cold, or that you flipped too slowly, or that they didn't cook long enough before flipping - they'll still taste good if they break, but you might want to try making them once before showing off to your friends.
Suggested toppings:
Any type of berries
Applesauce and cinnamon
Raw chocolate (and marzipan, why not)
Chopped nuts
Coconut whipped cream
Lemon curd
Roasted fruits (peaches, rhubarb, etc.)
Maple syrup
These sound so lovely. I have a whole bunch of fresh strawberries that would be perfect for this!
These sound and look delicious, I love using spelt flour, but usually end-up making thick pancakes rather than crepes, but I recently bought a French crepe pan without Teflon (they use beeswax instead!), so I've been dying to use it. I'll have to try your recipe!
I'm not vegan but I do love arrowroot flour – I use it all the time but have never in pancakes – I may give this recipe a whirl!
I'm really not much of a pancake / waffle / crepe person for breakfast, but these look absolutely amazing! It's been a long time since I've used spelt flour, but it's an ingredient I enjoy working with. And I've been meaning to dabble in arrowroot flour for awhile now! I've just pinned and can't wait to try this recipe. Oh — and those little strawberries look scrumptious!
Perfect!
Sometimes it's nice to know you can make crêpes even if you don't have eggs! We don't have eggs a lot of the time so I'm always trying to figure out how to make things without.
Beeswax?! I'm emailing you now, I need to know more! I've started making more thin pancakes because it's so much more fun to be able to fill them, and since maple syrup is a little harder to come by over here. Either way is good, though!
I often make them for dessert instead! We eat oatmeal almost without fail for breakfast, but sometimes crêpes or waffles for second breakfast. Thanks, Justine!