Healthy Vegan Crepes

What’s in my crepes?!

No fake eggs! No egg replacer! It’s really not needed for vegan crepes, just a bit of a binding agent very minimal ingredients.

I’ve had more vegan crepe 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 (potato, yuck). 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 the 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. 

Tips for the best vegan crepes

The big one – 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.

Use a thin spatula to flip, make sure you can get in on the edges of your pan (shallower is better), and, to reiterate, cook in a hot pan. I don’t mean screaming hot, but be certain the pan is heated before adding any batter.

Depending on how non-stick your cast iron pan is, you might have a hard time using cast iron. If you are, add a little extra coconut oil when cooking.

If you find that they are tending to break anyway, let the batter rest for a half hour before trying again. You can add another tablespoon of arrowroot as a last resort. I have never, in about five years of making these, had any real problems with breaking unless my pan was cold.

How should I eat them?

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. They’re already healthy crepes so it makes sense to have them at all times of day with different fillings. I’ve included some sweet topping ideas here 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.

Suggested Toppings

Any type of berries
Applesauce and cinnamon
Raw chocolate (and marzipan, why not)
Chopped nuts
Cookie dough dip
Coconut whipped cream or coconut yogurt
Oat cream
Vegan labneh
Lemon curd or go nuts with rhubarb curd
Roasted fruits (peaches, rhubarb, etc.)
Maple syrup
Hazelnut Butter

Substitutions

Don’t do it! Just kidding. For this recipe, you can change a couple small things – all purpose flour will work even better than spelt. Whole grain flours tend to make a bit of a mess.

Tapioca starch and arrowroot can be used interchangeably, and any granulated sugar can be used in place of coconut. I specify oat or almond milk just because they’re most commonly used, but you could do cashew milk, another nut milk, or any kind, really – just full-fat coconut from the can won’t work so well.

Let’s connect! If you liked this recipe, make sure to leave a comment below, I love hearing from you! Tag me on instagram @occasionallyeggs and #occasionallyeggs so I can see what you’re making, and stay in touch via email, facebook, and pinterest.

You might also like: