Quinoa Pancakes

Let’s add some quinoa to your morning.

I usually eat quinoa on the side of a meal, like rice, or as a main player in a salad. Why not in my pancakes? It adds texture, an earthy, nutty taste, and a boost of protein and fiber. The cup of quinoa to 3/4 cup of flour in this recipe makes for a pancake proudly spotted with red quinoa.

Quinoa is cooked and eaten like a grain, but it’s actually a seed. I cook it in my rice cooker, using the same ratio for rice with two parts water to one part grain, to make a small mountain of fluffy quinoa. I usually use red quinoa because, come on, look at that color.

    

    

This was a simple batter to whip up early this morning with leftover quinoa, even when I wasn’t fully awake.  In the middle of a flip, one pancake totally missed the pan, leaving some of its batter behind. Oops.

The pancakes all turned out just fine anyway.

Any first batch of pancakes tends to turn out a bit wonky because the pan isn’t quite hot enough. For this recipe, the first batch was my favorite though because the quinoa could be seen from the flat side of the pancake and not just the sides. Pretty.

    

These pancakes are small, which means they cook quickly. They made for an especially good breakfast when served with Bonne Maman raspberry preserves, rather than jelly or jam because preserves are chunkier and seem to have more actual fruit.

This breakfast is certainly worth a shot in your kitchen. Quinoa pancakes will definitely show up in mine again.

quinoa pancakes

If you’re looking for a way to add more protein to your pancakes, try quinoa. You can use any kind, but I like using red quinoa because it’s more noticeable.

1 cup cooked quinoa
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large egg and 1 large egg white
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, plus more for skillet
1/4 cup low-fat milk
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup, plus more for serving
fresh fruit or fruit preserves to serve on pancakes (optional)Whisk together quinoa, flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Whisk together the egg, egg white, butter, milk, and maple syrup in another medium bowl until smooth. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and whisk together to combine.

Bring a skillet to medium heat and let a dab of butter melt in it. Drop the batter into the skillet in heaping tablespoonfuls, cooking two or three pancakes at a time. Cook pancakes until bubbles appear on top, about 2 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until golden brown on the other side, about another 2 minutes. Bring the heat down a bit, and repeat with the rest of the batter. Watch pancakes to make sure they don’t burn, as the skillet may continue to heat up and get too hot. You can add some more butter in between batches, but it’s not necessary.

Serve pancakes with maple syrup and fresh fruit or fruit preserves.

Makes 12 small pancakes. Adapted from Martha Stewart

About these ads
Category : food
Tags : , ,