*waves hello*
Miracles do happen…I’m posting on a weekend. It takes a lot of motivation for me to post on a Sunday morning, but I simply couldn’t wait another day to share this recipe with you! It’s that good.
Today’s recipe features chickpea flour, an ingredient you haven’t seen much on this blog. Chickpea flour is high in protein (7 grams per 1/4 cup according to Cuisine Soleil) and it’s naturally gluten-free making it friendly to our gluten sensitive friends. It also boasts 3 grams of fibre per 1/4 cup. I soon found out what a filling breakfast it makes!
After having a few bad experiences with chickpea flour recipes in the past, I almost crossed it off my list forever. I find the earthy, beany flavour of chickpea flour can be overwhelming if not balanced by other ingredients and it can take some getting used to, at least it did for me. This weekend, I decided to take another crack at it and I’m so glad I did.
Meet my newest breakfast love…she’s a beaut.
In case you can’t tell by the photo, this is a huge pancake about the size of a 10-inch skillet! I had to plate it on my extra-large round plate because it wouldn’t fit on my regular round plates. Who doesn’t want to eat a pancake bigger than their head? Noooooobody! After a few trials of this pancake, I finally nailed the consistency of the batter and flavour I was going for.
Best of all, it takes only 10 minutes to whisk together the ingredients and then another 10 minutes or so to cook. I also expect it’s quite versatile so feel free to change up the mix-ins and toppings. I think a sautéed mushroom, onion, and chive topping would be especially nice, especially with some cashew cream! One large pancake has around 14-15 grams of protein; add some toppings and you can easily hit 20 grams of protein without much effort.
I topped it with avocado, hummus, salsa, red pepper flakes, and a spicy cashew cream – a tasty change up from my normal breakfasts of smoothies and vegan overnight oats. This would also make a fun lunch or dinner too!
Jumbo Chickpea Pancake
Yield
1 large or 2 smaller
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This dense and filling savoury chickpea pancake is packed with protein and fibre. Feel free to change up the mix-ins and toppings based on what you have in your fridge. To prevent it from sticking to the skillet, be sure to spray the skillet liberally with olive oil before pouring on the batter. Also, I suggest chopping the veggies finely so they cook faster.
Ingredients
- 1 green onion, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
- 1/4 cup finely chopped red pepper
- 1/2 cup chickpea flour (also known as garbanzo flour or besan)
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons water
- For serving: salsa, avocado, hummus, cashew cream (optional)
Directions
- Prepare the vegetables and set aside. Preheat a 10-inch skillet over medium heat.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the chickpea flour, garlic powder, salt, pepper, baking powder, and optional red pepper flakes.
- Add the water and whisk well until no clumps remain. I like to whisk it for a good 15 seconds to create lots of air bubbles in the batter.
- Stir in the chopped vegetables.
- When the skillet is pre-heated (a drop of water should sizzle on the pan), spray it liberally with olive oil or other non stick cooking spray.
- Pour on all of the batter (if making 1 large pancake) and quickly spread it out all over the pan. Cook for about 5-6 minutes on one side (timing will depend on how hot your pan is), until you can easily slide a pancake flipper/spatula under the pancake and it's firm enough not to break when flipping. Flip pancake carefully and cook for another 5 minutes, until lightly golden. Be sure to cook for enough time as this pancake takes much longer to cook compared to regular pancakes.
- Serve on a large plate and top with your desired toppings. Leftovers can be wrapped up and placed in the fridge. Reheat on a skillet until warmed throughout.
Tip:
- For the cashew cream, see this recipe. I added red pepper flakes into the blender to make it spicy.
- You can make this recipe into 2 smaller pancakes if desired.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
As you can see from the photo, this isn’t your regular fluffy pancake. Chickpea flour makes this pancake very dense and filling. I find the flavour can take some getting used to, but I really enjoy it prepared this way. On that note, I’m off to make another one! I’d love your feedback on this recipe if you make it.
On another note, Eric thinks he fixed the printing issue that a few of you were having with the new recipe display. It appears that those of you using Internet Explorer 8 web browser were having issues with printing, but it should be fixed now. If anyone has any further issues, please let us know! Everything looks good on our end.
Absolutely delicious! I made some fresh salsa to have with it . The combination of the pancake with the salsa, cashew cream and avacado was a perfect mix. It also plates beautifully. Will definitely make this again. I Will probably try making smaller pancakes and serving them as a side with a Mexican dinner some time. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Oh so wonderful. This was my first attempt at making a chickpea pancake and even though it turned out to be a mess, it was oh so wonderful. I’m hooked and you’ve inspired me to try other ideas. Will also surely try your way again as it looks absolutely perfect. I live in Greece and mine turned out comparable to our veggie fritters, just so much healthier, I’m thrilled. Thank you!
I think this looks sooo nice and decided to make it. I had a really hard time making the pancake stick together. Instead it crumbled up.
So it became like this:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBgech0W4AEG5sp.jpg
It was tasty anyway, but do you have any tip what could have gone wrong?
These are lovely… made them several times and then braved making them without checking the recipe… I added two cups of flour and water (accidently) and chucked it all in the pan… so more frittata than pancake, but still tasty
Just to mix things up, tahini (sesame seed paste) might be a better topping for this pancake than humus (humus is chickpeas, so it’s chickpeas on top of chickpeas). Tahini also has lots of protein as well as having the added benefit of lots of calcium. Raw tahini can be used, or a paste can be made by adding olive oil, lemon and some water (garlic, salt, pepper, etc. optional).
needs a non-stick pan! nightmare… didn’t cook solidly and stuck to the pan, despite using a shit-ton of coconut oil. ended up with mush. feel like this needs some oil IN the batter
this recipe is a game changer! SO GOOD! just finished eating this thing (i almost couldn’t finish it, it’s so filling!). I added normal onion instead of green onion and added more sauteed onions and red pepper on top with avocado and cashew cream. Amazingly tastey and good for you! I’m definitely gonna use this as a pre-workout staple :)
Made this and it’s amazing. I doubled it and made 4 in an 8 inch pan. Thanks.
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I put lots of shredded cabbage from my CSA in and it was quite okonomiyaki-esque. I topped it with a little avocado and some hot sauce but I’m keen to try it with hummus and more veggies.
I just made these and put vegan pesto/vegenaise on top with scrambled tofu…it is soooo good!
Made this for dinner tonight. I loved it, as did my 14 month old son. So nice and easy, although mine didn’t look as pretty as your pictures haha. I added in some cooked mushrooms and had avocado and salsa as toppings.
Since the time Ive moved to country where is besan easy to find I love to try various recipes with it… and this is my favourite, just today for lunch I add shredded and lightly fied squash and piece of leek and topped with 1) broccoli sauce (rice flour, butter, milk, s.,p. broccoli) or 2) cold beetroot salad… it was awesome
Yep this turned out great – nice and crunchy and goes well with grilled veggies and tahini sauce mixed with lemon. Thank you!!!
This is the first time i’ve used chickpea flour, and this pancake was very good! It didn’t hold well together though, but i’ll try again! thank you! :)
OhmyGoodness! I made smaller cakes from this recipe and it is too good! I made a 50/50 version with cornmeal and served it with eggplant/tomato/onion topping…I like the all garbonzo bean cakes the best! I’m going to a gathering this weekend and plan to make them as my donation of goodies to eat! thanks so much!
Just tried this recipe for breakfast. Amazing! What a great idea.
Used fresh veggies from my garden. Something other than oatmeal for Sunday breakfast is always good.
I made this for lunch today, minus the green onion since I didn’t have any. :-) It was great. Mine didn’t flip as pretty and ended up more burrito like. I cut it and topped each section with a different topping. Green Godess dressing from this site. Store bought hummus and this cheese sauce http://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?catId=10&pageId=40
All 3 were great! It’s very filling
I love chickpea pancakes and have been making them after being inspired by this recipe, thank you! They’re so light, cake like aren’t they, so good sweet or savoury :)
Ive had a bag of chickpea flour in my pantry for ages and I never felt inspired to use it…until this morning!
We added courgettes, red peppers, fresh garlic, green onions and lots of child flakes to the batter and it was super yum. We went for the giant size and regretted it when it came time to flip. So it didn’t turn out quite as beautiful as yours but damn it was yummy. We even had a batch of cashew cream from dinner last night! The light crispy outside of the pancake went really well with the cream.
Super yummy and reminded me of an omelette. Will definitely make again. And I love all the ideas in the comments for other chickpea flour uses!
Thanks!
obviously that is meant to say chilli flakes…not child flakes! lol
I am totally making this for my lunchbox !!