Top these fluffy Tiger Nut Flour Pancakes with fresh berries, nut butter and honey for an amazing grain-free, high fiber, paleo-friendly breakfast or brunch!
When I went to Expo West last month, I met with the folks at Organic Gemini, a company that makes awesome, quality food products centered around tiger nuts.
As I sampled their raw granola and all of their delicious Horchata drinks, I instantly knew these products would nestle their way into my kitchen. Excited to add a new gluten-free and/or grain-free flours to my baking arsenal, I connected with the brand.
It only took a couple of recipes using Organic Gemini’s TigerNut Flour for me to fall in love with the stuff. Not only is it super forgiving compared to other grain-free flours (as in, you don’t have to have the perfect golden ratio of eggs-to-fat-to-liquid-to-flour), but I find it’s much easier on my digestive system than almond flour and coconut flour.
Plus, when combined with tapioca flour, the texture of tiger nut flour goods is super similar to whole wheat. I’m now envisioning baking every muffin known to man with this magical mixture.
What Are Tiger Nuts?
So…Tiger nuts…what exactly are they, and how can we incorporate them into our cooking? Tiger nuts, are actually small, fibrous root vegetables (not nuts at all!) that originate from Africa and have been a large part of the human diet for thousands of years.
As it turns out, tiger nuts were a big part of our paleolithic ancestor’s diets and traces were found in a 6,000-year old Egyptian tomb.
In spite of the large role the little tubers have played in cultures overseas, they haven’t created waves in North American cuisine until recently because growing conditions for the planet aren’t ideal in the U.S. Tiger nuts can be consumed raw, roasted, dried, ground into flour and baked or a hydrated into tiger nut milk or pressed into oil.
Typically, the round tubers are dried before storing to prevent spoilage and are typically re-hydrated before consumption.
What You Need to Know About TigerNut flour:
- A great source of Resistant Starch, which is a prebiotic fiber that resists digestion and fuels our healthful probiotic bacteria.
- Naturally gluten-free and grain-free.
- Has a somewhat grainy texture similar to almond flour. When combined with tapioca flour, you get a fluffy consistency, similar to regular whole wheat or all-purpose flour.
- Contains a nutty, somewhat buttery flavor. I’d compare the flavor to lightly buttered popcorn.
- Can be used in baked goods from cookies and bars to quickbreads, and even pancakes, as shown in this recipe.
- To get more information about tiger nuts and TigerNut flour, check out this page.
Now let’s talk pancakes.
If you’re familiar with grain-free pancakes, you know they can be a bit of a pain in the beehive. The wet-to-dry ratio can be a bit complicated, they tend to require more cook time than regular pancakes, and unless the formula is just right, they can be dry or fall apart easily.
Essentially, grain-free pancakes are a challenge; however, these ones defy all odds and they…
- Turn out fluffy, tender, soft, and chewy
- Taste nutty/buttery in flavor
- Require only 4 ingredients: tiger nut flour, tapioca flour, eggs, and some form of milk (I used almond milk)
- Hold together very well and are not at all difficult to flip, contrary to the typical grain-free pancake
- Take no more time to prepare and cook than regular {all-purpose flour} pancakes
TigerNut Flour Pancake Flavor Options:
If you want to get really fancy with the recipe, you can replace half of the milk with a ripe banana for banana bread-style pancakes. You can also use full-fat coconut milk instead of almond milk for richer flavor, and add any sweetener of your choosing to the batter.
Feel like shredding up a carrot to make mock carrot cake pancakes? Go for it! Wanna add some gluten-free rolled oats and raisins to have a sort of dessert-for-breakfast oatmeal cookie pancake situation? You do you, m’dear.
As you can see, I enjoyed the pancakes with fresh berries, almond butter, sliced TigerNuts, and honey. You can go the butter and maple syrup route, opt for peanut butter and banana, make a fun and frisky fruit compote, make a pancake breakfast sammie with eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, you name it!
There are plenty of options to turn this basic recipe for tiger nut flour pancakes into any dreamy hot n’ steamy stack of your choosing.
More Delicious Gluten-Free Pancake Recipes:
- Sweet Potato Rolled Oat Protein Pancakes:
- Vegan Banana Pancakes
- Coconut Flour Zucchini Pancakes
- Paleo Avocado Pancakes
- Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes
Stack ’em high!
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag me at @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Tiger Nut Flour Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk see note*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup TigerNut flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- Pinch sea salt
- Coconut oil for cooking
Optional Add-ins:
- Pinch ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
For Serving:
- Fresh berries
- Almond butter
- Honey
Instructions
- Whisk together the eggs, almond milk, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Stir in the TigerNut flour, tapioca flour, and sea salt (and cinnamon if adding). Stir until combined and a thick batter forms (Note: as an alternative, you can add all of the ingredients to a blender and blend until combined).
- Heat a medium-sized non-stick skillet over medium heat and add enough coconut oil to generously coat the surface (about 2 tablespoons).
- Measure out a scant ¼ cup of batter and pour it onto the hot skillet. Cook until sides firm up, about 1 to 2 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side another 1 to 2 minutes, until cooked through. Repeat for remaining batter (Note: I typically cook 2 pancakes at a time on a 12-inch skillet).
- Serve with a dollop of almond butter, fresh fruit, honey, and sliced TigerNuts.
Nutrition
Can I use coconut flour instead of tapioca flour? How much would I use?
Thank you for posting this recipe!!
I am allergic to nuts (almond milk), tapioca starch, oats, corn, coconut, a multitude of fruit and vegetables, and oh so much more. How would using 2% regular milk, or half of the required milk and half and half, affect the outcome of the pancakes? I will be using safe canola oil on the pan.
Hi Tasha!
I haven’t tested the recipe using regular milk or half & half, but my guess is they will be great! In my experience, dairy milk and non-dairy milk can be used as a 1:1 replacement in most recipes. Let me know what you think! xo
I made these yesterday. Nice, light pancakes. Tiger nuts are a little sweet, so great with just butter. The two flours are both light enough that you can taste the vanilla and cinnamon. I used 1/2 tsp Ceylon cinnamon, which tasted lovely with vanilla. My picky-eater spouse wanted another one after dinner. Easy and quick to make. Thanks for a super recipe!
I’m so happy you and your husband enjoy them, Elaine! Thanks so much for the feedback. xoxox
I love the taste of and texture of tigernut flour! I only had some regular white flour to use with it and I’m not sure if that was the reason but they came out pretty dense. Not bad, but not as fluffy as i was expecting.
I’ve made these before and they are very flat. Any idea what I might be doing wrong? Does the brand of tiger nut flour make a difference?
This worked so well! Thanks!
My pleasure, Lauren! xo
Thank you for the recipe! Chia ‘eggs’ can work! I halved the recipe, used a chia ‘egg’ (1 tbsp chia seeds + 3 tbsp hot water and left a few minutes to go gooey), reduced the tiger nut flour by 1tbsp, and somehow ended up with 2 gorgeously fluffy and scrumptious pancakes! I opted out of adding coconut sugar and they’re sweet enough as they are for me. I went for a pinch of cinnamon, topped with almond butter and blueberries. Absolutely heavenly! Thank you, I kiss you warmly on both cheeks.
I found if I let the mixture sit for 15-30mins that the grittiness improves. The texture is more like having a little desiccated coconut in the mix. Slight chewy bits left, rather than grit/sand. Not unpleasant.
I love how they cook. They hold together beautifully.
I had to tweak the recipe as I think I put too much milk in (didn’t use a proper measuring cup ?). It was very runny. I didn’t want to wait again, so instead of adding more tiger nut flour, I added a little more tapioca & 1/4 c almond meal.
I made these today. They were fluffy, deflated a little after a few minutes, but were still tasty. I used homemade tiger nut flour and I´m so relieved as I bought 5 kgs of tiger nuts online and found the tiger nut solids to be irritating to my throat. But in these pancakes no irritation at all. No hint of graininess. Thank you so much for this lovely recipe. Please give us more…like cake or muffins !!
Oh, I need to add that I did blitz the tiger nut flour in my high speed blender to get it really fine. I don´t know what the consistency of shop bought tiger nut flour is like.
I made these today but they were very thin – like paper thin, nothing like your beautiful pancakes. I definitely used the correct amount of almond mil and flours. Tasted fine, but 🙁
Same here. Very disappointed. They do taste nice though.
Made the pancakes and they are amazing!!!!!!!
I’m so happy to hear it, Krystyna! Thanks for letting me know!
I wanted to love these but they were just too gritty and I did not enjoy the texture at all.
What can I replace tapioca flour with? I’m on a low carbohydrate diet. Thanks
Hi there! You can try replacing the tapioca flour with more tigernut flour or almond flour, but doing so is definitely going to compromise the texture. You want the tapioca flour to make the pancakes hold together and help make a fluffy texture, or else they will fall apart easily and be grainy and flat. You could replace the tapioca flour with arrowroot flour, but I’m not sure that helps in the carbohydrates department. Hope this helps!
Hello! I am so excited to try these, as my son LOVES pancakes but we are now egg, almond, and coconut free. He is also allergic to dairy, legumes, and we avoid gluten.
Do you know if I could use flax or rice milk (or even water) instead of the almond milk? Thank you!
Hi Andrea! You can use either flax or rice milk in place of the almond milk. Hope you enjoy!
Flavor is good, texture not so much. Fibrous and gritty. But, it was worth a try! Thank you for the recipe.
I made these into waffles today by adding 1/4 cup almond oil. They cooked through, came out fluffy, tasted ok… recipe made 3 waffles… the only other thing I changed is that I used cows milk.
That sounds awesome, Ann! Thanks so much for sharing the feedback. Now I’m itching to try these in waffle-form! xo