Vegan Banana Pancakes made grain-free and paleo-friendly using almond flour and flax eggs. An easy egg-free recipe for banana pancakes!
If you are..
a.) Sensitive to eggs
b.) Follow a vegan, grain-free, gluten-free, or paleo diet
c.) Love banana pancakes or all things banana bread-like in nature, or
d.) a combination or totality of the above, THEN
This recipe was made for you (and me!)
These crispy vegan banana pancakes are JUST the ticket to an amazing breakfast or brunch.
I posted a recipe for Paleo Vegan Pancakes several months ago and it continues to be one of my most popular pancake recipes. As it turns out, many of you cook egg-free for various reasons.
What is amazing about these pancakes is they taste as though they’re completely not awesome for your health, yet they are squeaky clean! PLUS, they only require a few basic ingredients, all of which you likely already have on hand.
Let’s talk details:
Ingredients for Grain-Free Vegan Banana Pancakes:
Almond Flour: In designing this recipe to be paleo friendly and grain-free, I chose to use almond flour. I stick with Bob’s Red Mill’s Super Fine Almond Flour, but you can get rebellious and use a different brand. If you do so, report back and let me know how the pancakes turn out.
Tapioca Flour: Tapioca flour helps make baked goods fluffy and also helps bind ingredients together, as it is very starchy. Be sure you don’t skip the tapioca flour as it is very important in this recipe to ensure your pancakes hold together.
Bananas: Make sure you sure ULTRA ripe bananas for maximum sweetness. The bananas I use are solid brown. In addition to making these pancakes delicious, bananas also help bind in their own right, so they can act similarly to eggs in that regard.
Flax Seed: We need ground flax seed in order to make vegan flax “eggs” to help bind the pancakes together.
Cinnamon: Not mandatory, but highly encouraged! If you add cinnamon to the pancake batter, you’ll end up with banana bread tasting pancakes. The warming spice also adds a natural sweetness.
How to Make Egg-Free Pancakes:
For this particular vegan banana pancakes recipe, we replace the chicken eggs with mashed bananas (also adds flavor, sweetness, and YUM) and flax “eggs.”
Because these pancakes are grain-free, it is best to stick with egg-like ingredients that help bind, as almond flour needs some help in the binding department. When making banana pancakes using all-purpose flour, you can get away with using just bananas and some form of non-dairy milk.
What Do Vegan Banana Pancakes Taste Like?:
These pancakes turn out dense, moist, cinnamony and banana-y with a crispy exterior and soft interior. To me, they taste more like a fritter than a pancake, which made titling this recipe slightly difficult. Because they are healthful rather than decadent, I stuck with the pancake nomenclature, as “fritters” sound much too sinful.
How to Avoid Vegan Pancakes That Are “Raw” in the Center:
If you’ve tried making vegan pancakes and they never really “cook” through, here’s why: They need more time to cook than regular pancakes. This is true of Almond Flour Pancakes and Coconut Flour Pancakes even if they do contain eggs. That said, grain-free egg-free pancakes are even more finicky.
Set the expectation that these pancakes require more cook time than regular pancakes made with all-purpose flour and eggs.
Here’s what you do to combat the raw center: cook them slow and low over medium heat (or low heat if your burner runs hot) for several minutes per side. After cooking on both sides, flip the pancakes a third time and cook an additional 1 to 3 minutes until they cook through.
As an alternative, you can preheat your oven to 350 degrees and put the finished pancakes in the oven while you’re cooking the rest to both keep them warm and help them cook through the rest of the way.
Alternative ending x2: microwave them on a plate for 10 to 30 seconds.
The summary: have patience. If you’re under a time crunch, save these pancakes for when you have more time.
How to Make Paleo Vegan Banana Pancakes // Fritters:
First things first! Prepare flax “eggs” by stirring the ground flax seed with water in a small bowl. Allow this mixture to sit and thicken, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until it is the consistency of beaten eggs.
Mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl until creamy. It’s okay if they are a little clumpy, but try to get most of the chunks to mash.
Transfer the flax “eggs” to the mixing bowl along with the rest of the ingredients. Stir well to combine – a very, very thick batter will form. This is normal!
Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, avocado oil, or cooking oil of choice to a large non-stick skillet. Heat to medium or medium-high (depending on how hot your stove top runs).
Once the skillet is hot, grab some of the pancake batter and roll it into a ball. Then press the batter into a disc (pancake shape) and place on the hot skillet. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, until crispy, then flip to the other side and cook an additional 2 to 3 minutes, or until pancake is cooked through.
Repeat for the remaining batter.
Serve pancakes with choice of pure maple syrup, almond butter, fresh fruit, raspberry chia seed jam, etc.
Recipe Adaptations:
For an egg-free banana pancakes recipe that uses gluten-free all-purpose flour, follow my Vegan Banana Pancakes recipe.
You may replace the almond flour with hazelnut flour or rice flour, but please do not go rogue and replace it with coconut flour. Coconut flour requires a great deal of eggs to turn out and will not work as a 1:1 replacement in this recipe.
Replace the tapioca flour with arrowroot flour or cornstarch.
More Healthy Vegan Pancake Recipes:
Enjoy these fritter-like discs of joy!
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 @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Paleo Vegan Banana Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp ground flax seed
- 6 Tbsp water
- 2 ripe bananas mashed
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups superfine almond flour
- 2 Tbsp tapioca flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Prepare flax “eggs” by stirring the ground flax seed with water in a small bowl. Allow this mixture to sit and thicken, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until it is the consistency of beaten eggs.
- Mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl until creamy. It’s okay if they are a little clumpy, but try to get most of the chunks to mash.
- Transfer the flax “eggs” to the mixing bowl along with the rest of the ingredients. Stir well to combine - a very, very thick batter will form. This is normal!
- Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, avocado oil, or cooking oil of choice to a large non-stick skillet (enough to coat the surface). Heat to medium or medium-high (depending on how hot your stove top runs).
- Once the skillet is hot, grab some of the pancake batter and roll it into a ball. Then press the batter into a disc (pancake shape) and place on the hot skillet. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, until crispy, then flip to the other side and cook an additional 2 to 3 minutes, or until pancake is cooked through. Flip a third time for good measure and allow pancakes to cook another 1 to 3 minutes. Note that these pancakes require more cook time than regular pancakes made with all-purpose flour. Repeat for remaining batter.
- Serve pancakes with choice of pure maple syrup, almond butter, fresh fruit, raspberry chia seed jam, etc.
These are THE worst to cook. They also horrible.
I made these for breakfast today, following the exact recipe.they turned out great, thank you!
I’m so thrilled to hear it, Veronika! Thanks so much for the feedback! xoxo
Thanks for your efforts here 🙂
I use Tigernut Flour, Banana, Tapioca, and arrow root, not flax seeds or anything else and they work a treat 🙂
I’m so happy to hear it! Thanks so much for reporting back! xoxox
My daughter is on a rotation diet, so it’s great to find a recipe with few added ingredients to include in her rotation. I kind of formed them on the griddle with a silicone spatula. She loved them. Even her sister and daddy (who dislike fresh bananas) liked them. Thanks for sharing!
I’m so thrilled to hear it! Thanks for letting me know! xoxox Much love to you and your family! 😀