This pancake day, use up your leftovers with our delicious, plant-based, gluten-free and zero waste pancake recipe ideas.
Pancake Day is the traditional feast day before the start of the 40 days of Lent, which traditionally meant a time for fasting in Christian religions. The day before the fast would be the last opportunity to use up any fresh ingredients and fats like eggs and milk, making pancakes the ideal recipe. Whether you will be fasting or not, pancake day can still be a good opportunity to challenge yourself to finish leftovers (not necessarily eggs and milk) you have lingering around in your kitchen and the great thing about pancakes is that you can completely adjust them to your dietary requirements.
Have an overripe brown banana? The bottom of that gluten-free flour packet that just won’t be enough for a whole cake? Great, all you need is a plant-based mylk now. Follow this basic recipe and add any of the below leftover fruit and veg to add flavour, colour and to minimise food waste.
Ingredients
Serves 2
- 1 mashed banana
- 150gr gluten-free flour
- 250ml plant-based mylk
- 2 tbsp maple syrup/agave syrup/ organic honey
- 1 tbsp arrowroot or starch
- ½ tablespoon bicarbonate of soda
Mix everything together to get a rich and creamy texture. Heat up some coconut oil in a pan on a low heat and start flipping! Fancy jazzing up your pancakes and using up some leftovers in the process? See our optional extras below:
If you have…
Leftover spinach? Blitz it in with your mixture and make your pancakes green (we promise the taste won’t change)
Half a lemon in your fridge? Squeeze it out on top of your pancakes and sprinkle some cinnamon on top.
A lonely beetroot? Mix it in with the mixture similar to the spinach and get pink pancakes! If someone asks, just say it’s red velvet pancakes – guaranteed success!
Lost berries in your freezer? Heat them up with some maple syrup/agave syrup/ organic honey on low heat and make a deliciously fruity sauce to pour over your pancakes.
That one teaspoon of cacao powder that just won’t even be enough for a hot chocolate? Add it to the mixture or heat it up with some coconut oil and maple syrup for a gooey sauce.
For more simple low waste recipes, see Max La Manna‘s guide for how to make your own zero waste pasta and Sebastian Runde‘s recipe for using up leftover veg by making your own fermented vegetables.