Strawberry Pancakes with Walnuts and Banana Cream

"I'm thinking of making a potato hash with that leftover cashew cream tomato sauce from last night, how's that sound?" Silence...more silence....."I WANT PANCAKES!" Well then.

Here at Eat Plants / Drink Beer, pancakes are kind of a big deal. They are a versatile platform for delivery of all sorts of good stuff. With so many different combinations of fruits and nuts and toppings, you could make pancakes once a week for years and never have the same thing twice (which, believe me, we're testing that theory). Today's blog includes our basic pancake recipe that will make anyone a believer in the vegan pancake revolution. I use a bit of brown sugar to help the pancakes brown, the vinegar helps react with the baking powder to give more lift and fluff to the pancakes, and the flax "egg" gives you some of the binding properties of chicken eggs and helps retain some moisture, giving the pancakes a bit more body. There is also omega-3s in flax meal, so you can almost say these pancakes are health food!

First things first....get the flax "egg" going by adding the flax meal and hot water to a little bowl. Stir to combine and let sit for 10 minutes to rehydrate and thicken. While this is sitting, measure out your dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk to fully incorporate everything.

You take the dry...

Once the flax meal "egg" is fully rehydrated and thick and gooey, add it, along with the rest of the wet ingredients, to a small bowl and whisk it all up to combine.

You take the wet...

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk gently to combine. People always tell you to not overwork pancake batter because you don't want to develop a lot of gluten because that makes pancakes tough, and they're right, so mix/stir until everything looks incorporated, and then let it sit while you slice your strawberries, that'll give the batter time to rest.

You take them both and there you have...

Slice the strawberries pretty thin (about an 1/8 of an inch thick), add approximately 1/3 of a cup of batter to your griddle, toss on the strawberry slices, cook until the bottom is golden brown, and flip, cooking until the other side is browned as well.

Strawberry pancakes....strawberry pancakes.

While your pancakes are cooking, or staying warm in a preheated oven, prepare the banana cream by adding the banana, coconut yogurt, nondairy milk, and sugar to a blender and blending on high for 10-15 seconds. It should be about the consistency of maple syrup. We always have frozen bananas around for smoothies, so I just use a frozen banana for this step.

When everything is ready, add the pancakes to your plate, drizzle with the banana cream, top with toasted walnuts, and start shoveling food into your mouth!

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 cup nondairy milk (I've been using cashew lately)
• 1 flax "egg" (1 tablespoon flax seed meal mixed with 3 tablespoons hot water, let sit for 10 minutes)
• 3 tablespoons sugar (I use 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar and 1 tablespoon white sugar)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Dry Ingrediets:

• 1 cup white all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Banana Cream:

• 1 banana
• 1/4 cup vanilla unsweetened coconut yogurt
• 1/4 cup nondairy milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Add-ons:

• 6 strawberries, sliced thin
• 1/3 cup walnut pieces, toasted

When finished eating, resume giving way too much attention to your needy giant dog.