These Vegan Buttermilk Pancakes are soft, fluffy and perfectly chewy. No flax eggs, no aquafaba and no blender required. They're easy to make, come together in one bowl, and are gluten-free and refined sugar free too. A healthy breakfast, brunch, snack or dessert!
You can make vegan "buttermilk" by mixing any type of non-dairy milk with something acidic, such as vinegar or lemon juice.
The acidity will curdle the milk so that it resembles buttermilk.
1. Mix non-dairy milk with vinegar or lemon juice in a measuring jug.
2. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
Tips for making vegan buttermilk
- If using vinegar, you should use apple cider vinegar, definitely not balsamic vinegar or malt vinegar!
- If you don't have vinegar, you can replace it with double the amount of lemon juice instead.
How to make the buttermilk
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mix almond milk with vinegar in a measuring jug.
- Let it sit for 10 minutes.
How to make the pancakes
- Mix together all the ingredients in a mixing bowl.
- Heat up a tiny bit of oil in a frying pan (non-stick is best) and add a few tablespoons of the pancake batter.
Tip: Control the amount of oil you use by using a spray-on oil or rubbing a piece of greased kitchen paper over the bottom of the frying pan – too much oil will make the pancakes ragged at the edges, and too little will make them hard to flip over.
- Cook on a low-medium heat for a few minutes until the bottom of the pancake comes away easily from the pan.
Tip: Use a non-stick frying pan so that the pancakes don’t stick to the bottom of the frying pan!
- Flip over and cook for another few minutes, until golden brown and crispy on both sides.
Tip: Use a spatula to flip over the pancakes.
- Repeat for the rest of the batter - makes around 8 pancakes.
Substitutions you can make to this recipe
- You can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc.
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- You can replace the vinegar with lemon juice.
- You can replace the ground almonds with ground walnuts.
- For a nut-free version: replace the ground almonds with ground sunflower seeds or use 30g (¼ cup) coconut flour instead of 150g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds, and use a nut-free plant-based milk.
- You can use any type of oil to fry the pancakes: coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable oil.
- You can replace the gluten-free flour with plain flour or spelt flour if you're not gluten-free.
Ingredients you can add to the batter
- Chocolate chips.
- Fresh or frozen berries, such as raspberries or blueberries.
Serving suggestions
These pancakes can be enjoyed with sweet toppings such as:
- Maple syrup.
- Almond or peanut butter.
- Chopped nuts.
- Fresh berries.
- Sliced Baked Apples.
- Sliced bananas.
- Vegan yogurt.
- Lemon syrup.
- Vegan whipped cream.
- Ice cream.
- Lemon curd.
- Chocolate sauce.
- Jam.
- Blueberry sauce.
Or they can be enjoyed as part of a savoury breakfast with toppings such as:
- Baked beans.
- Mashed avocado.
- Hummus.
- Sautéed mushrooms.
- Tofu or tempeh vegan bacon.
- Garlicky spinach.
- Roasted tomatoes.
- Tofu scramble.
How long do these keep for?
These pancakes taste best when fresh, but leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to a few days - reheat in a dry frying pan.
Can they be frozen?
- They can be frozen and last for about a month in the freezer.
- I would suggest wrapping them separately in cling film or keeping a layer of baking paper in between each pancake if you want to take them out of the freezer one at a time, otherwise you’ll end up with a solid block of pancakes!
- Either reheat in a toaster straight from frozen or leave to thaw at room temperature for about half an hour then reheat in a dry frying pan.
More gluten-free vegan pancake recipes
- Oatmeal Pancakes
- Coconut Flour Pancakes
- Banana Pancakes
- Buckwheat Crepes
- Oat Flour Pancakes
- Cornmeal Pancakes
- Banana Oatmeal Pancakes
- Crepes
- Buckwheat Pancakes
- Quinoa Pancakes
- Flaxseed Pancakes
- Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes
- or browse the whole collection!
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Vegan Buttermilk Pancakes (Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
For the buttermilk:
- 200 ml (⅘ cup) unsweetened almond milk (or sub any other plant-based milk)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar * (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
For the pancakes:
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 85 g (⅔ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) **
- 85 g (⅔ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
For frying:
- Coconut oil (or sub vegetable oil)
Instructions
For the buttermilk:
- Measure out the almond milk and, leaving it in the measuring container, add the tablespoon of vinegar and stir. Leave to sit for around 10 minutes, while you prepare the other ingredients.
For the pancakes:
- Place all the ingredients for the pancake batter in a bowl (no need to sift the flours).
- Add the milk and vinegar mixture, and mix well.
- For best results, let the batter sit at room temperature for about half an hour before making the pancakes - I found this made the pancakes super fluffy, but if pressed for time the recipe still works without this step.
For frying:
- Heat up a tiny bit of oil in a frying pan (non-stick is best) and spoon or ladle in a small amount of the pancake batter.
- Cook on a low heat for a few minutes until you see little bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake.
- Use a spatula to flip it over and cook for another few minutes, until golden brown on both sides.
- Repeat for the rest of the batter - makes around 8 pancakes.
- Leftover pancakes keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days - reheat in a dry frying pan or in the toaster!
Notes
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Anonymous
Look amazing!
Rhian Williams
Thank you!