So it’s pancake day! If you’re dieting, or just want to make sure you stay healthy while enjoying Shrove Tuesday, good news. Despite being often loaded with less-than-healthy toppings, pancakes are very versatile. This means they can be transformed into a nutritious and filling treat. Whatever your choice of diet, whether it’s low-calorie, low-carb, paleo or vegan, we’ve rounded up some of our favourite healthy pancake recipes so that you stay on track. We’ve also included a high protein option for those who like to hit the gym post-pancake!
Our Favourite Healthy Pancake Recipes
There are tons of healthy pancake recipes online. After scouring the internet, we’ve decided on these as some of our favourites.
The Low-Calorie Pancake Recipe
This simple recipe is one of the lightest of all the healthy shrove Tuesday recipes online, with only 68 calories a pancake. That means there’s plenty of room for your favourite toppings! It involves just a few ingredients and can be whipped up in no time.
We love the addition of blueberries. Not only are they sweet and tasty, but they come with great health benefits. They have some of the highest antioxidant levels of all fruits and vegetables (Prior & Cao, 2000). Their base ingredient, the simple egg, is one of the most common foods found in the cupboard. However, one egg contains everything required to transform a single cell into a chick. So, as you can imagine, eggs are packed with nutrients. A single egg contains vitamins A, B5, B12, and B2, alongside phosphorous, selenium and folate (Gunnars, 2018).
The recipe below serves 10 people, but why not double up and make extra? They’re great for a low-calorie snack at any time.
The Low-Carb Pancake Recipe
The keto diet is a popular weight loss choice. So our healthy pancake recipes roundup wouldn’t be complete without a low-carb feature. As far as keto pancake recipes go, this is one of our favourites. With only 4 net carbs per serving, the recipe swaps regular flour for almond flour. This means that as well as avoiding carbohydrate, you’ll get the added health benefits of almonds. They’re among the top sources of vitamin E, with a single serving providing 37% of your RDI (NutritionData, n.d.).
Out of all our favourite healthy pancake recipes, this one stood out as it uses Stevia. Unlike other artificial sweeteners, Stevia is known to have antioxidant properties and can help stabilise blood sugar levels and insulin production in diabetics (Olsen, 2018).
The recipe yields 6 medium sized pancakes, and is also a great breakfast option for any low-carb dieter!
The Paleo Pancake Recipe
If you’re looking for healthy pancake recipes on a grain free, gluten free and dairy free diet, it can be tough! But this paleo pancake solves your shTuesdayesday woes. It’s completely paleo-friendly, and combines bananas and coconut oil. These two ingredients alone have many health-protective properties.
Coconut oil is perhaps the healthiest of all oils. It consists of medium chain triglycerides, which raise the levels of ‘good’ cholesterol in your body. This is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease (Gunnars, 2018). Bananas, as simple as they seem, also have a huge benefit on your health. As well as other wellness-boosting vitamins, they contain pectin and fibre. Both of these balance blood sugar levels and reduce appetite through slowing down the emptying of the stomach (Schwartz et al., 1988).
To top it off, these pancakes have only 103 calories per serving, and their flavour suits many different combinations of toppings.
The Vegan Pancake Recipe
No list of healthy pancake recipes can be complete without a vegan option. Typically, pancakes consist of milk and eggs, making them a no-go for vegan diets. However, this recipe avoids the use of any animal products without compromising on health benefits.
This simple pancake recipe contains only three ingredients, making it a great base for all number of tasty treats to go on top. Also, it suggests using coconut palm sugar. This is a great option if you want to avoid refined sugars, and has multiple health benefits. One of the most notable is that is has a lower glycaemic index than regular sugar. This is potentially due to the presence of inulin, a fibre that reduces the rate of glucose absorption (Kim & Shin, 1999).
Instead of milk, this recipe uses almond milk. But you can use any dairy-free option you like. The recipe includes baking powder to give the pancakes a light, fluffy texture.
The High Protein Pancake Recipe
There are many protein pancake recipes online, but there are good reasons we’ve chosen these to feature on our healthy pancake recipes roundup. These protein-packed pancakes are made in a blender, making them super easy to prepare. They use no refined sugar, and you can incorporate any flavour of protein powder you like.
We love the addition of cinnamon in this recipe. Cinnamon is hailed as a powerful natural medicine. In a study comparing antioxidant levels of over 20 different ‘superfoods’, cinnamon was the undisputed winner (Shan et al., 2005). It also boasts strong anti-inflammatory properties (Gunawardena et al., 2015) helping your body fight infection and disease.
Alongside this, this is one of our favourite healthy pancake recipes because it contains flax. Flax seeds are touted to be one of the most health-protective foods for the heart. They contain high amounts of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). This is one of the essential fatty acids that the body is not capable of producing itself. Research shows that ALA blocks cholesterol from accumulating in the bloog vessels in the heart. One study of over 3000 people found that a higher ALA intake is linked with a lower risk of heart attacks (Campos, Baylin & Willett, 2008).
This recipe isn’t only for shrove Tuesday. If you’re into fitness and fancy a change to your daily breakfast, these pancakes are a great option. If you’re not big on cooked breakfasts, why not top with some peanut butter for a post-workout treat?
Summary
As you can see from our healthy pancake recipes roundup, nobody need miss out on shrove Tuesday! Whether you’re on a high protein diet, avoiding carbohydrate, or want to keep things low calorie this pancake day, there’s something for you. Paleo, or vegan? There’s a pancake for you, too!
Coming to the end of your diet, or need a break? Try our post on how to reverse diet properly.
