The Best Banana Pancakes with Chickpea Flour

By Meghan Telpner / All Recipes

Summer is rolling to a gentle close and I am celebrating my favourite season of all by taking some time off-ish. That's usually how I do it. A little work each day, but mostly maxing and relaxing as I gear up for another busy fall of fun. And this time of sleep-ins and late breakfasts has spawned the absolute best banana pancakes made primarily with chickepea flour.

Chickpea flour, often referred to as garbanzo bean flour, is made from chickpeas. This makes these pancakes grain-free, but also protein powered without needing to grossify your pancake-aroos by adding protein powder to them.

If you care about protein grams and enjoy turning meals into math equations, you might like to know that one cup of chickpea flour works out to about 21 grams of protein. The recipe I have for you today serves two and has a nice little dose of 10 grams of protein per serving right there.

I have slowly but surely begun to embrace chickpea flour as one of my favourites for gluten-free baking. I am not sure I would make it into a cake just yet - the high fiber and protein would make the cake mighty dense, but it is excellent in muffins, cookies, gluten-free pizza crust and, well, these pancakes.

5 Reasons Why Chickpea Flour Is Awesome

Rich in protein: This will help reduce blood sugar fluctuations and make us feel full longer.
It bakes up beautifully with a bit of a dry, crispy outer later (pancake perfection!)
It's flavour works with both sweet and savoury.
It's gluten-free! That always wins with me!
It's not too heavy and not too light. Some white rice flours are just too starchy for my liking, while nut meals or coconut flour are very heavy or dry. Chickpea flour is just in the middle!

Chickpea Flour Banana Pancakes

Rating 4.8 from 13 reviews

Prep time: 10 Minutes

Cook time: 8 Minutes

Total time: 18 Minutes

Yield: Serves 2

The best gluten-free banana pancakes made with chickpea flour

Ingredients

1 cup water or coconut milk
1 egg
1 banana
1 cup chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 Tbsp arrowroot starch
1 tsp cinnamon
ghee or coconut oil for frying

Make It Like So

Place all ingredients into your high speed blender or food processor and mix until smooth.
Melt 1 Tbsp of coconut oil or ghee into your pan. Using your ¼ cup or ½ cup measure (whatever size you like best), scoop the batter and pour onto your medium heat skillet.
Let cook until you see bubble throughout the pancake, and then flip. Cook for 2-3 minutes on the other side.
Serve with your favourite pancake toppings.

Notes

Optional Toppings
Sliced banana
Walnuts
Pecans
Shredded coconut
Ground goji berries
Ground flax seeds
Fresh fruit
Maple syrup
Honey
Ghee or coconut oil

One more extra little nugget for you with this recipe. I love maple syrup as much as the next Canadian, but it is also mighty sweet. I love melting together maple syrup or honey with either coconut oil or ghee. Bringing that fat in will further reduce effect on blood sugar, cut the sweetness and enhance the flavour. You know how I love extra fat in my breakfast!

Food photography: iStock: Anna Shepulova and Paul Biryukov

67 Responses to “The Best Banana Pancakes with Chickpea Flour”

Kelly C. said… March 24, 2018

These were so delicious. I made with coconut milk not water and substituted cornstarch for the arrowroot. My girls and I are vegetarian. We also try to avoid white flour and are always on the look out for recipes that supply extra protein. We all agree that this is the best pancake recipe we’ve found so far.

Alexis LaPietra said… June 5, 2018

Do you think I can substitute the egg for a “Flax egg”?

- Meghan Telpner said… June 6, 2018
  
  Definitely! It works with flax eggs and chia eggs too.
  
May said… June 16, 2018

Made these and they turned out super flat - not sure if that is how they should be? The pictures look more fluffy.

- Meghan Telpner said… June 18, 2018
  
  Did you check your baking powder? Baking powder can get less effective the older it is.
  
Dara said… June 18, 2018

You posted this recipe link in an article denouncing aquafaba, which comes from beans, because it’s full of anti nutrients, hard on digestion, etc. But aren’t totally unprocessed beans bad too - not soaked at all or rinsed of their soaking liquid - which is essentially what chick pea flour is. Isn’t it hard on digestion??

- Meghan Telpner said… June 18, 2018
  
  For some people, consuming beans of any kind (homemade, canned, flours, etc.) don't agree with them. Taking steps to make them more digestible can help; still, some choose to avoid beans entirely.
  
Gail said… June 19, 2018

These look lovely and I’d really like to try them. I am recently 100% grain free - a bit challenging. Does anyone know of a baking powder brand that is not made with cornstarch? This has been a big challenge in my grain free baking lately and I’d love to find something that would still give a nice rise to the pancakes without that baking soda taste.

- Meghan Telpner said… June 19, 2018
  
  You could try making your own baking powder and use arrowroot instead of cornstarch. There may be corn-free brands out there too that I'm not aware of, though!
  
Joy Brandys said… August 11, 2018

I made these this morning and they were delish!!! I had all the ingredients except the arrowroot or any substitutes( I’m moving and a lot of things are packed) I looked around my kitchen and found some organic vanilla pudding mix and sure enough there was corn starch in it so I used 2 TBLS of that. Worked like a charm.

Lesley honour said… October 5, 2018

Absolutely yummy delicious could eat them every day!!!!

- Meghan Telpner said… October 9, 2018
  
  Fantastic! Happy you enjoyed them. :)
  
IB Goode said… October 15, 2018

Great recipe. I added one half cup arrowroot, another egg, a tbsp of vanilla extract, and pureed 2 bananas with the water. I would have guven it 5 stars, but it needs some salt, in my opinion. Nice and fluffy, and no need to add sugar when you use over-ripe bananas. Thanks!