sweet potato and banana pancakes (gluten-free, dairy-free, no sugar added)

No gluten, no added sugar, no milk of any sort, only one kind of flour and yet these pancakes turned out among the best that I have ever made, dear neighbors, and quite by accident too ! This recipe came about after one of those hot days we recently had. The bananas in the fruit bowl were starting to look sorry and I thought of combining them with leftover sweet potato to make pancakes. I wasn’t really expecting anything grand, I just wanted to avoid wasting food, so after adding eggs I reached for my least favorite flour (except for its price), rice flour. The outcome was surprisingly good, so I worked at the quantities until the recipe was worth sharing with you. As I ended up making way more than we would normally eat, a lot of them wound up in the freezer. One funny thing about these pancakes is that they vaguely taste of rum, which I assume stems from the ripe banana sweet flavor. Personally, I do not find any need to drown them in maple syrup or agave nectar ; I eat them with cooked apricots (without any sugar either) and a few fresh blueberries, while my husband tops his with a little dollop of ghee butter!

I hope that you try making them, dear neighbors ! If you do, let me know how you served them, what topping you used, if any !

Ingredients (for about 10 pancakes)

– 100g cooked sweet potato (actually, 100g isn’t very much at all, and that is just fine, since we are talking about leftovers!)

– 100 g ripe banana (ripe, but not completely gone; any unused fruit may be frozen*)

– 2 very large eggs

– 50g whole rice flour

– ¼ tsp untreated sea salt

– 1½ tsp baking powder OR ¾ tsp baking soda, activated with freshly pressed, or freshly defrosted, lemon juice 

– a little coconut oil or olive oil for cooking

* Frozen banana can be turned into vegan ice-cream by running it through a food processor, or defrosted to make starch-free, gluten-free banana nut bread, my daughter’s coworkers’ favorite treat !

How to:

This is what I mean by “ripe, but not completely gone”. 

1. Blend together sweet potato, banana and eggs until very smooth.

2. Add the remaining ingredients (rice flour, salt, baking powder) and mix until well combined.

3. Warm oil in a non-stick skillet. Lower the heat, pour large spoonfuls of batter onto the skillet, making sure they are not too close together. Cook on low, very low heat, to avoid browning of the pancakes, between 5 and 7 minutes for the first side*.

If the pancakes are too close it will be difficult to use the spatula.  These are not ready to be flipped over, but the one on the left in the back is almost there: notice how its edges are starting to look a little drier.

4. When the edges are no longer wet and small bubbles at the surface start bursting, gently flip each pancake over using a wide metal spatula (preferably a thin metal spatula, much easier to slide under the pancakes) and cook another two minutes or so.

Some of these got slightly overcooked!

* I will admit it takes a little patience to get the pancakes to cook on low heat. This is why I recommend making them on days when nobody is in a hurry (typical Sunday brunch food, right ?) or freezing them for a conveniently quick and easy weekday breakfast 🏃🏼‍♀️.  

Here is what the inside looks like.  The texture is really the closest I have ever come to that of the pancakes I remember eating in brunch restaurants.

So long, enjoy, dear neighbors!