Vegan Carrot Cake Pancakes
These gluten-free vegan carrot cake pancakes are so easy to make you’ll want to keep them on your weekly breakfast menu. You only need a few simple ingredients to make them and they’re ready to eat in under 15 minutes.
Chickpea Flour
These pancakes are made with chickpea flour, which is actually my favourite flour for pancakes. Chickpea flour, or besan or garam flour is simply, ground dried chickpeas. It has a mildly beany flavour but that dissipates once cooked making it a good choice for both savory and sweet recipes.
Other Flour Options
If you don’t have chickpea flour on hand, these can also be made with whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour or a gluten-free all-purpose flour blend.
Ingredient Notes
- Chickpea flour. The pancakes are made with chickpea flour, making them gluten-free and grain-free. Chickpea flour is easy, versatile, budget-friendly and easy to work with. If you’ve never tried it before, pancakes are a great place to start experimenting.
- Grated carrot. You’ll need 1/2 cup of fresh, finely grated carrot for this recipe. This creates all that carrot cake goodness!
- Baking powder. Baking powder helps these babies fluff right up. The recipe will work without it but it makes them extra thick and fluffy.
- Sea salt. Salt works with the baking powder to create an extra thick, fluffy pancake. As with the baking powder, it can be omitted if you’re on a reduced-sodium diet.
- Spices. Carrot cake is all about cozy, warming spices like ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. The recipe calls for ginger and cinnamon but feel free to add a little pinch of nutmeg if you like.
- Toppings. For more carrot cake flavor, I topped these with walnuts and shredded coconut. Raisins and pineapple are also delicious.
Optional Ingredients
I sometimes bake some raisins or other ingredients into the pancakes, as you can see in the photos. You can do this with shredded coconut, pineapple, walnuts or pecans. Just fold 1-2 tbsp of any or all into the batter with the carrots or drop a few onto the pancakes as they cook.
Tips
- Mix all the dry ingredients first to ensure they’re evenly distributed.
- Slowly add the water and grated carrot then gently fold together until “just mixed” for the best fluffiness. If it’s a bit lumpy that’s great!
- For extra fluff-factor, let the batter “rest” for 5 minutes so the baking powder can work its magic.
- Pre-heat the pan over medium-high heat before you start cooking.
- Use a good non-stick pan or a bit of cooking spray to prevent sticking.
- Cook the pancakes until the edges look dry and there are some bubbles in each. Flip cook for 1 more minute.
Toppings
- pineapple
- shredded, flaked or toasted coconut
- walnuts
- raisins
- maple syrup
- cashew “cream cheese” frosting
- dairy-free yogurt
Related Recipes
This is not the chickpea flour pancake recipe I’ve shared on the blog. If you’re loving this one, you’ll love these too:
Not into chickpea flour? That’s ok too. Check out my popular chia seed pancakes or fluffy whole-wheat pancakes.
Did you make this recipe? Click here to leave a review!
PrintVegan Carrot Cake Pancakes
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Prep Time: 5 mins
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Cook Time: 10 mins
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Total Time: 15 minutes
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Yield: 5–6 pancakes 1x
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Category: Breakfast
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Method: Stovetop
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Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Love carrot cake? You will love these easy, gluten-free, carrot cake-inspired pancakes! Add raisins or top with pineapple, coconut and walnuts for the real deal.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup chickpea flour (60 g)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon and ground ginger
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp stevia or stevia drops to taste, or 1–2 tbsp pure maple syrup or coconut sugar, to taste
- 1/2 cup finely grated carrot (40 g)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp water (see notes)
Instructions
- Mix the chickpea flour, salt, baking powder and spices together in a bowl.
- Add the water and grated carrot and gently fold together. The batter will be thick and almost “foamy” as the baking powder reacts.
- Heat a non-stick skillet or pancake grill to medium-high heat while you let the batter rest for 5 minutes.
- Use non-stick cooking spray if needed, scoop the batter onto the pan to create 5-6 pancakes. Allow to cook until the edges look dry and each pancake starts to show some bubbles. Flip and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Serve topped with maple syrup, cashew frosting, pineapple, walnuts and toasted coconut flakes or shredded coconut.
Notes
Use exactly 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp water for thick, fluffy pancakes or more for thinner, crepe-style pancakes.
You can make these protein pancakes by adding 1 scoop of vegan vanilla protein powder and increasing the water to 1/2 cup.
The recipe serves one but can easily be doubled or tripled for a bigger batch.
Keywords: carrot cake pancakes, gluten-free vegan pancakes
These were so delicious and fluffy. Perfect on this cold autumn morning, definitely recommend making these!
★★★★★
Thanks, Christine! So glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for adding a review!
Made these this morning – LOVE them! Taste an texture is amazing and not many ingredients and what ingredients are used are very healthy – thank you!
★★★★★
Thanks, Jacqui! I’m so glad you enjoyed them. I love these too! So easy and healthy.
Is the calorie count per pancake?
No, for the whole recipe.
its about 40 cals per pancake
Awesome, thanks for adding that.