Vegan Chia Seed Pancakes
on Feb 02, 2014, Updated Jul 25, 2024
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These delicious, vegan chia seed pancakes are light, fluffy and easy to make with just a few basic ingredients.
Looking for more ways to use chia seeds? Why not in pancakes! The nutritious, little seed works its magic in these pancakes for a light, fluffy and delicious result.
Enjoy a stack of these hearty pancakes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or whenever a pancake craving strikes!
Recipe Features
Here are a few reasons why you’ll love this recipe:
- Dietary Features: Vegan (dairy-free and egg-free), oil-free, nut-free and can be sugar-free.
- Amazing light and fluffy texture and yummy, lightly-sweetened flavour.
- Easy to make with just a few simple ingredients.
- 5-star reviewed recipe you can make with success!
- Delicious served hot and fresh but they’re also yummy straight from the fridge spread with almond butter and banana slices for a quick snack.
Ingredient & Substitution Notes
- Flour: The recipe is written for all-purpose flour but whole wheat flour, spelt and white whole wheat flour. You should be able to substitute all-purpose gluten-free baking flour but may need extra liquid to adjust the consistency of the batter.
- Baking Powder: Make sure you use baking powder, not baking soda.
- Chia Seeds: White or black chia seeds work. Make they’re fresh though. Chia seeds keep for up to 1 year in a cool pantry or 2-3 years in the fridge or freezer but if they’re very old they may not work as they should.
- Sweetener: You can use any sweetener you like. Maple syrup, coconut sugar, cane sugar etc. all work or you can use stevia or another sugar-free sweetener for sugar-free pancakes.
- Almond Milk: Substitute with cashew milk, soy milk, oat milk or hemp milk (make sure you like the taste before using). Water also works.
- Vinegar: You can use apple cider vinegar, white vinegar or lemon juice.
This list is not complete. Please see the recipe card at the end of the post for the complete ingredient list with measurements and detailed instructions.
Variations
Chocolate Chip Chia Pancakes: Mix 6 tbsp vegan chocolate chips into the batter or drop a few onto each pancake after you add the batter to the pan.
Blueberry Chia Pancakes: Gently stir in up to 3/4 cup fresh blueberries into the batter or drop fresh or frozen blueberries onto each pancake after adding the batter to the pan. This works with chopped strawberries or raspberries as well.
Lemon Chia Pancakes: Replace the vinegar with 1 tbsp lemon juice and stir 1-2 tsp lemon zest into the batter.
Carrot Cake Pancakes: Stir 3/4 cup finely grated fresh carrot into the batter and add 1/2 tsp of ginger and 1 tsp cinnamon, or try these chickpea flour carrot cake pancakes!
Step-by-Step Instructions
Scroll down for the full written recipe. This sections covers step-by-step instructions for a quick reference with some extra tips.
Step 1: Mix together all the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Use a fork or whisk to help break up any clumps of flour and distribute the chia seeds, baking powder and salt.
In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients: almond milk, vanilla (if using), maple syrup and vinegar.
Quick Note: It’s not totally necessary to mix the wet ingredients separately, so feel free to add them straight into the dry ingredients to save a dish. It’s just easier to mix and avoid over-mixing if you mix them in a separate bowl first. Up to you!
Step 2: Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and fold together until all the flour is incorporated but the batter is still a bit lumpy.
Let the batter rest for 5-10 minutes while you heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Don’t skip the resting, it’s key for thick, fluffy pancakes.
Step 3: Once the pan is hot, add approximately 1/4 cup scoops of batter to the pan. If you make them this size, you should get about 10 pancakes.
Let each pancake cook until the edges appear dry, firm and golden brown and small bubbles are appearing in the batter. This should take 4-5 minutes.
Flip them and cook for another 30-60 seconds until cooked through and browned on both sides.
Add your favourite toppings like fresh berries and maple syrup and dig in!
Topping Ideas
Here are my favourite ways to top pancakes:
- Fresh fruit. Try blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, banana, mango or diced apple.
- Coconut yogurt or coconut whipped cream for a treat!
- Quick Berry Compote. Heat up frozen berries stovetop to make a quick berry sauce, add a bit of maple syrup for sweetness, if you like.
- Homemade chia seed jam.
- Date caramel or date paste. Make a quick date caramel sauce by soaking fresh dates in hot water for 15 minutes then blending with a little water or coconut milk. I like to add a pinch of sea salt and some vanilla.
- Any nut or seed butter. Try peanut butter, almond butter, tahini, cashew butter or coconut butter.
- Tahini caramel. Mix 1 tbsp of tahini with 1 tbsp of maple syrup and a bit of water to make a delicious tahini caramel sauce.
- Sautéed apples or chopped baked pears.
- Maple syrup, agave syrup, honey (not vegan) or coconut syrup.
FAQs
Yes. You can substitute the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour or spelt flour.
You can substitute something like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour though you may need to increase the liquid to get the right consistency.
For gluten-free pancake recipes, try my chickpea flour pancakes, buckwheat pancakes or quinoa flour pancakes.
Nope. Not at all. Any vinegar flavour gets cooked out.
Why vinegar? It makes them extra fluffy!
Storing
- Fridge: Store in a sealed container for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: Freeze on a baking tray first (will prevent them from sticking together) then transfer to a freezer bag or airtight container or freeze with pieces of parchment paper between each pancake. Store for up to 4 months.
- Reheating: If frozen, thaw briefly at room temperature or in the fridge. Reheat in the oven or a toaster oven, microwave or on medium in the toaster until heated to your preference. They’re yummy cold too though!
More Vegan Pancakes
Here are some more fan-favourite pancake recipes to try:
- Vegan Buckwheat Pancakes: Gluten-free, easy to make and so yummy!
- Whole Wheat Fluffy Vegan Pancakes: One of my most popular pancake recipes.
- 4-Ingredient Fluffy Vegan Protein Pancakes: Sneak some protein into your pancakes.
- Vegan Banana Pancakes with Berries: A classic combo of berry and banana!
- Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Pancakes: Like a PB & J in pancake form. YUM.
If you’re looking for more ways to use chia seeds, try this quick berry chia jam, mango chia pudding, seed bread or simple creamy banana oatmeal.
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to the comment section to leave a star rating and review.
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Vegan Chia Seed Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 180 g
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 3 tbsp chia seeds, 33 g
- 3 tbsp maple syrup, 45 mL
- 1 1/2 cup almond milk, 354 mL
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar , 5 mL
- 1 tsp cinnamon, optional
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, optional
Instructions
- Mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, chia seeds, cinnamon if using) in a medium mixing bowl. Use a fork or whisk to help break up any clumps of flour and distribute the chia seeds, baking powder and salt.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients (milk, maple syrup, vinegar, vanilla if using).
- Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and whisk or stir until all of the flour is incorporated but the batter is still a bit lumpy. Avoid over mixing.
- Let the batter rest for 5-10 minutes while you heat a nonstick skillet, griddle or crepe pan over medium heat. If needed, add a light coating of oil or nonstick cooking spray to the pan.
- Once the pan is hot, scoop approximately 1/4 cup portions of the batter into the pan.
- Let each pancake cook until the edges appear dry, firm and golden brown and small bubbles are appearing in the batter, about 4-5 minutes. Flip them and cook for another 30-60 seconds until cooked through and browned on both sides.
- Repeat until you’ve used all the batter. You should get approximately 10 pancakes or enough to serve 3-4 people.
- Serve right away with your favourite pancakes toppings like fresh fruit and maple syrup.
I’ve made these pancakes twice. Both times they were delicious! I used gluten free 1-1 flour both times. The second time I didn’t have enough because I tripled the recipe so added oat flour to make up the difference, they were just as delicious! Thanks for this recipe Deryn!!
Thanks, Beth! Glad you enjoyed them.
The recipe has 1TBS for the amount of baking powder. I just read the note about people feel like it was too salty and your suggestion to use 1/4 tsp instead. Is the original recipe supposed to read 1tsp baking powder? I already made the batter😩
The recipe always called for 1 tbsp of baking powder. You can use less salt if you like and/or reduce the baking powder to 2 tsp. Thanks!
Hi! Thank you for sharing your recipe! I tried it with Almond Flour and it didn’t hold together well but the pancakes were good. My son has an egg allergy and we have tried an egg replacer so I was praying he would like the chia seeds. He loved them and so did I! I am going to try to find something or if you know of what will make the pancakes hold together better. Thanks!
If you need gluten-free, I would recommend buckwheat flour, chickpea flour or quinoa flour. You can check my recipes for using those flours and make them with or without the chia seeds. Thanks!
Loved it, fluffy and delicious. Needed an egg free dairy free recipe.
these turned out great, the whole family thought they were tasty! thanks for the great & simple recipe. I loved that it was egg-free, and I loved the chia seeds in it! I think they are sweet enough for kids without additional syrup on the final product.
P.S. I recommend NOT subbing in Oat Milk!! I doubled the recipe and it is kind of a disaster.
Great recipe! I am always trying to find new ways to eat oats and chia seeds, so I used oat flour. I also used soy milk. With some chocolate chips added, these were delicious and very filling!
Great! So glad you enjoyed them.
Cooked these for the first time today turned out yummy. I used Spelt flour as well as ground chia seeds. I want to get all the good out of those little seeds. Glad to see you put weights on all the major ingredients so much easier than dealing with all those measuring cups. Digital scales are so inexpensive now no reason not to use one. Thanks for all your yummy recipes ; )
Definitely! Scales make things so much easier and more accurate. Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I’ve made these a couple of times now and have loved them. Since it’s just me, I use half of the recipe and mix it in a mug. Although I make pancakes a lot, this recipe helped me get the proportions right, and so they consistently work. I used oats ground to flour, honey to sweeten them a little, and covered them with defrosted blueberries with a tad more honey. What a quick and delicious breakfast, and perfectly hearty. Thank you!
This the best pancake recipe I’ve ever made! I ran out of chia seeds after 2 tbsp so I used ground flax for the remaining 1 tbsp and it turned out great! Thanks for this!
1 tbs of baking powder? Or 1 tsp?
It’s one tablespoon.