These fluffy, delicious pancakes contain no oil, salt or sugar, in favor of ground oats, flax, cornmeal and dates. Instead of using maple syrup, try some fruit-flavored date syrup, below.
Ingredients
1 ½ cups rolled oats, ground into flour (or pre-ground flour)
2 tablespoons flax seeds, ground
½ cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups non-dairy milk
two pitted dates (soaked in enough water to cover for at least 30 minutes, then pour off water and set aside)
Zest and juice from 1 lemon (about 1 tablespoon zest and about 3-4 tablespoons juice)
Directions
1. Grind the oats and flax seeds in a Vitamix or other high-speed blender, and transfer to a mixing bowl; add the remaining dry ingredients to the bowl. Blend the wet ingredients (non-dairy milk, soaked dates, and lemon juice) together in your high-speed blender. Combine the wet and dry ingredients in the bowl using a fork until evenly mixed.
2. Heat a non-stick skillet on medium until a water droplet sizzles on its surface. Add one ladle of batter to the skillet and cook until bubbles form in the center and the edges begin to lightly brown (2-3 minutes). Flip the pancake and cook until the bottom is evenly browned. (You may need to reduce the heat as you make the pancakes since the pan will get increasingly hotter.) Top with bananas or other fruit and/or chopped nuts or nuts grated using a rotary cheese grater; walnuts are great.
3. To make date syrup, blend 8 pitted and soaked dates with some water (the date soak water is fine) and fruit in a high-speed blender until smooth/until your desired consistency is reached. Raspberries, blueberries or strawberries work well. My favorite addition is tangerine juice (in this case I would not add any water, just the juice).
Notes: For best results, use a good quality non-stick skillet. / As the batter sits between cooking, it will thicken up, so add a bit of water or non-dairy milk as needed. / Opt for fragrant Meyer lemons if they are in season. / Quick or regular rolled oats may be used.
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 4-6 minutes each pancake
Makes: 6 5-inch pancakes
Alternative cooking method: I typically use a high-quality non-stick skillet to avoid coating the surface of the pan with oil. But if you want to avoid non-stick pans, you can bake the pancakes in the oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and ladle out batter on paper (can do 3-4 pancakes at once). Cook at 400° for 5 minutes on the center rack. Take out pan and flip the pancakes, either with a spatula or by inverting them onto a new piece of parchment, which is then placed on the baking sheet; cook for 5 minutes. Baked pancakes do not brown or rise quite like skillet-cooked, but they do cook through with a light texture that isn’t gooey. Keep batter on the thicker side if baking your pancakes, as they like to expand too much if batter is too thin.
Sticks to the pan. I’m using non-stick skillet. Help!
Hi Milton, I have made these in two different non-stick skillets; one was a Green Pan skillet, which is lighter duty/lesser quality, and the other was a Berndez non-stick, which is a high-quality, heavier duty pan. The Berndez made a significant difference in the sticking factor (they didn’t stick at all in this pan, but did in the Green Pan, which I don’t believe regulates the heat as well). You may also find that reducing the heat helps with sticking (and just cooking them a bit longer), but I think the pan quality is the bigger issue. Hope that helps
I find that if they stick, you may not be letting them cook long enough.
Dear Cathy,
Thanks. I finally got hold of a good pan. The pancakes turned out perfectly.
Hi Milton, I’m thrilled to hear that! The right tools certainly make all the difference
Take care – Cathy
Is the 1.5 C of oats measured before they’re ground, or after? I imagine that the 1.5 C of rolled oats would be reduced in volume after the grinding. Thanks for the help! These look delicious.
Hi, yes, that’s not so clear. I measure the 1.5 cups before I ground them. If you find that ground is a different measurement, let me know and I’ll note it
Thanks!
Hi Cathy,
I always make pancakes on the weekend and enough for a few days after. This weekend was the first time I ventured from our regular recipe that I keep trying to make healthier and made this. I added vanilla blueberries and ripe sliced banans to the mix. My son sat at the table and went on and on how he liked these pancakes much more than my normal pancakes. This morning, he ate the last of them. He was so upset there were no more and said again how much better they were than the other pancakes. I promised him we would make more tonight together and he was so happy. I already have lots of ideas how to play with it. My son has been through enough, so the last thing I want him to have to do is shove food down his throat that he doesn’t like. thank u for this recipe. Can’t wait to have some fun with it now that I feel a little more confident 
I needed to share with you how much I appreciate this recipe. My 4 year old son has a spinal tumor and through diet (I believe) was have stablized it, avoiding chemo, thus far. So transitioning his already vegan diet to a whole foods vegan diet has been the most imprtant thing I have ever done. AND, he is 4, so you know how picky they can be
Hi Andrea, thank you for sharing that wonderful story! Wow! I’m so glad your son has taken to the healthier pancakes! Keep me updated if you come up with more variations that he likes. Have a great week!
Hi Cathy-we made apple this weekend. Elliott (my son) liked them a lot, but I would make some changes next time. I was wondering if I took out the cornmeal and just did all oatmeal flour how that would be. Thoughts? I about doubled the cinnamon, added a bit of nutmeg, did 1 cup unfiltered apple juice, 1 cup almond milk and subed the apple sauce for date paste (although next time I’m not sure I would do that since they are apple pancakes) Left out the lemon. I grated 2 fresh apples but I think I would cook them a little bit next time to make them sweeter and prob add some raisens. If you have any other ideas-please share
Thanks again!
Hi Andrea, sure you can use all flour if you like. You may need to adjust the measurement a bit, but that’s easy. Wow, you’re creative! That all sounds great. Pancakes are pretty forgiving when it comes to tweaking them. Try bananas and blueberries. Sometimes I put chopped walnuts in mine too. Have fun and thanks for the comments!
Hi Cathy, We (including my 3 & 5 y. o.) loved these pancakes! I cooked all of them at one time even though we didn’t eat them all in one sitting. I left them on the counter to cool and all morning the kids kept running by and taking another for a “fly-by bite”. Needless to say, there were hardly any leftovers after that. I happen to love lemon and can see how easy it will be to modify this recipe for whatever you have on hand.
Hi Monica, thank you for the comment! They do make good snacks, and yes, so easy to modify them. I think as long as you have a good non-stick pan, any type of pancake is possible
I needed to give up a mix I had because I tried using subs for oil and eggs but it did not go well. I followed your directions but the batter was so runny. I added several tsp’s of flour and the consistency improved. Then I added freeze dried cranberries and walnuts. The flavor is different, but I think I like it.
Hi Rebekah, what kind of flour did you use? I make these a lot and the texture is typical of pancake batter before cooking and very cooked and raised up inside, never runny, so not sure what’s going on. Hmm. The flavor will be lemon-y.
Love your recipes! When you mentioned this on your facebook page today I wondered how I missed this recipe. How or can this be modified to make waffles?
Hi Teri, here is my waffle recipe.
http://www.straightupfood.com/blog/2010/05/04/waffles-with-date-syrup/
This was delicious. I was in a hurry so I used a tablespoon of maple syrup instead of the dates — but it worked out really well. Thank you.
I made these today and everyone in my house loved them. I toped them with poached pears, apples, & cinimin… yum
Some cornmeal contains gluten, I have been told. Are these pancakes totally gluten free?
Hi Anita, cornmeal is considered a gluten-free grain, but is often produced by manufacturers who also process wheat on their machinery. Check labels on the package you purchase to see if it is noted that the cornmeal is processed on equipment with wheat.
Cathy, just tried these and they are fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing all your wonderful and delicious recipes
Thanks Patty!
For some reason anytime I cook pancakes it is still moist, really moist in the middle. I follow recipie exactly but my non stick griddle only has temperature settings, not high med low. Am I cooking them on too high of heat, please help. I could leave them on for 10min ea side and still moist
Hi Megan, I usually start my pancakes on high heat then turn it down about halfway through the batch as the pan heats up more. You could try another pan, a good quality non-stick makes the difference I’ve noticed. Maybe your baking powder is old(?) Also, don’t overmix, just mix until the dry is incorporated. It should only take about 3 minutes per side.