These hearty, whole-grain Vegan Zucchini Bread Pancakes came in so helpful this past weekend when my stomach wasn't doing too well after lots of Chinese food. Our landlord is a sweet, smily, super chatting Chinese lady and she's been asking us to come to her house for months now. We always seemed to have other plans or to be traveling, so it took until this past weekend to finally accept her offer.
At first we thought it would be an afternoon adventure, but on Friday night she told us she'd come to our house in the morning. 9 AM on the dot she was knocking on our door ready to take on the day. Before heading to her house we spend 2 hours at a mobile phone store trying to switch my SIM card, but ended up leaving unsuccessful. We then made the trip to her house.
Her house is about an hour bus ride away from the city we live in. The bus was crowded and lively and made stops every 2 minutes it seemed. Thankfully the windows were open and there was a nice breeze to keep me from getting car sick.
Once we arrived in her town, we walked through the outdoor markets to buy produce. We had told her earlier that I was vegan and didn't eat meat, eggs, or fish and that made her quite distraught as to what to cook me. In Chinese culture, its customary and polite to serve meat when hosting visitors as a sign of welcome and generosity. She felt like she wasn't hosting me well by only serving me rice and vegetables, but after lots of confirmation she started feeling okay about it. She still bought 4 kinds of meat to serve Brett though.
After stopping at the market she rode Brett and I one-by-one to her house closer to the foot of the mountain on her electric scooter. The scenery was gorgeous as rice paddies and mountains surrounded her neighborhood. Her house was huge too! Three stories high with extra buildings to raise her chickens and pigs.
By the time we got to her house it was already almost 1 o'clock. I awkwardly stood around for a bit trying to find ways to help her cook lunch and finally got her to consent. After lots of washing and prepping of vegetables she quickly stir-fried all the veggies, adding lots of oil, salt and msg to each dish. By 2:30 we were sitting down to a feast of 4 different kinds of vegetable dishes and 4 different kinds of meat dishes as well as rice.
We ate until we couldn't eat anymore and enjoyed talking with our kind landlord. Brett is usually the one who interacts with her the most when she comes to our house, so I really enjoyed having extended time to get to know her and her family.
After lunch she mentioned that we could rest, eat dinner and then spend the night. Brett and politely declined, but were sucked into staying around a few more hours. We went on a walk with her family, ate some fruit and a sweet, jelly soup for a snack, and chatted while watching TV. Around 5:30 is when she finally agreed that it was cool enough to take the bus back to the city.
When we got home sometime after 7 I was dealing with a pretty bad headache from all the salt and msg and dehydration. I basically laid on the couch until bed time, drinking water to ease my headache. The next morning I filled my belly with lots of whole grains in the form of oatmeal and drank tons of water and soon enough was back to normal.
I actually made these Vegan Zucchini Bread Pancakes for lunch and they hit the spot. They're made with oat and whole wheat flour and are speckled with shredded zucchini. Cinnamon and nutmeg give them a warming flavor and they taste amazing topped with banana, maple syrup, peanut butter and granola.
I really hope you give these simple and healthy Vegan Zucchini Bread Pancakes a try! Please let me know if you do by leaving a comment down below or taking a picture and tagging #theconscientiouseater on Instagram!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Zucchini Bread Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons water
- 1 cup non-dairy milk
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup oat flour
- ½ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 cup shredded zucchini squeezed of excess moisture and coarsely chopped
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together the ground flaxseed and water and set aside to thicken.
- In a mixing bowl, mix together the non-dairy milk and apple cider vinegar and allow them to sit until a "buttermilk" forms.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients, from the oat flour to the salt.
- Grate your zucchini using a thin grater and squeeze out excess liquid with your hands. Then coarsely chop the zucchini to make sure no long pieces remain.
- Once you milk has thickened and formed a buttermilk, add in the thickened ground flax egg, the maple syrup, the coconut oil and the shredded zucchini and mix until combined.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and barely mix everything together until just combined. You don't want to over mix or else the whole wheat flour will get tough. It's okay if there are spots of flour remaining.
- Heat a non-stick saucepan on medium heat (or coat your pan with oil) and drop ¼ cup amounts of batter onto the pan, using the back of spoon to spread the batter out into a thin, even layer.
- Allow the base to cook through until the top start looking cooked through as well. Then flip the pancake over and continue cooking until browned.
- Continue this process with the remaining batter until all the batter has been used.
- Serve the pancakes warm with maple syrup and whatever toppings you desire!
Notes
Nutrition
jayde says
Can you sub the whole wheat with all purpose flour? I'm all out lol.
Faith VanderMolen says
That should work fine!
LD Birks says
What sauce is drizzled on these pancakes (and your sweet potato pancake)? Looks delicious and flavorful like a vanilla bean cream. Thanks in advance
Faith says
Hi! I use peanut flour (which I buy on Amazon or iHerb) and just add water to it until I get a runny sauce. I hope that helps!
Emily Swanson says
Your landlady sounds so hospitable; I'm sorry that you felt so bad afterwards. :'( But I'm glad that you were back to normal soon enough after lots of water, lots of good wholesome grains and foods, and I love that you made these zucchini bread pancakes to help your body repair and feel better too! I'm so thankful God always repairs our bodies and enables us to keep going.
Faith says
She really is! More than I realized! And I'm so thankful too that I felt normal so quickly. It was worth it to get to know her better. Thanks Emily!