Hulk Smash!!! Introducing this healthy green pancakes with spinach recipe.
There is a whopping 1 cup of spinach in this recipe. The best part is that the kids have no idea! 😉 As far as they are concerned, these are super hero pancakes with Hulk Smash written all over them. 💪
Enjoy!
How to make fluffy pancakes
The fluffiness of these spinach pancakes is surreal. The trick to it is ensuring that the spinach is fully blended in a powerful blender with all the wet ingredients including apple cider vinegar.
Other pancake recipes usually call for buttermilk which we are skipping in this recipe. Buttermilk is fermented milk which leads to the milk sugar, lactose, being metabolized into lactic acid. The lactic acid reacts with the flour to produce carbon dioxide gas. The bubbles of gas are then caught in the batter as it cooks on the griddle and this is what makes the pancake fluffy. The workaround in this recipe is the apple cider vinegar for its acidity, so don’t skip it.
How to make green pancakes
The perfect light green color is easy to achieve if you keep an eye on a couple of things:
- Fill a cup with fresh spinach. Make sure it’s a full cup but do not pack them too tight.
- Blend the spinach with all the wet ingredients in a very powerful blender to make certain that the spinach is completely blended and no traces of the spinach leaves are visible.
- Do not skip the apple cider vinegar.
- Do not over cook! Keep a close eye on them to make sure they do not brown.
Green Pancakes with Spinach Recipe
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp butter melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
Instructions
- Melt the butter at room temperature or microwave it for a few seconds to soften and set aside.
- Pre-heat a griddle or a skillet on low heat and coat it with a little butter.
- Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl by hand preferably with a whisk to ensure they are perfectly mixed and set aside.
- Place the spinach first in the blender.
- Add the milk, vinegar, melted butter, egg and vanilla extract to the blender.
- Blend on the highest setting for about a minute or until you see no traces of the spinach. We use the Vitamix blender and it works like magic.
- Pour the mixture from the blender over the dry mixture in the mixing bowl.
- Stir them gently by hand using a spoon or spatula. Do not whisk or over mix. You want the mixture to remain somewhat thick.
- Pour a little less than a 1/4 of a cup of the batter at a time on the pre-heated griddle using a measuring cup.
- Cook on low heat (lowest setting or 1 at the most) for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Flip and cook the other side for another 1 to 2 minutes.
Notes
I recommend this double burner griddle to cut the cooking time in half.
The spinach cup should be pretty full but don’t pack them too tight.
You can add more sugar if you want the pancakes to be more sweet. Otherwise, stick to the 1 tbsp of sugar and rely on your favorite toppings or syrup for added sweetness.
Getting the timing right is critical to ensuring the pancakes maintain the light green color. So lift them gently to ensure that they are not browning. In my experience, I find that about 1.5 minutes on each side works best on very low heat.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 pancake
- Calories: 86
- Sugar: 3
- Sodium: 215
- Fat: 3
- Carbohydrates: 12
- Protein: 3
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