4-Ingredient Vegan Chickpea Flour Pancakes (2024)

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By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 12/29/2023

4.79 from 179 votes

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These 4-ingredient chickpea flour pancakes are easy, fluffy, and high in protein pancakes made with only four ingredients. Bonus, these pancakes are made with no milk, oil-free, grain-free, and gluten-free!

4-Ingredient Vegan Chickpea Flour Pancakes (2)

Why Making Chickpea Flour Pancakes?

Chickpea flour pancakes are egg-free fluffy vegan pancakes made of chickpea flour, also known as besan flour.

Bonus, this is a 4-ingredient protein pancake recipe with 3 grams of plant-based protein per pancake. It’s such a healthy alternative to my classic Vegan Pancakes, Vegan Banana Pancakes, or Vegan Almond Flour Pancakes.

Ingredients and Substitutions

All you need to make this recipe for chickpea flour pancakes are 4 ingredients. Let’s see what you need.

4-Ingredient Vegan Chickpea Flour Pancakes (3)

Chickpea Flour, also is known as garbanzo bean flour – I love to use Bob’s Red Mill’s flour for this recipe. Before you start using your flour, make sure it has no lumps; if so, break them with a fork before measuring the flour for full precision. Chickpea flour can be reused in many other recipes like my Chickpea Flour Tortillas, Chickpea Flour Banana Bread, or Chickpea Peanut Butter Cookies.
Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk – it’s great to use vanilla almond milk to add a delicious vanilla flavor to your pancakes. Chickpea flour can be slightly bitter, and vanilla is a great way to cover the flour’s bitterness. You can also use other dairy-free milk, but I believe almond milk is the best milk substitute for pancakes. It makes fluffy vegan pancakes!
Baking Soda or baking powder if you don’t like the flavor of baking soda.
Unrefined Sugar – there are many options. I love coconut sugar or sugar-free erythritol. You must add a sweetener to your batter to balance the natural bitterness of chickpea flour.

How To Make Chickpea Flour Pancakes

4-Ingredient Vegan Chickpea Flour Pancakes (4)

In a large bowl, whisk the chickpea flour, sugar, and baking powder – using a whisk is a great way to remove any lumps that easily form in chickpea flour.

Pancake Toppings Ideas

These are the most fluffy vegan, gluten-free pancakes you’ll find, with a delicious sweet flavor.

They are delicious warm with a few of the following vegan pancakes toppings for your pancakes are:

Liquid sweeteners like maple syrup, brown rice, agave syrup, apple syrup, or coconut syrup.
Fruits – chopped bananas, blueberries, strawberries, fresh apricot, and apple slices.
Nut butter – drizzle peanut butter or almond butter on top.
Sliced almonds
Vegan Whipped Cream
Shredded coconut
Vegan chocolate chips
Date Caramel (Only 2 Ingredients!)
Peanut Butter Caramel

4-Ingredient Vegan Chickpea Flour Pancakes (10)

Flavoring Chickpea Pancakes

Some people don’t appreciate the light earthy flavor of chickpea flour.

Below are some add-ons you can add to your pancake batter to increase their sweet delicious flavor.

Vanilla extract – add 1 teaspoon.
Ground cinnamon – add 1/2 teaspoon.
Blueberries – fresh or frozen add 1/2 cup.
Vegan chocolate chips – add 1/3 cup.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long can I store chickpea pancakes?

This is a vegan recipe meaning the pancakes are egg-free and dairy-free. Therefore, these pancakes store very well in the fridge, in a sealed container for up to 4 days.

Can I Freeze Pancakes?

Yes, you can freeze pancakes in a zip-lock bag or sealed container and thaw the day before at room temperature.
Frozen pancakes rewarm very well in a bread toaster or warm pan.

What’s Chickpea Flour?

Before you start this recipe, make sure you choose the right flour.
It can be confusing to pick chickpea flour at the store because many names can be used for bean flour. Chickpea flour is high protein gluten-free flour with a light yellow color.
Below are some recommendations to help you pick the right chickpea flour at the store to make these pancakes.
Chickpea flour or garbanzo flour
The flour you need in this recipe is chickpea flour, also known as garbanzo bean flour.
Both refer to flour made from ground chickpeas.
It’s a light and yellowish flour that can easily form lumps. That’s why it’s important to store chickpea flour in a sealed container at room temperature.
Besan flour or gram flour
Besan flour or gram flour are made from Chana dal or split brown chickpeas. This is not the same as chickpea flour, and it needs way more liquid to work with these flours.
Don’t use besan or gram flour for chickpea flour pancakes, or it will mess up your recipe.

How Do Chickpea Flour Pancakes Taste?

Chickpea flour pancakes are soft, fluffy pancakes with a light sweet flavor. Depending on the chickpea flour brand you used, you may feel a slightly bitter aftertaste.
In fact, some chickpea flour can be stronger in flavor than together, and some people refer to a bitter aftertaste.
I absolutely love Bob’s Red Mill for this recipe and never notice this flavor in my pancake recipe.
If you do, you can hide the chickpea flour’s bitter flavor by adding ground cinnamon or vanilla extract into the pancake batter.

Can I Use Different Flours For This Recipe?

This recipe is created to use chickpea flour only. It won’t work with all-purpose wheat flour or almond flour, or any other flour.
Chickpea flour has particular properties, a high amount of protein that impacts how it absorbs liquid in recipes.
Now, I have other pancake recipes you might like if you don’t have chickpea flour.
An oat flour pancake recipe, an all-purpose flour pancake recipe, a buckwheat flour pancake recipe, and an all-purpose flour crepe recipe! There’s something for everyone!

How Many Pancakes Are In One Serving?

This recipe makes 8 chickpea pancakes. A regular serving for breakfast is 4 pancakes topped with a little syrup and fruits.

Nutrition Per Breakfast

This is a healthy pancake recipe, high in protein, fiber, and slow carbs to keep your energy level high and steady through the morning.
Below is the nutrition panel for 4 pancakes. Note that the sugar can be replaced by diabetic-friendly sugar-free sweeteners for sugar-free pancakes.
I recommend erythritol as a swap to sugar to bring down the total sugar to zero in this recipe.

Nutrition for 4 Vegan Chickpea Flour Pancakes

– Calories: 260 kcal
– Carbohydrates: 44.8 g
– Protein: 10.8 g
– Fibers: 5.2 g
– Fat: 3.2 g
– Sugar: 22.8 g or 0 grams if you use erythritol

More Vegan Pancake Recipes

If you love vegan recipes for pancakes, I have plenty more for you to try!

Vegan Oatmeal Pancakes

More Chickpea Recipes

If you enjoy cooking with chickpeas, you’ll love these chickpea recipes:

Chickpea Flour Banana Bread

Chocolate-Covered Chickpeas

Chickpea Chips

Chickpea Peanut Butter Cookies

Did You Like This Recipe?

Leave a comment below or head to our Facebook page for tips, our Instagram page for inspiration, our Pinterest for saving recipes, and Flipboard to get all the new ones!

Chickpea Flour Pancakes

These Chickpea Flour Pancakes are an easy vegan, grain-free, and oil-free pancake recipe with only 4 ingredients.

4.79 from 179 votes

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Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 10 minutes mins

Total Time: 20 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Servings: 8 pancakes

Calories: 77.7 kcal

Author: Carine Claudepierre

Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

▢ 1 cup Chickpea Flour - known as garbanzo bean flour (NOT besan or gram flour)
▢ 2 teaspoons Baking Powder - or 1 teaspoon baking soda
▢ 3 tablespoons Sugar - coconut sugar or sugar-free erythritol/Monk fruit
▢ ½ cup + 2 tablespoons Almond Milk - vanilla, unsweetened or plant milk of your choice

Optional

▢ 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
▢ ½ teaspoon Cinnamon

Instructions

In a mixing bowl, whisk the chickpea flour, baking powder, sugar until well combined, and no lumps show.
Whisk in unsweetened almond milk until smooth. Note that chickpea flour makes lumps easily. To avoid that, whisk vigorously until no more is left. It's OK to have a few lumps, but the less, the better it tastes! You can also blend the batter in a blender for an ultra-smooth texture.
Warm a non-stick crepe pan or non-stick pancake griddle under medium heat. Slightly grease the pan with vegetable oil, about 1/2 teaspoon. I suggest rubbing a piece of oiled absorbent paper on the pan to avoid too much oil. Adding too much oil will fry your pancakes, and it is not what you want.
Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of batter per pancake, depending on the size you like.
Cook 2-3 minutes on one side or until the sides are half set, bubbles form in the center, and it is easy to flip without breaking.
Slide a spatula under the pancake and flip over. Cook 1 more minute on the other side or until the center is set and the pancake is fluffy.
Cool on a rack and repeat until no more batter left. You should be able to make 8 medium size pancakes from this batter.
Serve immediately with maple syrup, banana slices, and fresh blueberries.

Notes

Pancake filling ideas

You can add 1/3 cup vegan dark chocolate chips or fresh blueberries to the batter before cooking.

Freezing

You can freeze the cooked pancakes in a zip bag or airtight container. Make sure they don’t overlap. It makes it easier to defrost one-by-one. Defrost 3-4 hours or overnight at room temperature. Rewarm in a pancake griddle or toast for a few minutes in a toaster.

Make ahead:

You can make the batter ahead and cook your pancakes the day in the morning

Equipment

Measuring Cups and Spoons

Mixing Bowl

Pancake and Crepe Pan

Cooling Rack

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Nutrition