I love beetroot. I love any way it is cooked, I love any dish that has it. I also love pancakes. You know where I’m going with this, right? Yes well, of course then I love the combination of these two! That’s why I made beetroot cakes because pancakes can only get better when their colour becomes magenta!

 

 

Actually, this was something that I wanted to try for a long time, making coloured pancakes, that is. So since I had a couple of beetroots left from a dish I cooked a couple of days ago, I decided to try the pancake with those beetroots. And since it is -22C today (yikes!) and I am stuck at home (too scared to go outside), I decided to make the pancakes specifically today – to forget the cold outside!

 

 

 

I found a recipe of beetroot pancakes a while ago on My Fussy Eater blog. They looked so much better than any other ones because they had absolutely homogenous colour! This is why I decided to try that recipe. At the last minute, though, I remembered that I had a very delicious and fluffy pancake recipe from a couple of years back, where I used baking soda and vinegar duo for the extra fluffiness. I immediately decided to use that combo again in this recipe as well, and the result was great! The pancakes still turned out slightly denser than the basic pancakes because of the addition of beetroot, but it was ok, and did not bother me.

 

 

I roasted the beetroots without using any water. When I roast beetroots to use in a dish, like beetroot hummus or a pancake like this one, I like that they get slightly dry when roasted, that’s why I kept water away. In order to make the beet puree, I processed the roasted beetroots with milk really long in food processor. Still, I left it at a point when the puree was not 100% smooth, I liked to have mini bits and pieces of shredded beets in the batter.

 

Alright then, go ahead and make your colourful pancakes!
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Ingredients:

 

Difficulty: ★☆☆ (Easy)
(makes about 10 pancakes, each of them made with 1/4 cup – 60 ml of batter)

 

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

 

2 medium beetroots, peeled and coarsely chopped in 4-6 pieces
1 1/2 cup / 3 dl + 4 tbsp all-purpose flour (you can use the same amount of gluten free flour blend)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 eggs
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla sugar)
1 cup / 2 dl + 2 tbsp + 2 tsp milk

 

For the sauce:
2 tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp plain Greek yogurt
1 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (if you are using vanilla sugar, you might want to skip it in the sauce)

 

raspberry jam (optional)
fresh berries or other fruits (optional)

 

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

 

2. Put the beetroots on an oven tray with a baking paper. Put in the oven in medium rack and roast for 30-40 minutes, until they get tender and cooked. Take out of the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes.

 

 

3. Put the dry ingredients flour, baking powder and baking soda (and vanilla sugar, if you are using it instead of vanilla extract) in a bowl and whisk. Put aside.

 

 

4. Put wet ingredients except milk (white vinegar, eggs, honey and vanilla extract) in another bowl and whisk well. Put aside.

 

 

5. Put roasted and cooled beetroots and milk in a food processor and process for about 5 minutes, until you get a beetroot puree.

 

 

 

 

6. Put beetroot puree and eggy mixture in a medium bowl and whisk well.

 

 

 

 

7. Add dry ingredients mixture and whisk until you get a nice pancake batter.

 

 

 

 

8. Put some oil on a pan (I used olive oil but you can also use vegetable oil or butter). Put the pan on low heat (I did this on lowest heat) and warm the pan / oil for about a minute.

 

 

9. Take 1/4 cup / 60 ml (4 tbsp) batter and pour it gently in the middle of the pan. Smooth the surface to spread evenly and to create a better circle using the back of a spoon. Cook for about 2 minutes and then flip and cook for 2 more minutes. It is very important that you make all these in lowest heat, otherwise the pancakes will get browned and lose their lovely colour. Do this step for the rest of the batter.

 

 

 

10. When your pancakes are ready, make the sauce: just put all the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl and whisk. Pour a little of the sauce on the pancakes, add a few tsp of raspberry jam and few fresh berries or another fruit of your choice. Enjoy!