Quinoa Sweet Potato Pancakes with Caramelized Bananas

Happy hump day! I hope the first half of your week was smashing (I must be feeling British today)! I'm sitting in my living room decked out with rugs (finally) and the sun is shining-though with a few snowflakes mixed in with those rays-so I'm in a share-a-new-recipe kind of mood!

Like usual, hunger and a lack of preparing breakfast before I decided I was starving were the base of this new recipe. I perused Pinterest with a few key search words (quinoa, gluten free, etc.) and came up short so I was left to attempt creativity myself! The result: quinoa sweet potato pancakes! Now before you get super pumped up and picture yourself noshing on fluffy pancakes, scratch that thought all together. These pancakes are of a different variety, the ones with a crisp outside and a warm-banana-bread-texture inside and a not-quite-perfect rim. Have you had any of the sort? Those who dabble with cooking with non-gluten flours may know. If you've never tried, here's the perfect opportunity! The caramelized banana was last minute, but it completes the pancakes in a way that I can't picture having ate these without it (though they would be good solo, I'm just being dramatic).

Before you make this recipe, there are two pre-recipe tasks to do (don't worry, they are quick!):

ONE. Toast your quinoa. Measure out the 1/4 cup quinoa in a nonstick pan and cook over medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until the quinoa is golden brown and making cool popping noises. Then grind your quinoa in either a food processor or coffee grinder until its a fairly fine texture (just not too fine to the point of starting to look pre-quinoa butter!)

TWO. Cook your sweet potato. Let's not kid ourselves, sweet potatoes baked in the oven are the BEST, but I don't know many people who awake an hour before they planned to pop a sweet potato in the oven. Instead, cheat your way through by stabbing it with a knife a few times and popping it in the microwave for 3-4 minutes. Voila.

Quinoa Sweet Potato Pancakes with Caramelized Bananas
makes 5-6 pancakes

1/4 cup quinoa, toasted and ground into flour
1 tablespoon ground flax
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1 small sweet potato, cooked and skin removed
5/8 cup milk of choice
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 Tbsp. pure maple syrup (you could sub honey if you'd like)
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla

Caramelized Banana
1 banana, cut in half then cut lengthwise down the middle

Directions: Pour yourself a cup of coffee to sip while cooking. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the first 4 ingredients. In another small bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients. Using a whisk or fork, mash the wet ingredients until the sweet potato is no longer chunky. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry until combined.

Preheat the griddle to 350 degrees F. Pour the batter on thin and gently press with a spatula so the pancake is evenly thin. Cook ~4-5 minutes (you should be able to slide your spatula under), then flip and press down again, cooking for another 4-5 minutes. Once you've flipped the pancakes, place your banana pieces on the griddle as well. Cook 2-3 minutes until golden, then flip. Your pancakes should be crisp on the outside and still feel slightly soft when pressed in the middle (but not too soft, or they won't be cooked through yet). Serve bananas on top of pancakes. Drizzle with maple syrup or topping of your choice. Pour yourself another cup of coffee and pat yourself on the back.

That's all she wrote. Enjoy your day! And your pancakes. :)

--KQ