GF Pancakes

Teff GF Pancakes
by Bea Garth copyright 2010

Note: This time of the year many of us want to start using alternative gluten free flours and other healing foods as well as herbs. The following is one of my favorites.

Teff Pancakes with alternatives…

In mixing bowl add and mix together and blend using a wire whisk:

¼ cup oil (grape seed, safflower, or sunflower etc. Even olive oil will do)

3 cups water

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. xanthum gum

Then mix in (one ingredient at a time) with a large spoon:

½ cup tapioca flour

1 cup sorghum flour

1 ½ cup teff flour

If the batter is too stiff, add a little more water.

If eggs are OK for you, you can add an egg or two. If you do add eggs however only put in one teaspoon of the baking soda unless you like your pancakes really “cake-like” and high. The eggs can take the place of the xanthum gum if necessary.

Preheat your frying pan, then turn down to medium low. When pan is hot but not too hot add a half teaspoon of coconut oil. It’s the best oil to use since it doesn’t stick or burn easily plus is very healthy to use.

I make small to medium sized pancakes and turn them after roughly 3 minutes per side.

I like to serve them with yogurt and sunflower seeds sweetened with a small dusting of plain powdered stevia, however any cut fruit or honey etc. will do.

Make extras as snacks. Nice for lunch or anytime. You can store the batter with a lid or plate on top of the bowl or container and make as needed. Enough for 3 or 4 people—or 3 or 4 mornings.

Note: Alternatively one can substitute cornmeal, buckwheat or even brown rice flour for the teff (or the sorghum). If desired, one can substitute a tablespoon of mashed yam for the tapioca flour and add some other less adhesive flour in its place. Mashed banana is good too for its adhesive capabilities —1 to 2 small banana should do it. Alternatively one can simply use 1 to 2 eggs and forget the yam or banana unless desired for taste etc.

I sometimes add already cooked rice to it to give it a nice texture, esp. if I use brown rice as the main flour ingredient. Add less other flours like sorghum if so however…or add a little more oil and water to make a bigger batch..

Flax/Sunflower Meal Zucchini Pancakes

by Bea Garth

This recipe shows you how to make a gluten free (i.e., nothing from the wheat family), very low carbohydrate pancakes without eggs (almond meal, pumpkin seed meal or even sesame meal or some mixture thereof could be substituted for the sunflower meal).
I got carried away with making this recipe since I had a garden full of zucchini’s the summer of 2010. However I discovered by mid fall it precipitated my salicylate sensitivity. Nevertheless, it shows how one can be very creative making pancakes with most anything. For someone on a paleolithic or grain free diet however it may be just the right thing! Just don’t eat it or make it if you are at all sensitive to aspirin or things like chamomile or mint or strong cooking herbs.

(use a clean coffee grinder to grind the flax, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds—only put in a little at a time. My grinder can take a cup of seeds at once, however I think it is larger than the average grinder–thus on average only put in 1/4 to 1/2 cup seeds in to grind at a time with a normal coffee grinder )

1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh flax seed, measured and then ground up

mix with 4 level teaspoons of xanthum gum (or 2 to 3 tsp. of agar agar)

1 tsp. sea salt

and 3 tsp. dry baking soda.

Mix above mixture and then add the following wet ingredients-using a wire whisk–mixing in well once the water is added:

1/4 cup grape seed oil (or its equivalent heat resistant oil)

1/2 cup 24 hour yogurt (note: use regular yogurt if you are not lactose intolerant–or one to two teaspoons of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar if you are casein intolerant)

2 cups water

Let above mixture sit and grind the following ingredients into meal with your grinder:

2 cups dry, hulled sunflower seeds

2 cups pumpkin seeds (if you don’t have them–just use extra sunflower seeds instead)

Hand mix in the above freshly ground seed meal to the wet mixture above.

Then grate and add in to the above mixture by hand:

4 cups packed, fresh shredded zucchini (roughly three 7 inch zukes from the store)

Meanwhile, have a pre-heated fry pan waiting. Then add 1 tsp. coconut oil and spread around with your spatula before adding in the batter.

Note: This makes a thicker than most pancake batter. You may find it best to spread the batter around with say a flat spatula that has been wetted with a little water–so the batter is flat on the pan and not too thick. Flipping it over isn’t hard once you get used to it–you need to run the flat spatula under them first all around the circumference. I suggest you make small pancakes at first to get acquainted with the idea.

Some might want to halve this recipe. I made a lot so I wouldn’t have to whip up another batch the next day. Enjoy!

PS.–the batter turns green when it sits. Its just the chlorophyll! Stir it before use. I kept it in a closed container in the fridge until I used it again. I didn’t want it to sit too long in the fridge however since the zukes are perishable and could make it get moldy after a while…

PPS–my non- gluten free friends up north in Oregon and on Puget Island in the Columbia River (on the Washington side) loved this recipe!