Name: Paleo Plantain Pancakes
Yield: 6 small pancakes
Ingredients: 1 plantain; 2 eggs; 1/2 tsp. baking soda (optional); 1 Tbsp. coconut oil or ghee; coconut oil or ghee for frying

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Super quick and easy to make, these healthy two ingredient pancakes are grain free and paleo, and taste great. If you’ve ever tried the banana two ingredient pancakes, but were disappointed with them, try these instead. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

So, you were looking for some healthy, grain free pancakes, and were bombarded by beautiful pictures on Pinterest of 2 ingredient pancakes made with bananas and eggs?

Excited, you ran to your kitchen and whipped up a batch, but it was a complete disaster! Not only did you have to wait for 10 minutes to cook each pancake over super low heat just to be able to flip them and keep them together, but they sort of tasted like banana mash!

OK, so maybe that didn’t happen to you, but it did happen to me.

I could never get the banana two ingredient pancakes to work very well. It was very difficult to get them to cook slowly enough to hold together without burning, and even when I did successfully make them, I was never very impressed with the texture. I still have yet to wonder how so many people were able to take beautiful pictures of stacks of banana pancakes when all I ended up with was a pile of banana mush.

Two ingredient paleo pancakes

Christmas day rolled around and I hadn’t planned anything for breakfast.

When I looked over to see the plantains and eggs I had in my fruit basket, I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if I blended them together to make pancakes.

After the banana pancake fiasco, I still don’t know what prompted me to try making them with plantains instead. Perhaps it was boredom, curiosity, or my intuition that plantains have a higher starch content that would make a more realistic pancake.

Whatever it was, I’m glad I tried it because this recipe has since become a family favorite.

Unlike the banana pancakes, there paleo plantain pancakes remind me of “real” pancakes. The starchy nature of plantains makes a batter that works and tastes much more like “regular” wheat pancakes.

What I really loved about these is that everybody in the family was really impressed with them.

Since that first Christmas, I have made them numerous times because my son asks for those “things he liked that I made for breakfast.” (Pancakes aren’t really a thing here in Spain, so he wasn’t quite as familiar with them as the average American kid).

Should I use green or yellow plantains?

Depending upon how green or ripe your plantains are, your pancakes can vary in levels of sweetness and how much “banana” flavor they have.

A greener plantain makes for a less sweet pancake that acts more like a traditional pancake. On the other hand, yellower, riper plantains result in a sweeter, more banana-ish pancake. Either way they turn out better than the banana pancakes. 😉

You can try both ways to see which type you prefer, and then make them to suit your tastes.

How to serve these paleo pancakes…

I like pairing these up with walnuts and maple syrup. Something about the combination of banana flavors with walnuts really appeals to me. You could probably even throw some walnuts into the batter to make banana walnut pancakes, and then serve them with whatever toppings you like: berries, butter, and even whipped cream would be wonderful.

Here on the blog, I showed you how adding cocoa powder to the batter makes chocolate plantain pancakes. That’s a super easy way to spiffy them up, of course.

If you’re really feeling fancy, though, you can stuff them with a chocolate mascarpone filling. Check out my post about how to make grain free stuffed double chocolate pancakes. (I also included a paleo filling option for those that want a completely paleo recipe.)

I thought you said these were 2 ingredient pancakes!?!

OK…

So, I guess by now you’ve probably seen my recipe card, and have seen that it actually lists 4 ingredients.

When I first started making these, though, they really were just that: two ingredient paleo pancakes made with only eggs and plantains.

With time, I started to tweak the recipe and have since added a couple of optional ingredients to help improve them ever so slightly.

Why did I later add baking soda?

If you like fluffy pancakes, a touch of baking soda will help achieve that. It doesn’t make a huge difference, but I usually add a pinch of baking soda to give them that extra rising ability.

If you don’t add baking soda, the eggs still give them a fluffy quality, so not all is lost. What you don’t want to do, though, is add too much or the baking soda flavor will ruin your delicious pancakes!

Why did I add coconut oil (or sometimes ghee)?

With time, I also found that adding the slightest bit of coconut oil (or ghee) made the pancakes more moist and enhanced their flavor. (I started using coconut oil, but later found I liked the flavor that ghee gave them.)

What if I only want to use 2 ingredients?

The recipe is still quick and easy with four ingredients, but if you only have eggs and plantains on hand, don’t fear! You can still make great paleo pancakes without adding anything else!

These are definitely becoming a family favorite at my house. I hope you enjoy them too!

If you’ve adapted them in other ways, I’d love to hear about the ways you love to eat these.