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Red Beet Pancakes came to me courtesy of my husband.
My better half has discovered a passion for cooking. For me, this newfound culinary obsession of his is both a blessing and a curse. While on one hand it’s a huge relief because I don’t have to cook, it can also be a total pain in my tush (and not just because of the potential mess I likely find afterwards) because while he is completely focused on his latest creation, I am left in charge of two cranky, hungry kids.
It’s hard for me to get upset though. Hubby gets so excited about the whole process and the two hour mental voyages he takes while focussed on a new dish are kinda hilarious to watch. It’s like witnessing a 4 year old trying to finish a 50 piece jigsaw puzzle for the first time. Plus, I love watching how jazzed the kids get seeing Daddy work in what they consider to be Mommy’s turf.
One recent Saturday morning, Daddy decided to make a beet pancake recipe he had seen in Good to the Grain, a fabulously gorgeous book by Kim Boyce. As soon as Kenya heard the words “beet” and “pancakes” he said, “no way, that’s gross”. It didn’t take long for Chloe to jump on the “yucky” bandwagon. It seemed like this experiment was going to leave two out of four of us with empty tummies, but as soon as the kids got into helping Daddy stir, mash and measure, they apparently forgot all about their initial aversion. By the time the beautiful ruby discs finally came off of the griddle and onto everyone’s plates, the kids downed about five a piece.
My favorite part of this story though, came later on when my husband asked Kenya why he was so resistant at first to the beet pancakes. Kenya just looked at him and said, completely matter of fact, “who knew they were going to be that good!”
I’ve simplified Boyce’s recipe here, adding some whole wheat flour, more pureed beets to further brighten the color and some Greek yogurt too, making these red beet pancakes a breakfast that will make everyone’s eyes as big as their stomachs when you set them on the table.
He may make a bit of a mess and take a while finding his way around the kitchen, but I have to say it’s unbelievably charming watching hubby take over what I usually think of as my kitchen….and make it more of ours!
If you make these Red Beet Pancakes I would love to see them! Take a picture, post it on Instagram and tag Weelicious. I can’t wait to see your creation!
Red Beet Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 Cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 Cup whole wheat flour
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 medium beets, roasted and pureed (about 3/4 cup)
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1/3 Cup plain greek yogurt
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Sift the first 5 ingredients into a bowl.
- Place the rest of the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk thoroughly to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until just combined (you don’t want to overstir the batter — some lumps are good).
- Drop about 2 tbsp of the pancake mixture onto a greased griddle or pan over medium heat and cook for 3 minutes on each side.
- Serve with desired accompaniments.
Video
Notes
- To freeze: Place the pancakes in labeled zipper bags and freeze for up to 3 months
Nutrition
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Greek yogurt is thicker so using non-greek would make the batter thinner and a different consistency. All the alterations you’ve made would affect the consistency of the batter which would in turn have an affect on the finished product. Did you use red beets?
Help please! I was so excited to make these for my son and I (Dad’s loss he doesn’t like beets) but I made a couple alterations and they turned out all wrong. Hoping someone might have an idea of where I went wrong. Here’ are the alterations I made:
1 cup ww flour and 3/4 all purpose,
only 1 tablespoon of brown sugar,
used plain whole milk yogurt as I didn’t have greek.
The batter was a fabulous colour but once cooked it turned brown, yellowish and they just didn’t taste right.
On another note, I wanted to add how great this website is! Thank you for all the time and hard work you put into it. It is really handy to have a resource like this 🙂 Cheers
We added blueberries and topped the pancakes with whipped cream for red, white, and blueberry pancakes for 4th of July. A doubled recipe fed two adults and six children. My husband said these were the best pancakes he has ever had and a new tradition has been born.
My daughter loves these. I made them into heart shapes. Red little pancakes! So cute 🙂
Made these for my kids and they were begging for more. We had white beets from our community supported agriculture farm, so the color was not distinctive. Used half white wheat, half oat flour and they were light and fluffy, I will definitely make them again.
I’m thinking of trying to make these into waffles….seems the proportions are pretty much the same but maybe adding another egg or two? Maybe another Tb. of butter?
You can use all whole wheat flour, but they will come out much more dense! Maybe try white whole wheat?
What if I want to use just whole wheat flour? What do you recommend?
Made these tonight. Took a little convincing for my 2-year-old to try them, but everyone finished their dinner (we’re a pancakes for dinner kind of family). My usual recipe is ricotta pancakes, so I substituted ricotta cheese for the Greek yogurt, and they came out very well. Paired them with spinach smoothies, and the kids got two awesome veggies and thought dinner was a special treat!
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So great your hubby is enjoying his new found love of the kitchen! Fun idea to add beet puree to pancakes! I like one readers comment about freezing beet puree, so convenient!
My 2-yr-old adores these! It has gotten to the point that we not only keep the pancakes frozen for snacks, but I also keep frozen beet puree cubes so that I can make a batch quickly without having to think ahead about roasting the beets. One of my favorite things about these pancakes is that she makes the batter with me, and I have to defrost extra puree for her to eat along the way, *and* she finishes the remainder of the greek yogurt (she calls it ice cream) along the way. A big thank you for this recipe!
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can i use spinach for my pancakes
I made these this morning with canned beets. They were definitely a pale pink color, so will roast fresh ones next time to get more of a deep red. The canned ones worked for a spontaneous breakfast, though! I also did not have any yogurt on hand, so eliminated it. I did use whole milk in an attempt to make up for it. My 2-year old daughter and regular pancake-loving husband both approved! My daughter, especially, loved them!