Pancakes with Quinoa, Bergamot, and Lemon

It's a holiday Monday here, and a lovely, rainy day to boot. I decided to stay home with my windows open and enjoy the smell of my windowsill herbs with tea, tunes, and thesis writing.

It's a gratifying change to have green and growing things in my flat again. I am not all that experienced with container gardening, but I have to admit, the vibrancy of these plants is incentive to try and get better at it. And I enjoy that they aren't just pretty - they are also edible. Functional and beautiful... it's a good combination. I also have enough basil that there will be no risk of me spending ridiculous amounts of money on pesto again this summer... ^_^

I decided to make brunch for myself this morning, as the rain had me craving pancakes. I wanted to try something new, so I went through my "Things to Eat" board on Pinterest and came up with a recipe for Quinoa Pancakes with Blueberry Maple Syrup and decided to use that as my jumping off point. I was intrigued by the presence of quinoa, as I've recently realized I haven't been getting enough protein, and have therefore been looking for ways to bolster my intake. 

If you have leftover cooked quinoa, these pancakes come together as quickly as any other pancake recipe I've tried. If you don't have leftover cooked quinoa, they don't take that much longer - just put the quinoa on and start prepping the rest of your ingredients, have a brief dance party in your kitchen, enjoy a cuppa, whatever makes you happy for a few moments. 

Pancakes with Quinoa, Bergamot, and Lemon

Makes ~24, 4" pancakes

2 large eggs

2 1/2 cups almond milk, or milk of your choice (water, cold tea, or orange juice also work)

4 tbsp olive oil or melted, cooled butter (an infused olive oil is tasty here)

zest of one lemon
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp bergamot extract

2 1/2 cups flour (12.5 oz if you are weighing with a scale)

1-2 tbsp coconut palm sugar (or other sweetener of your choice)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt 

1 cup cooked quinoa (I used white)

If you need to cook the quinoa, place 1/2 cup dry quinoa in a saucepan with 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and simmer until quinoa is tender and the little, spiral like tail (the germ) has popped off the seed, ~15 minutes. Let quinoa cool a bit. It can be warm, but shouldn't be really hot.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Add the milk, oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and bergamot extract. Whisk to combine and set aside. 

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and whisk to combine well. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. A few lumps are okay, but you want to take care to not to overdo it, or you'll whisk the air out of your batter and end up with flat, tough pancakes. Once the wet and dry ingredients are mixed, add the quinoa and stir through until evenly distributed. 

Heat your frying pan to medium or medium high. I use a cast iron pan, so it takes a bit to warm up fully, but I don't usually need to be over medium heat for pancakes. You may need to use a higher heat for thinner pans. Add any oil to the pan if required (my cast iron tends to need just a skitch) and let it warm up. Using a 1/3 cup measuring scoop, pour a scant 1/3 cup into the pan for each pancake. 

Cook until the edges of your pancakes start to look dry and many medium to large bubbles have come to the surface of your cake and burst, 2-4-ish minutes, depending on how hot your pan is. Then carefully flip your cakes over. They should be a golden brown. If they are quite dark, your pan is too hot. If they are very pale, you might want to turn the heat up a bit. Cook the remaining side until golden, 2-3 minutes more. Remove them to a platter and pour in the next batch. Continue in this pattern until all of the batter has been cooked off. The holding platter can be maintained in the oven at 200F if you'd like, although I found that these made so many so quickly that they kept themselves warm on a big plate on the counter. 

Serve with your preferred pancake toppings - butter, syrups, toasted nuts, coconut, fresh fruit, whatever you like. I found three cakes to be a good serving, and I enjoyed them plain today. The texture of the quinoa in the pancake wasn't that noticeable, and I found I liked it. It was almost like having coarsely ground almond meal in the cakes. Once any leftovers are cool, they can be packed up and put into the fridge or the freezer to be reheated in the future as desired. 

Enjoy!