Easy Paleo Plantain Pancakes (Only 2 Ingredients!)

Made with only a few ingredients, these paleo plantain pancakes are quick and easy to make, and are sure to please your whole family.

Here in Spain it is quite customary to go out for breakfast for toast and coffee at the many bars scattered all over town. Unfortunately, they don’t have much to offer for those who are following a paleo type diet, or even a gluten-free one. My husband usually wants to go out with his family on the weekends, and that leaves me eating something before we go or just eating the olives they give us along with some mint herbal tea.

On Christmas Day, though, it was just my luck that everything was closed for breakfast. I was actually quite happy about that, but I wasn’t really prepared to make anything special. Looking around the kitchen for ideas, I noticed I had some yellowing plantains and some eggs and couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if I tried to make 2 ingredient pancakes with them.

Several years ago you may have seen some popular 2 ingredient pancakes floating around Pinterest using only bananas and eggs. I tried those, but could never get them to work very well. It was very difficult to cook and flip the pancakes because they just didn’t hold together, and the ones I did make successfully weren’t that great.

Plantains are a lot more starchy than bananas, though, and have less sugar so they cook more like “regular” pancakes. Plus they taste amazing!

I ended up making them for the whole family and was pleasingly surprised by how much everybody loved them, especially my five year old. He loved them so much, in fact, that the next day he was begging me for those “things he liked that I made yesterday”. Oh, kids! 🙂

I’ve made them several times since, and while you can make them super simple as two ingredient pancakes, they are even better with a few optional modifications.

Adding some coconut oil or ghee into the batter itself, and not just in the skillet, adds a little bit of flavor to them and just slightly improves the texture; at least I thought so. My family didn’t seem to notice much of a difference either way.

Similarly, you can add a bit of baking soda to make them a little fluffier. The change is subtle, but I think it’s worthwhile unless you need to avoid baking soda for some reason. If you don’t have any on hand, though, and you have a craving for pancakes, go ahead and make them without!

I’ve enjoyed playing with the recipe so much that I’ve also made chocolate plantain pancakes very easily by adding in some cocoa powder and some honey to offset the bitterness. I’ve even made stuffed double chocolate pancakes filled with a chocolate mascarpone cream. The addition of mascarpone means they aren’t strictly paleo for those that avoid all dairy, but if you really want stuffed chocolate paleo pancakes, you can fill them with a ganache made with coconut milk instead. If you love chocolate, you can find the recipe with its variations on my own blog.

Paleo Plantain Pancakes

Makes a half dozen small pancakes (3-4 inches). Double or triple as needed.

1 plantain
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. baking soda (optional) (find baking soda here)
1 Tbsp. coconut oil or ghee (find raw, organic coconut oil in bulk here and find organic grass-fed ghee here)
coconut oil or ghee for frying

1. Peel and slice the plantain(s) and place the slices into a blender with the eggs and other ingredients. The pancakes can be made with only eggs and plantains for 2 ingredient pancakes, but I prefer to add coconut oil or ghee and baking soda. The oil adds a bit of moisture and flavor and the baking soda makes them a bit fluffier.
2. Blend all of the ingredients until smooth.
3. Heat a skillet/frying pan to medium heat.
4. Melt some coconut oil or ghee in the pan before pouring in some of the batter.
5. Wait a couple of minutes until bubbles start to form on top before flipping to cook on the other side.
6. Flip and brown the other side of the pancake for around a minute.
7. Remove the finished pancake from the skillet and continue to make pancakes until you have used all of the batter.
8. Serve with maple syrup, nuts, honey, or whatever toppings you prefer. Enjoy!

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