Beet Pancakes (Gluten-Free)

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I wanted to share a delicious pink treat – sans food dye – beet pancakes! 

Does the idea of putting beets in your pancakes turn you off? It definitely turned my kids off at first. They absolutely despise beets, so when they saw what I was doing, they went into dramatic fits of gagging and acting like it was the end of the world. 

But, I did convince them to at least try, and they were very surprised (and delighted) that they actually loved these beet pancakes! 

I will say, though, you don’t want to eat them cold if you don’t like beets. For some reason, the cold pancake really intensifies the flavor. 

However, the benefits of putting beets in your pancakes far outweigh the potential downsides. For instance, they help lock in moisture so that these pancakes are nice and soft even after reheating. 

This recipe is naturally gluten-free, by the way, because we blend oatmeal into flour instead of using regular flour. So as long as you’re using certified gluten-free oatmeal, you’re golden. Similar to the way coconut flour pancakes would be naturally gluten-free.

If you want to get some beets into your kids, this is the perfect way to do it while making them feel celebrated on a Hallmark Holiday. 

We made several test batches over the last few weeks, and my eight year old is still adamant that these be on our Valentine’s Day menu. 🙂 

Beet Pancakes (gluten-free)

Some things to know about making these pancakes:

• You can use quick oats or rolled oats. It really doesn’t matter as long as you have a good blender (sometimes the thicker rolled oats take a little longer to blend). And don’t forget to use a gluten-free brand like Avelina if you are serving someone with gluten allergies. 
• You can sub canned beets in place of steaming your own beets to make this a super quick recipe
• I prefer to use steamed/boiled/canned beets over roasted because I feel like it minimizes the beet flavor in these pancakes.
• I use greek yogurt because that’s what I keep on hand. If you have regular plain yogurt and want to wing it, feel free! Since it is thinner than greek yogurt, you may find that you need less milk, or sub yogurt for the milk as well to make the batter adequately thick. 
• That said, I don’t recommend skipping the yogurt. It adds a lot of moisture and viscosity to a recipe that doesn’t contain gluten. 
• Likewise, while you can omit the sugar, I don’t recommend it, as that also adds moisture, as well as flavor. 

These pancakes are a great way to use beets fresh from your garden or the farmer’s market – here in Texas it won’t be long until we’re growing lots of them again! – and are also a nice bright spot in the winter using beets you canned earlier in the year! 

By the way, if you love beets, you should try our old fashioned pickled beets recipe, and roasted beet hummus. They’re so good!

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