Quinoa Protein Pancakes
Quinoa – hard to say, easy to love. Pronounced keen-wa, this versatile grain is a firm favourite at Neat and for good reason. Quinoa is a complete protein, meaning it contains all nine of the essential amino acids we require from our diet. It’s also chocked full of anti-inflammatory phytonutrients and has a small amount of omega-3 fatty acids. Pretty much an all round delight!
Full of fibre while being naturally gluten-free, Quinoa is a great staple to any diet, although especially helpful for Vegans who may struggle with getting all their essential amino acids. It has a low GI and contains Magnesium, Potassium, Zinc and Iron, which are all important minerals your diet may be lacking in.
So what do you do with quinoa? Well, you can boil it much like rice or couscous, or if you’re feeling like you’re really hot stuff, you can make quinoa pancakes.
METHOD:
First up, cook the quinoa. Best practice is to cook according to the instructions on the pack, but a general guidance is to rinse the quinoa before cooking to get rid of the saponins (these cause that mucky looking foam that can sit atop the water when you boil). Add 300ml of water for 100g of quinoa and bring to the boil. Once cooked, this will give you over the 1 cup specified in the recipe but – LEFTOVERS! You can then use those extra grains in your lunch or dinner. Quinoa cooks like rice or couscous, so once the water has absorbed, you’ll be good to go.
Pop the quinoa in a bowl along with your protein powder, egg whites, baking powder and soda. We used naked protein as these pancakes can then be savoury or sweet, depending on your toppings. However, any flavour will work. Mix with a spoon while you heat around ¼ teaspoon of coconut oil in a frying pan.
Once the pan is sizzling, add two tablespoons of batter. We like our pancakes to be small and stackable so this is a great measure, however you can go with whatever size you like. The batter will solidify slightly and then you’re ready to flip like the pancake pro you are! Slide your spatula under the pancake and flip – it should be golden brown underneath:
Keep spooning and flipping until you’ve got a tasty stack of delicious, protein packed pancakes. Decorate with whatever floats your boat and don’t forget to take a picture for instagram and tag us, we love seeing your creations!
