There are pancakes… and then there are these vegan banana pancakes.
Fluffy as a cloud, with crispy golden edges and bursting with cozy, sweet banana flavor, these pancakes are the real deal.
This recipe is a riff on my fan-favorite vegan buttermilk pancakes—but with a banana twist that feels like a warm hug on a lazy Sunday morning. They’re seriously easy to make, delightfully indulgent, and perfectly sweet (thanks to those spotty bananas on your counter just begging to be used).
Bookmark these for your next weekend brunch and get ready to do a happy dance in your kitchen 🕺
Table of Contents:
1. Why this recipe works
2. Ingredient notes
3. Step-by-step instructions
4. Tips for making this recipe
5. Frequently Asked Questions
6. Recipe card with notes
Why this recipe works
A classic with a twist
If you already know and love my classic vegan pancake recipe, you’re guaranteed to love these vegan banana pancakes.
Instead of the sour cream the classic version calls for, here we’re using ripe mashed bananas. And of course, we’re heightening those flavors with complementary spices (cinnamon and cardamom) and some brown sugar.
The result? Rich butteriness, perfectly sweet banana flavor, and great fluff. What more could you want?
Fluffiness unlocked, no eggs needed
Despite containing bananas, which are quite dense and moisture-rich (think about how heavy a standard banana bread can be!), these pancakes are remarkably fluffy.
That’s all thanks to our buttermilk substitute, which is simply a mixture of soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Soy milk does some heavy lifting here—high protein content + acid = a lot of curdling, which contributes to fluffiness.
A generous amount of baking powder and a bit of baking soda (which gets activated by the acidity in the bananas and brown sugar) further contribute to the fluff factor.
Easy but impressive
As long as you’ve got ripe bananas, these pancakes are super simple to make! Mash ‘em up and combine them with three other liquid ingredients, whisk together the dry ingredients, then marry the two! Bada bing, bada boom.
Despite the simple ingredients and techniques, you’ll be treated to seriously delicious pancakes that are gourmet enough to wow a crowd.
Whip them up for your next Sunday brunch or anytime you have guests!
Looking for another indulgent weekend brunch idea? Try my Vegan French Toast!
Ingredient notes
Soy milk + apple cider vinegar
When mixed with an acid like vinegar, soy milk curdles significantly due to its high protein content, yielding a batter that fluffs up delightfully well when exposed to the heat in the frying pan. This is the secret behind lots of excellent vegan baked goods, including my ultimate vegan cupcakes.
And the acidity in the apple cider vinegar helps break down the gluten strands in flour, lending a tender texture (and a very subtle tang that balances the sweetness of the bananas).
Substitute: If you can tolerate soy, use soy milk for the best results. If you have a soy allergy, I would try a full-fat oat or barista variety of almond milk (I like Elmhurst best), or pea milk if you have access to it, as it’s also high in protein).
Bananas
No shocker here! As with banana bread, the best bananas to use here are overripe or very ripe bananas, the kind with lots of dark brown spots. These bananas are the sweetest and softest, making them easier to mash and incorporate into the batter.
Tip: Want to make these now but don’t have very ripe bananas? You can bake bananas in the oven to soften them, but in our tests, the banana flavor was not as pronounced. See the FAQ section for instructions.
All-purpose flour
The standard flour for almost any pancake recipe.
Substitute: Want a nutrition boost? We tested these with 100% whole wheat flour with good results. Use 1 ¾ cups (235g) 100% whole wheat flour with slightly more milk, 1 ⅔ cups (400 mL) soy milk.
Vegan Butter
For excellent buttery flavor, a requirement in any excellent pancake.
There are so many great vegan butter blocks on the market these days. Our favorite widely available option is Violife’s plant butter.
Substitute: Don’t have vegan butter? Try using melted refined coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil.
Brown sugar
Sugar plays two roles in these vegan pancakes: (1) it adds sweetness (which means the pancakes taste great on their own, even with no or minimal maple syrup); (2) it aids in caramelization, helping the pancakes brown and develop crisp edges.
I opt for brown sugar over white, as it complements the flavor of the bananas and spices.
Substitute: You can always use cane/white sugar if you prefer. While we haven’t tested this, coconut sugar would probably work fine.
Cinnamon and cardamom
To complement the banana-brown sugar flavor, I add ground cinnamon and cardamom into the batter. I go pretty generous with the cinnamon (1 ½ teaspoons) so its flavor shines through, but you can use less for a more subtle flavor.
And just for fun (and a little extra elegance), a hint of cardamom sneaks in to add a delicately rich spiced warmth.
Step-by-step instructions
Make the “buttermilk”: Mix the vinegar into the soy milk and set aside to curdle.
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom if using, and brown sugar. Whisk very well to ensure the leaveners get evenly distributed.
In a medium bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork (small chunks are fine).
Pour the remaining liquid ingredients into the bananas: buttermilk, vanilla, and melted butter.
Whisk the liquid ingredients until well combined. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry mix.
Switch to a wooden spoon and gently fold to combine, just until the flour pockets are gone. Do not overmix, as it can toughen the batter.
Preheat your frying pan over medium to medium-low for a few minutes, then add 1 teaspoon of cooking oil. Once the pan is hot, ladle in ⅓ cup (80 to 90g) of batter per pancake.
Cook for 2 to 2 ½ minutes, or until the edges are setting and some bubbles appear on the surface, and the bottom is golden brown. Carefully flip and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes until the second side is golden brown.
Tips for making this recipe
Use soy milk if you can
In my many rounds of testing these classic vegan pancakes, we learned that soy milk was the clear winner for pancakes. They produced the most fluff, by far.
So if you don’t have a soy allergy, use soy milk for the best results.
If you do have a soy allergy, I would try a full-fat oat or barista variety of almond milk (I like Elmhurst best), or pea milk if you have access to it, as it’s also high in protein).
Gently mix
When it’s time to combine wet and dry ingredients, switch to a wooden spoon and gently fold until just combined and the flour pockets are gone. Lots of lumps are good–you don’t want a smooth batter!
Over mixing can toughen the gluten in the flour, yield less light and fluffy pancakes.
Preheat the pan properly and adjust the heat
Whether you make these in a nonstick frying, cast iron or carbon steel pan, or griddle, preheating the pan is key for great pancakes.
For this recipe, heat the pan (or griddle) dry for a few minutes over medium to medium-low heat.
Then add the oil (I use high-heat oil to minimize smoking or burning) and let that heat for ~30 seconds. To test if the pan is hot enough, add a drop of water. If it sizzles immediately, the pan is ready (wipe out the water droplet so it doesn’t spit up at you!)
After flipping the first pancake, assess the heat level. And as you cook the next pancakes, you will likely need to lower the heat a bit to prevent the outsides from fully browning before the interior cooks through.
Want crispy edges? Use this method
If you are like me, you want your pancakes to have those delectable crispy, buttery edges, not be floppy and dry.
INSTRUCTIONS
To achieve the crispy edges and that classic golden ring around the pancakes, here’s what to do:
- Grease the pan with high-heat oil, as butter—even vegan butter—tends to burn a bit. I like using melted refined coconut oil for the flavor. Or, you can use avocado oil, canola oil, etc.
- Be generous with the oil when cooking. I use a heaped teaspoon of oil per pancake.
- About 30 seconds after ladling the batter into the pan, swirl the oil in the pan so that it moves towards the edges of the pancakes. Ideally, repeat this process once or twice before flipping.
- Flip the pancake and let cook for 20 to 30 seconds. If there’s any oil remaining in the pan, swirl again. NOTE: Don’t flip the pancakes back and forth, just the one time. This makes pancakes less fluffy without a uniform golden brown exterior.
- NOTE: If cooking two pancakes at once in a large skillet, use 1 ½ to 2 teaspoons of oil.
Prefer to minimize the oil while cooking? That’s fine, as long as your cooking surface is nonstick! These pancakes will still be tasty and fluffy but they won’t have crisp edges.
For fluffy pancakes
Try not to let the batter rest for too long before making the pancakes, as you’ll lose out on some of the leavening power of the baking powder, which gets activated once mixed with liquid ingredients.
Keep the measuring cup on the side. If you let the cup rest in the batter, it will deflate the air pockets.
Variations and serving ideas
Feel free to swap the cardamom for freshly grated nutmeg, or add in ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon ground cloves or allspices.
Love banana bread with chocolate chips? Of course you do, who doesn’t? Simply fold roughly 1 cup (6 oz / 170g) of chocolate chips into the combined batter–just be gentle and fold only as much as necessary. I strongly recommend using dark chocolate chips, as the bittersweetness will nicely balance the sweetness of the bananas.
Prefer less sweet pancakes? Skip the maple syrup for serving. Thanks to the brown sugar in these pancakes, they’re already lightly sweet.
I typically forgo the maple syrup and simply add fresh sliced bananas on top for the perfect sweet finish and more banana flavor. This might make me sound like an animal, but my favorite way to eat these is to tear apart a piece of pancake, top it with a banana slice, and fold it over like a little sandwich.
For something heartier, serve a dollop of yogurt on each pancake and top with sliced bananas or berries and toasted pecans or walnuts.
Frequently Asked Questions
These pancakes will taste best with naturally overripe bananas, but if you really want to make them now, here’s how to quickly ripen bananas:
1. Preheat the oven to 300°F/150°C. Place whole, unpeeled bananas on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Bake for 15 to 35 minutes, or until the skins turn black all over. If the bananas are already somewhat ripe, stick to the lower range.
2. Strain the bananas over a fine-mesh sieve to get rid of excess moisture, as less ripe, baked bananas will have more moisture, which can weigh down the bread.
Prefer to wait for your bananas to ripen naturally but still craving great pancakes? Make my classic vegan pancakes!
Sadly, we haven’t been able to adapt these to be gluten-free with good results. Our test with gluten-free substitutes yielded nice banana flavor and a decent exterior texture but a gummy interior.
You’ll get the best results if you cook the batter freshly made (the baking powder starts to activate as soon as it’s mixed with the liquid ingredients).
That said, you can store batter in the fridge for 1 to 2 days and still get pretty good results.
Be sure to refrigerate the batter in an airtight container (don’t store uncovered or loosely covered).
Yes, but only if your pan is well-seasoned and not brand new! Otherwise, the pancakes will stick.
We have also tested these pancakes in a carbon steel pan and carbon steel griddle, and that works great too (as long as the pans are well-seasoned).
While these never last longer than a couple hours in my house, here’s what we do to store or freeze our classic pancakes.
Store: Wrap the pancakes in plastic wrap or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can revive the crispy exterior by reheating them in a skillet for a few minutes, or in a 350ºF/175ºC oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
Freeze: Once cooled, layer them between parchment or wax paper in an airtight container or freezer bag. Freeze for 1 to 2 months.
Big Vegan Flavor
Techniques and 150 recipes to master vegan cooking.
Vegan Banana Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (360 mL) plain-flavored soy milk (see Note 1)
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) apple cider vinegar
- 1 ¾ cups (225g) all-purpose flour (see Note 2)
- 1 tablespoon (12g) baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 3 tablespoons (30g) organic brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon (see Note 3)
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
- 3 medium spotty overripe bananas (~ 10 oz / 275g once peeled, see Note 4)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons (42g) vegan butter, melted and slightly cooled
- Refined coconut oil (or other high-heat oil) for cooking pancakes
For serving
- Pure maple syrup
- Fresh bananas, sliced (optional, or berries)
Instructions
- Note: If using a stovetop griddle, I like to preheat mine in the oven for 10 minutes at 350ºF/175ºC for even heating.
- In a measuring glass, stir the milk and vinegar together. It should curdle pretty quickly. This is the "buttermilk."
- In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom if using. Whisk well to combine.
- In a medium bowl, mash the bananas with a fork but leave some small chunks for texture. To the mashed bananas, add the curdled buttermilk, vanilla, and melted butter. Whisk well to combine.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the flour mix. Use a wooden spoon to fold the ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix—lots of lumps are fine.
- Rest the batter for 5 to 10 minutes. But don’t stir after resting, as the batter will lose air bubbles and turn out less fluffy. While the batter rests, start preheating the pan.
- For cast iron or carbon steel instructions, see Note 5.
- Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium to medium-low heat for several minutes (see Note). Add 1 teaspoon coconut oil. Allow to heat ~30 seconds. Test to see if the pan is hot enough by adding a droplet of water—if it sizzles and dances, it’s ready.Add ⅓ cup (80 to 90g) pancake batter to the pan, using a flexible spatula to get the batter out of the cup.After the first 30 seconds, swirl the oil in the pan around the edges of the pancake. Cook for a total of 2 to 2 ½ minutes, or until the edges start to dry out and some bubbles appear on the surface.Flip and cook on the second side for 1 to 2 minutes, swirling any remaining oil around the edges again. You may need to lower the heat to medium-low.
- Repeat with the remaining batter, adding a teaspoon of oil to the pan to preheat per pancake before adding more batter. You will likely need to lower the heat throughout cooking to prevent burning.
- To keep pancakes warm, add to a wire rack-fitted sheet pan in the oven at 200ºF/95ºC until ready to serve.
- Serve pancakes with maple syrup and fresh sliced bananas, if desired.
Notes
- Please use soy milk unless you are allergic as it contributes significantly to the fluffiness.
- If using whole wheat flour, use 1 ¾ cups (235g) 100% whole wheat flour with 1 ⅔ cups (400 mL) soy milk.
- For a more subtle cinnamon flavor, use ½ to 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Using the full amount of cinnamon will make the pancakes darker in color.
- If you have a scale, use that to measure out 275g (a scant 10 oz) of bananas, after peeling. This will yield the most accurate results, since banana size varies.
- If using cast iron or carbon steel: Ensure your pan is well-seasoned (if not or it’s brand new, the pancakes will stick). Preheat the pan dry over med-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Add your oil and let it heat up for 30 to 60 seconds. Add the batter, and cook for 2ish minutes, then flip and cook another 2ish minutes. Add a bit more oil and repeat with the remaining pancakes, lowering the heat as you go to prevent burning.
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