Recipe: Banana and Almond Fritters

I decided to call these ‘fritters’ instead of ‘pancakes’ (which they could also be) because otherwise you can make them expecting something like crepes. The first few times I cooked this I was disappointed that they didn’t taste like crepes, but then when I started to appreciate them for what they are they became delicious!

Grass and sun to give a “healthy” vibe

I wanted to share this recipe because I thought it was good and you should enjoy it too. I’ve been cooking it at least twice a week since I discovered it. It’s also good because it’s “healthy” and all-accessible (apart from nut allergy) because it doesn’t contain gluten and dairy, which are potentially unhealthy things to eat.

Ingredients:

• A banana (the browner the better)
• An egg
• Some almond flour*

(Optional Extras: Vanilla extract, raisins, blueberries, apple and cinnamon, bacon, chocolate, maple syrup, etc…)

*This is left quite vaguely at ‘some’ because I don’t measure it and this varies depending on the size of the banana and egg, and it’s a bit more ‘instinctive’ to have to guess! If there isn’t enough it is fine, but too much makes it harder to stick together, and being as once something’s added it can’t be removed I would recommend doing it in smaller amounts and mixing it in to check consistency if you are unsure!

Prep:

Mash the banana (I slice it first to make it easier). Add the egg and beat it in with the mash. Mix in the almond meal. Add other things at the relevant stages depending if it’s wet or dry.

Cook:

Pour it into a pan and fry it. I do smaller, thicker scotch-style pancakes – usually 3-5 depending on the banana size – as this works better with the consistency (it’s too thick for crepes and doesn’t always stick together that well). Pretty straightforward: cook on medium heat and flip them once it’s cooked (and prod them a couple of times to make sure they aren’t sticking). If the pancakes are too thick the middle won’t cook as much, so if you notice that just squash them down, which will crack and deform them a bit but just reform it in the pan and it works fine!

Eat and Enjoy:

They taste good.

Mix it up:

Add stuff to this. At the moment I make them with vanilla and raisins, but there’s a lot more to experiment with that I haven’t tried yet. The list of optional ingredients is just some quick thoughts and there are lots of other paleo-pancake recipes out there (some using pumpkin or carrot instead of banana or replacing almond with another type of ‘flour’).