Buckwheat banana pancakes worth making on repeat

The bananas on my bench this week had more brown spots than yellow, which is exactly the state I want them in for pancakes. Sweet enough to almost taste of caramel, soft enough to mash to a paste rather than chop. I’d also had a jar of buckwheat flour sitting in the pantry since a trip to the bulk bins at Addison Road Community markets in Marrickville, and it felt like the two were waiting on each other.

Buckwheat isn’t actually wheat at all, which still surprises people when I mention it. It’s a seed, more closely related to rhubarb than to any grain crop, and it carries a nutty, slightly earthy flavour that plain white flour never will. Cooked into a pancake it goes darker than you’d expect, closer to the colour of light rye bread, with a texture that’s heartier and less fluffy than a diner-style stack. That’s the trade-off. I think it’s worth making.

Why buckwheat earns its place at breakfast

Most banana pancake recipes I’ve tried lean on the fruit for all the sweetness and end up dense as a brick, with none of the lift you actually want. This one behaves differently, mostly because of the resting time and the ratio of egg to flour, which gives the batter enough structure to hold air without needing much sugar at all. Buckwheat flour also brings more fibre to the plate than a standard white-flour pancake, which matters more than people think when breakfast is meant to carry you through to lunch. Fibre matters more than most of us realise, and a wholegrain breakfast is one of the easiest places to make the swap without noticing you’ve done it.

According to the Australian Dietary Guidelines, most adults fall short of recommended fibre intake, and breakfast is often where the shortfall starts, with white toast or low-fibre cereal doing most of the damage. Buckwheat won’t fix that on its own, but it’s a genuinely useful ingredient to keep in rotation alongside things like oats and legumes, which I’ve written about over on simple ways to eat more plants each week.

A quick note on the flour itself

Buy buckwheat flour that’s labelled gluten-free if that matters to you, since some mills process it alongside wheat and cross-contamination is a real thing, not a technicality. I use a stoneground version, which has more of that toasty, slightly bitter edge than the finer commercial stuff. If all you can find is the pale, highly milled kind, the pancakes will still work, just slightly blander.

Ingredients

• 150g buckwheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch of sea salt
• 2 very ripe bananas, well mashed
• 2 eggs
• 250ml buttermilk (or milk with a squeeze of lemon, stirred and left 5 minutes)
• 2 tbsp melted butter or macadamia oil, plus extra for the pan
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• To serve: natural yoghurt, extra sliced banana, toasted walnuts, maple syrup

Method

1. Whisk the buckwheat flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl, breaking up any lumps in the flour as you go.
2. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas until mostly smooth, then whisk in the eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla.
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and fold together with a spatula until just combined. A few lumps are fine. Overmixing here is the one thing that will make these gluey rather than tender.
4. Let the batter rest for 10 minutes on the bench. This isn’t optional in my kitchen. The buckwheat needs that time to hydrate properly, and skipping it is the difference between a pancake with a bit of give and one that sits like a stone.
5. Heat a non-stick frypan over medium-low heat and grease lightly with butter or oil.
6. Pour in roughly 60ml of batter per pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles appear across the surface and the edges look set, then flip and cook the other side for another 1 to 2 minutes, until golden.
7. Keep cooked pancakes warm in a low oven while you work through the rest of the batter, wiping the pan and re-greasing between batches.
8. Serve stacked, with yoghurt, extra banana and a small pour of maple syrup.

The make-ahead bit that actually works

This is where the recipe earns its place on a weekday, not just a lazy Sunday. The batter holds in the fridge overnight, covered, though it will thicken, so loosen it with a splash of milk before cooking. Better still, cook the full batch on the weekend and freeze the pancakes flat on a tray before stacking them with a sheet of baking paper between each one. They reheat properly in a toaster or a hot pan in under three minutes, and they don’t go rubbery the way some frozen pancakes do, which I put down to the buckwheat holding its structure better than plain flour.

What I love about this is that it turns a dish that feels like a weekend indulgence into something you can actually eat on a Tuesday before work, which is really where high-fibre breakfasts need to live if they’re going to make any difference at all.

A serving idea for the weekend

When I have a bit more time, I’ll top these with roasted rhubarb and a spoon of thick yoghurt, or whatever citrus is cheap that week, since a squeeze of orange cuts through the banana nicely. If you want something closer to a full spread, this sits well on a table alongside coconut and blueberry baked oats for anyone who wants a lighter, more porridge-style option, or sweet potato and feta breakfast hash if someone at the table wants savoury instead.

One variation worth trying

For a version with a bit more chew and less sweetness, swap one of the bananas for 80g of grated zucchini, squeezed dry, and add a tablespoon of chopped chives instead of the cinnamon and vanilla. It turns the same base into something closer to a savoury fritter, good with a poached egg and a dollop of yoghurt rather than maple syrup. I’ve done this on the balcony more than once, using the last of the season’s zucchini before the chilli plants took over the pots entirely.

Where this recipe falls short, honestly

I won’t pretend buckwheat pancakes taste like the fluffy white-flour version, because they don’t, and if that’s what you’re after, this isn’t the swap. They’re denser, a touch more mineral in flavour, and they need that resting step or the texture suffers properly. But for a breakfast that holds you until midday, uses ingredients most people already have, and freezes well for the mornings you can’t be bothered, I think the trade is a fair one. For more on why the fibre side of this actually matters, Healthdirect’s guide to dietary fibre is worth a read, and it’s less dry than it sounds.

— Mei Lin, Golden Door Living kitchen