Buckwheat and banana pancakes with toasted seeds

The batter for these has been sitting in my fridge since Tuesday, and honestly that’s the whole point. I developed this recipe after one too many rushed weekday mornings where I’d stare at the pantry, give up, and eat nothing until 11am. These buckwheat banana pancakes changed that, at least four days out of seven.

Why buckwheat works so well in a breakfast pancake

Buckwheat gets overlooked, I think, because the name confuses people. It has nothing to do with wheat. It’s a seed, technically, from the same botanical family as rhubarb, and it’s naturally gluten-free. What I love about this grain is the nuttiness it brings — earthy, almost a little bitter, in the best possible way — and that flavour deepens beautifully when it hits a hot pan. The smell when it hits the pan, with just a little butter, is genuinely one of my favourite kitchen moments.

From a fibre standpoint, buckwheat flour sits at around 10g of dietary fibre per 100g, which is considerably higher than plain white flour. Pair it with ripe banana and you’re pulling in additional prebiotic fibre, particularly resistant starch if the bananas are just on the turn. The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend adults aim for 25–30g of dietary fibre daily, and a solid breakfast is one of the more painless places to start chasing that number.

I also want to be straight with you about effort. This recipe is not complicated. The only thing that takes practice is the heat. Too high and the outside chars before the middle sets. Too low and they go rubbery and pale. Give it two rounds and you’ll have it sorted.

What goes into the batter

I keep this short on purpose. Recipes with fifteen components for a pancake are, in my view, more effort than they’re worth on a Tuesday morning. Everything here either lives in your pantry or lasts well in the fridge.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (130g) buckwheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch of fine sea salt
• 2 very ripe medium bananas (about 200g peeled weight)
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup (185ml) milk of your choice (I use full-cream; oat milk also works well)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup or raw honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil or unsalted butter, plus extra for the pan
• 2 tablespoons mixed seeds (pepitas, sunflower, linseeds) — to finish in the pan

Serves 2 generously (makes 8 pancakes, roughly 10cm each)

Method

1. Whisk together the buckwheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas thoroughly with a fork until you have a smooth-ish paste — a few lumps are absolutely fine and add texture.
3. Add the eggs, milk, maple syrup, vanilla and melted coconut oil to the banana and whisk until combined.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir gently until just combined. Do not overwork it; a few streaks of flour disappearing is the moment to stop. The batter will be thicker than a standard crepe batter and will loosen slightly as it rests.
5. Rest the batter for at least 10 minutes at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate overnight. The resting time lets the buckwheat hydrate fully, which gives a much better texture.
6. Heat a non-stick or cast-iron pan over medium-low heat. Add a small knob of butter and let it melt and just begin to foam.
7. Spoon about ¼ cup (60ml) of batter per pancake into the pan. Scatter a small pinch of the mixed seeds onto the wet surface of each one.
8. Cook for 2½ to 3 minutes, until bubbles form across most of the surface and the edges look set. Flip carefully and cook for another 1½ to 2 minutes. The seed side will be golden and slightly crunchy.
9. Transfer to a warm oven (around 100°C) while you cook the remaining pancakes. Wipe the pan between batches if any butter residue darkens.

Make-ahead notes

The batter keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days. Give it a gentle stir before using because the buckwheat will settle. Cooked pancakes also freeze well — stack them with baking paper between each one, seal in a zip-lock bag, and reheat in a toaster or dry pan straight from frozen. I batch-cook eight on a Sunday and I’m sorted until Wednesday.

This approach fits neatly into the kind of relaxed, healthy eating rhythm you can actually sustain when life gets busy — which is the whole point, really. Perfection on one day a week doesn’t do much. Consistency the other six does.

How to serve them

My standard approach: a dollop of Greek yoghurt, sliced fresh banana or seasonal stone fruit, and a drizzle of good honey. Right now in Sydney we’re deep into late-summer stone fruit season and a few slices of yellow nectarine alongside these is, genuinely, very good. The brightness cuts through the earthiness of the buckwheat.

If I’m serving these for guests, I’ll add a small bowl of thawed frozen blueberries warmed briefly in a pan with a squeeze of lemon — it makes a simple compote in about four minutes and looks far more considered than the effort involved. Pair them with something warming from our honey and lemon soothing tea recipe and you have a breakfast that feels genuinely unhurried.

For a more substantial savoury turn, skip the maple syrup in the batter, reduce the cinnamon to a pinch, and serve with smashed avocado and a soft poached egg. The buckwheat holds up well either way. I’ve also been known to eat a cold one straight from the container at the kitchen bench at 7am, which is less elegant but equally satisfying.

A variation worth trying

Swap 2 tablespoons of the buckwheat flour for the same weight of ground linseeds (flaxmeal). It deepens the fibre content further and adds a slight nuttiness that works really well if you’re using oat milk in the batter. The texture stays tender because banana acts as a natural binder. If gut health is something you’re actively thinking about — and the research keeps pointing us back to dietary fibre as one of the most practical levers we have — this swap is worth making a habit. Our post on good food for gut health goes further into why that matters day to day.

One note: the linseed version browns a touch faster, so keep the heat a little more gentle. You’ll get the hang of it.

The ingredient I grow myself

I grow a small pot of Vietnamese mint on my balcony in Newtown alongside the chillies and regular mint, and occasionally I’ll tear a little Vietnamese mint over the top of these with fresh mango. It sounds odd. It works. The slightly anise-y, peppery quality of the leaf does something interesting against the sweet banana. I appreciate that probably 80% of readers will not do this, and fair enough — it’s a bit left-field for a pancake. But if you happen to grow it, give it a go.

What I come back to with this recipe, batch after batch, is that it earns its place in the weekly rotation without needing to be exciting every single time. Sometimes that’s enough. Brown rice porridge and chia pudding with stewed rhubarb sit in similar territory for me — dependable, genuinely nourishing, and more interesting than the effort required. Buckwheat banana pancakes just happen to come with a much better smell when the batter hits the pan.

The Nutrition Australia overview on wholegrains is a good read if you want more context on why grains like buckwheat are worth making room for at breakfast — not just for fibre but for sustained energy across the morning.

— Mei Lin, Golden Door Living kitchen