Buckwheat Pumpkin Pancakes

Kid-Approved Buckwheat Pancakes!

My energy levels have been very low for the past couple of weeks and added sleep has been of no help, so I started the Wild Rose Detox program yesterday morning.  I've done this one many times in the past few years and the results a person will get from doing this 12-day program are amazing.  There is a large variety of allowed foods, along with a great recipe book available to purchase, which makes it much easier to stick with than some other detox programs out there.  The most recommended foods, which you can eat as much of as you want are: fish, almonds, buckwheat, brown rice and millet.  I don't eat millet myself, as it contains a substance which suppresses thyroid activity.  Consumed in small amounts is considered safe, however, I'd rather stay away from it as I already have an underactive thyroid: hypothyroidism. 

While eating a very healthy diet, I need to keep it economical.  This isn't easy when buying gluten-free and organic!  When I started shopping this way,  I was spending way too much on groceries.  Over the years, I've learned that if I buy the whole food and make recipes from scratch, my penny goes much farther. 

Let's take pancakes for example. I've bought pre-made gluten-free pancake mix once before.  My boys really enjoyed them, but they were a bit crumbly and quite light.  They were able to eat half the box in one sitting and that's not economical for me!  This buckwheat pancake recipe includes only whole foods, nothing's been turned into a flour, which means I, too, can eat it! (for myself, I've realized it's not just the gluten-free I need to follow, but also to not eat any grain or legume that's been processed into a flour).  This is the first pancake recipe that I make with buckwheat that my two sons liked, so, even though I have another buckwheat pancake recipe on this blog, here's a second one!  They are so hearty and fluffy and are not at all crumbly.

buckwheat pumpkin pancakes

6 eggs

2 cups hulled buckwheat

1 cup water

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

coconut oil for frying

1. In a medium bowl, whisk 6 eggs. 
2. Add buckwheat and water, let sit for 30 minutes to soften the grain.
3. Pour in blender along with the rest of the ingredients.
4. Mix until the mixture turns into a batter.  Some small grits left in the batter is just fine.
5. Preheat frying pan to medium-high.
6. Add some oil to coat the bottom of your pan and drop in batter by large spoonfuls.
7. I make mine about 3 inches in diameter.
8. My kids eat them with agave syrup drizzled on top, and I have it with a mixture of almond butter and apple sauce, which I prefer to syrup anyways!  I had them this morning at room temperature and they were great.  Even better was if you can pop them in the toaster when eating them as leftovers.

Yields about 30 pancakes.

Note: This is quite a large batch.  If you'd like to try a smaller batch first, just try cutting the ingredients down.  Use 2 eggs, 2/3 cup buckwheat, 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup pumpkin gpuree, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/3 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  This will give you very similar results.

Pumpkin puree tip: I've mentioned this before, one thing I haven't yet tried is making my own pumpkin puree.  That is one of the very few things I buy pre-made, although it is just organic pumpkin, but it is in a can and the ones who make it themselves would never go back.  Maybe next year when the pumpkins come out, I will buy some and freeze a bunch!  But for now, I buy it pre-made and for the recipes I use it in, never use the whole can.  No matter if I have the best intentions to use the left-overs in a few days, it usually doesn't happen and I throw it out. 

Two weeks ago I made some pumpkin cookies and put the rest of the pumpkin puree in the freezer.  I thawed it out yesterday to make these pancakes and it was great.   The texture does change a bit, so I probably wouldn't use this pre-frozen pumpkin puree to make, say, pumpkin pie filling as it's not as creamy, but for recipes such as the ones on my blog, it's a great way to make another one of my ingredients last!