If you’ve never experienced the magic that is Spinach Pancakes, you and your family are in for a treat. Imagine the taste of pancakes, then add to that the powerful nutritional benefits and beautiful green color of spinach. Now, keep reading to make this perfect marriage for yourself.
I’m kinda worried that you’re going to want to skip this recipe based on the name, but I beg you to give these pancakes a try. I originally made them as a St. Patrick’s Day-themed recipe for my monthly “Snack Mom” column in the March issue of Parents magazine.
Now I make them any time I’m looking for a green-themed food to serve for breakfast or at a party. Isn’t that bright green color just so striking?! They’re great for Earth Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, or any kind of animal-themed birthday party.
Serve them with whipped cream and an array of fresh fruits for a rainbow-themed menu. You can serve up a batch of spinach pancakes alongside a batch of red beet pancakes for a super festive red and green Christmas breakfast!
These spinach pancakes are completely dye-free, and get their natural color from fresh baby spinach. They taste just like regular pancakes because fresh spinach has such a mild flavor. Once you blend it in with the milk, you get that gorgeous bright green color, and you don’t even know there’s a vegetable inside.
Spinach is full of iron and adding it into recipes like these pancakes, smoothies, or even mac and cheese is a great way to get in a few extra servings of greens! Once your kids taste these pancakes they’ll be begging to eat their greens first thing in the morning, so be prepared to make this recipe often.
Get the kids in on the cooking action, too. They love to toss ingredients into the blender and watch it whizz up before their eyes. Whisking together the dry ingredients is the perfect job for little hands, and then you can work together to mix the wet ingredients in with the dry.
Have a dairy or egg allergy? Try this similar version of Green Vegan Pancakes that are perfect for breakfast or a snack.
I would love to see your kids enjoying this recipe! Tag me @weelicious on social media so I can join in the fun with your family.
Spinach Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup packed fresh spinach
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- In a blender, combine the spinach, buttermilk, egg, and oil and blend until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.
- Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Heat a large pan or griddle over medium heat and grease with butter or oil.
- Pour about 1 tablespoon of the pancake mixture onto the griddle, making as many pancakes as will fit and cook for 2 minutes.
- Flip the pancakes and cook for one minute longer and serve.
- *Mixture can also be used in a waffle iron following manufacturers directions.
I have been making these for almost 8 years and they are a hit with my picky eaters. I often serve them for dinner with quiche. Since we eat these a lot I quadruple the recipe and freeze the leftovers. I find that I can use the 5 oz container of baby spinach and it comes out great – no need to measure the spinach and no leftover spinach. If you think your children will be skeptical introduce them on a green holiday such as St. Patrick’s Day or Earth Day when they might be more accepting of things green.
Thanks for sharing, Lisa! Our family loves these too 🙂
5 stars! This recipe is delicious and easy to make.
So so so good! They just taste like buttermilk pancakes and even my sister ate them!
I made this today for my one year old, who is a very good eater, and she threw it on the ground. I had a taste, and I didn’t blame her. This was VERY bland and all I could taste was the flour. I added shredded apple, flax meal, chia seeds, and rolled oats to thicken the batter and use in the waffle iron. After all that, I thought they were just “okay.” My daughter ate them up after the second round, but I wouldn’t make these again. However, I will be adding spinach to the recipe I use for healthier oat pancakes as I did learn that the spinach really does add a nice green color without changing the flavor at all. Good idea, but not to my taste.
Delicious, great recipe! I made these for my 7 month old and just cut them into french-fry like strips so she could handle them and feed herself. Are these okay to freeze? And how long approx should they keep if I do? Thank you!
This was too salty. I would cut the salt down to half next time.
Great recipe! I just came from LA to India and my 1.5 years old was eating only fruits and smoothies! I made these for lunch and he loved those! Healthy and delicious! Thanks !
Yes! I did but kept the wet and dry ingredients separate. Then in the morning I just stirred to combine them and we had pancakes in minutes!
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I make my vegan verdion.
You can use regular milk, or any milk substitute!
What would you substitute for the buttermilk in this recipe?
[…] Spinach Pancakes […]
Nice!
My kids gobbled these up…and so did my husband and I! I did substitute honey for the sugar and used coconut oil for the oil.
Glad they like the pancakes!
Possibly the only way my kids have ever eaten spinach.
[…] Patty’s Pancakes More secret spinach is in this recipe from Weelicious, this time whipped together with whole wheat, buttermilk, and just a tad bit of […]
These are delicious! I replaced the oil with applesauce and used brown sugar instead of white. They were a great breakfast 🙂
Just in case anyone else is wondering, using one cup of the Weelicious pancake mix worked great! I even added an extra 1/2 cup spinach and 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the wet ingredients and they were still very good, though slightly less fluffy than when I made the recipe exactly as written.
That should work great!
My 3-year-old and one-year-old both love these! Could I just use a cup of your homemade pancake mix as the dry ingredients in this recipe? Thank you so much for your recipes! They are very popular at our house!
How is white whole wheat flour different than regular whole wheat flour?
My two year old loves these! This recipe along with the spinach muffins are his favorite.
Mixing ground flax with water is a great egg substitute. It even has the same consistency. Google it for exact amounts. 🙂
I haven’t tried it in this specific recipe, but I have head that 1/2 cup applesauce or 1 small mashed banana works for 1 egg.
My son is allergic to eggs, what would you suggest as a substitute? Thank you! Can’t wait to try these out.
I would try adding a but more flour. About 1 tablespoon at a time until it reaches a thicker consistency!
We tried these and they’re great, my 1 yo loved them too!
My batter was a bit wattery though and the pancakes very thin and flat (very far from the ones in the pics above) – do i just need to add more flour to improve them? Thanks!
[…] Spinach Pancakes from Weelicious […]
[…] help you lose weight. You can have spinach with eggs for breakfast,you can make green smoothies,spinach pancakes is something you definitely have to try to make for perfect healthy […]
[…] Recipe slightly adapted from Weelicious. […]
[…] Try adding some spinach to your next batch. Or even pancakes? While it might seem crazy to eat green pancakes, I promise you won’t even notice […]
Can I make the batter the night before?
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These are amazing
[…] for the whole batch. The recipe, which comes to you from the Weelicious website, is named Spinach Pancakes. Now, I’m not going to go all rogue on you and make you think that I created this recipe […]
[…] Spinach Pancakes via Weelicious […]
What a fabulous way to get more veggies in the kids! And pancakes… who doesn’t love pancakes!?
Hello, are these supposed to be sweet or savory?
Those ingredients help the pancakes fluff up, so I don’t think the recipe would work without them. 🙂
will it be okay if I do not use baking powder and baking soda for this recipe?
[…] am always looking for new and healthy recipes to make for breakfast. I found this yummy spinach recipe and modified it a little bit to be more of my […]
Just to clarify something – the iron mainly comes from the whole-grain flour, not the spinach. One cup of spinach provides only 2% of the Daily Value for Iron. One cup of whole-wheat flour, however, provides approx. 1/4 of the iron we need for the day.
I froze them and took them out as needed. Very convenient.
Great recipe! Can these be frozen?
[…] first last week! Spinach Bacon Pancakes! I was going through recipes and found some beautiful Spinach Pancakes at Weelicious. I said, “hey my kids love green things! AND they love bacon!” So all I did was […]
Anyone have success with frozen spinach?
These are delicious! My 15 month old couldn’t get enough of them. I added half a banana, 2 tablespoons flax seed meal, and 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour.
That should be okay! It might make them a little more wet, so check the consistency and add a touch more flour if necessary!
If I wanted to add a banana would I just toss it in the blender with the spinach?
These were amazing and my one-year old loves them! A great way to get more iron and veggies into his diet! If you want to use buttermilk as the recipe indicates, just put a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar in a measuring cup then add regular milk to make one full cup. Let it sit for 5 minutes and voila, you have your own homemade buttermilk!
You can use regular milk! The buttermilk gives it a slightly different flavor. In fact, you can use any type of milk you prefer.
Do you have to use buttermilk? Will it change much to use regular milk?
These are so incredibly cool Catherine. I would never have thought to do this. Plus they are just too pretty for words.
Hi, can all purpose flour be used instead of whole wheat? Thanks.
Can’t wait to try these with our boys. We love your spinach muffins! Our 3 year old requests them all the time and because of them he now eats raw spinach leaves. Thanks for the great recipes.
These look so great! I just love the color that the spinach gives them!
Those look great! I like the idea of maybe topping them with a fried egg or something—yum!
I made these today using frozen spinach. I’d say I used about 8 ounces. The secret is to thaw the spinach (I used the microwave), then squeeze all the liquid out in a cloth towel before blending it with the milk. My daughter confirmed that they don’t taste like spinach at all. 🙂
What should I do differently for frozen spinach?
How funny. I kept the recipe from that march issue and I made them for dinner tonight. I wasn’t sure if they would be sweet enough buy they were delicious! Felt good to get my kids to eat a veggie 🙂
It should work as waffles!
Would this recipe work as waffles too or would you need to change something?