These gluten free and vegan Strawberry Chocolate Pancakes are perfect for Valentine’s Day breakfast! They are naturally colored, whole grain, nut-free, and cane sugar-free as well, so they make a healthy snack or “brinner”, too
February is already here and this is the month of love! Valentine’s Day is coming up and everything is coming up hearts and in every shade of pink and red. Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to dine out for dinner, but if you’re on a budget or trying to eat healthy, why not create a special meal at home?
I decided to make a breakfast recipe: Strawberry Chocolate Pancakes! These pancakes are such a beautiful pink color thanks to the strawberries and the natural pink food color derived from beets. If you want to add some fun to this recipe, you can pour the batter into heart shapes!
I had been looking around for some natural food colorings that didn’t cost a ton of money and I found some of the McCormick natural food colors at my local Walmart that was pretty affordable! The box of food colors comes with 3 colors: blue, red/pink, yellow, and the packets are resealable so you can use a little bit and save the rest for later. The colors are in powder form but they blend in really well!
The color in these pancakes is the perfect shade of pink and it’s all natural so you don’t have to worry about any artificial colors in your food! This is great news for families avoiding red dyes in their foods.
My Strawberry Chocolate Pancakes are allergy-friendly and fit just about any diet (except paleo of course), plus the pancakes themselves are completely added-sugar free, but the syrup has sugar from maple syrup. If you want to cut out the sugar completely, you can use pureed strawberries for the topping instead.
Strawberry Chocolate Pancakes (Gluten Free and Vegan)
Gluten Free and Vegan; Free of: peanuts, dairy, eggs, soy
Ingredients
Pancakes:
- 1 cup fine sorghum flour
- 2 Tablespoons ground golden flaxseed
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon natural red food coloring powder I used McCormick Natural Food Colors
- 1 cup quartered strawberries
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup rice milk or other non-dairy milk
- 2 Tablespoons light tasting olive oil
- Liquid NOW Foods Vanilla Stevia drops to taste (about 10-20 drops depending on taste preference)
Chocolate Syrup:
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat a non-stick griddle or pan over high heat (400 degrees if you’re using an electric griddle) and set aside
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, flaxseed, baking powder, salt, and natural food coloring powder. Whisk until combined and set aside
- Wash, de-stem, and quarter strawberries and measure out 1 cup of quartered strawberries. Place the strawberries in a small blender or NutriBullet with the 1/4 cup water and blend until smooth and pureed.
- Add the strawberry puree, rice milk, and olive oil to the flour mixture and stir to combine. The batter is thicker to make shapes like hearts, but if you like thinner pancakes, you can add more rice milk to the batter
- Cook the pancakes on the heated griddle until golden on each side.
- Top with the chocolate syrup and sliced strawberries
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe collaboration links (clockwise from top left):
- Soft Almond Cookies – Julia at Imagelicious
- Strawberry Chocolate Pancakes – Sarah at The Fit Cookie
- Stuffed French Toast with Ricotta and Berries – Kirsten at Treat Yourself Sweeter
- Slow Braised Red Wine Lamb Stew with Moroccan Spices – Gloria at Homemade and Yummy
- Easy Blackberry Mousse Recipe – Veena Azmanov
- Spicy Shrimp Pasta – Melisa at My Wife Can Cook
- Strawberry Mimosas Recipe – Arlene at Flour on my Face
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and healthy living blogger based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
I love that these are delicious but also healthy and perfect for various diets! Oh, and brinner is the best! Possibly better than brunch 🙂
My family are huge brinner fans! The best with bacon and sausage, yum 🙂
This was a fun collaboration. Although we don’t have any diet restrictions in our house, I do like to experiment. These pancakes sound delicious….perfect for any weekend, but especially Valentine’s.
Thanks Gloria! You could definitely make these with your favorite regular pancake recipe I bet, just adding the strawberry puree in place of the liquid and a little bit of the natural food color!
This looks like such a treat Sarah. Love strawberry pancakes.. perfect for valentine’s day
Thanks Veena!
These look so good! My kids would love pink pancakes on Valentine’s Day!
Green ones would be fun for Saint Patrick’s Day too!