Naturally Pink Beetroot Pancakes

It took me several batches to make this beetroot pancake recipe work, but in the end, they turned out nicely pink, fluffy, with a good flavor. The naturally pink color is a big selling point for my five-year-old, who isn’t always into pancakes.

I’ve tested this recipe using oven-baked beet and raw beet. A raw beet is a good option when you don’t have any cooked beets on hand, but the taste of beet was a bit more noticeable. My five-year-old still enjoyed pancakes made with raw beet, drenched in maple syrup. I prefer the oven-baked version, and to make this a quick recipe, I bake several beets at once and keep them in the freezer. You can also use cooked beets from the store for convenience, but the color won’t be as saturated as home-baked beets.

How to bake beetroots.

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Trim the green parts of beets, leaving about an inch attached. If trimmed too close to the beetroot, you’ll lose a lot of juice while baking. Wash with running water to remove any dirt.
3. I like to bake my beetroots in my dutch oven. I place them in the dutch oven and cover with the lid. They’re ready to bake.
4. If you don’t have a dutch oven, you can wrap beetroots all together with aluminum foil and place them on a baking sheet. You don’t have to wrap them individually.
5. Bake for about 1 hour until fork tender.
6. To freeze, peel the skin using a paring knife. It will be effortless to peel. However, the juice will stain your fingertips, so I wear disposable kitchen gloves while doing this. Then individually wrap the beetroots with parchment paper to prevent the beetroots from sticking to each other. Place them in a freezer-safe bag or container, and freeze for up to 3 months.

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Beetroot Pancake

(Makes about 17 small pancakes)

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Author whiteblankspace

Ingredients

• 1 small oven-roasted or raw beet see notes
• 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups milk I used whole milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder

Instructions

1. Blend beet, yogurt, eggs, honey, butter, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and milk in a high-speed blender until smooth.
2. In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
3. Pour the wet mix into the dry mix. Stir until just combined. Try not to overmix.
4. Coat a non-stick pan with butter or oil. Cook pancakes over medium heat. If the heat is too high, pancakes will burn, and the color won’t be nicely pink. Alternatively, use a waffle maker with pancake plates. These came out the best.

Recipe Notes

For bright pink color, use over-roasted beets. Precooked storebought beets are not as saturated.

You can use raw beetroot (peeled) in a pinch, but the beet flavor was more noticeable.

I tried cooking them in a cast-iron skillet, non-stick pan, and waffle maker with pancake plates. The waffle maker made the fluffiest pancakes with uniform color. I don’t recommend cast-iron skillet since it quickly burned the pancakes.