Gluten-Free Healthy Sweet Potato Protein Pancakes are a nutritious low-fat, high protein, moderate carb pancake recipe. Geared for those targeting specific macros and/or anyone who loves a great pancake, these healthy sweet potato pancakes are fluffy, moist and loaded with delicious flavor.
If you’ve followed The Roasted Root for a number of years, you know I am a pancake fanatic.
I’ll let you in on a little secret.
This sweet potato pancake recipe is my all-time favorite pancake recipe. In fact, I’ve made this recipe so many times I’ve lost count!
My husband and I make them not just for breakfast but also for meal prepping for the workweek. The reason we’re so obsessed? They are both delicious and filling.
Made with whole grains instead of white flour, these fluffy pancakes contain slow burning carbs to elicit less of an insulin response than regular pancakes. The boost of protein also blunts the blood sugar response.
The macronutrient breakdown is great for those of you looking to keep your protein intake high while maintaining a low to moderate fat intake and moderate carbohydrate intake.
Not only are these fluffy sweet potato pancakes positively delicious for an amazing weekend breakfast, but they come with health benefits to boot!
Plus, they are a pure pleasure to consume.
The main highlights of this recipe is they are moist and fluffy, require no flour, no added sugar, are high in protein, and easy to make in your blender. Plus, they are kid-friendly, adult-friendly, breakfast-for-dinner friendly.
Another great feature is they are macro-friendly, because they are packed with protein, slow-burning carbohydrate, and are fairly low in fat.
Let’s discuss the simple ingredients for these fluffy healthy sweet potato pancakes.
Ingredients for Healthy Sweet Potato Pancakes:
Rolled Oats: Taking the place of regular all-purpose flour, we blend up rolled oats. This slow-burning carbohydrate in combination with protein ensures you stay full for hours rather than getting a big blood sugar spike and crash, only to be hungry soon after eating.
Be sure to use certified gluten-free oats for gluten-free sweet potato pancakes. I use gluten-free sprouted oats.
Sweet Potatoes: Cook a sweet potato using your preferred method. I microwave or boil mine but roasting works too. You can also use leftover sweet potatoes if you have some on hand. You’ll need 1 cup of mashed potatoes, or one medium to large sweet potato.
Whole Eggs and Egg Whites: We need both whole eggs and egg whites for this recipe. The full eggs bring moisture and richness and the egg whites are the majority of the protein source. The end result is very fluffy protein pancakes!
While you can’t make this recipe egg-free with success, you can follow my recipe for Vegan Sweet Potato Pancakes.
Protein Powder: Add two scoops of your favorite protein powder if you’d like. You can use any kind you enjoy. I usually stick with an unsweetened unflavored protein powder like goat whey protein powder.
Ground Cinnamon: A generous amount of cinnamon brings warm flavor to the pancakes.
Pure Vanilla Extract: A splash of vanilla extract brings more warm flavor, making the pancakes so enticing.
Baking Powder: The leavening agent here, baking powder helps the pancakes to rise and hold together.
Sea Salt: Be sure to add the sea salt to level up all of the flavors.
Recipe Customizations:
- Replace rolled oats with 1 cup of oat flour or rice flour.
- Add a dash of maple syrup to the pancake batter if you’d like for sweetening.
- Replace the mashed sweet potato with mashed butternut squash, kabocha squash, or pumpkin.
- Use rice flour or a gluten-free all-purpose flour blend instead of oat flour. If using rice flour, use 1 cup, and if using a GF flour blend, use ⅔ cup.
- Add 1 to 3 tablespoons of brown sugar to the pancake batter for sweeter pancakes.
- Toss in 1 teaspoon of ground ginger if you have it on hand and enjoy it.
Now that we’ve covered the simple ingredients and possible changes to the recipe, let’s make some delicious pancakes.
How to Make Oat Flour Using Rolled Oats:
Have you ever made flour out of rolled oats? I pinky promise it is silly simple! You will need a high-powered blender like a Vitamix, Nutri-Bullet, Blendtec, Wolf, or some such radical blender.
All you do to make oat flour using rolled oats is transfer the oats to a blender and blend on high speed until a flour forms. This takes about 60 seconds.
You can’t really overdo it on the blending, so keep going (scraping the sides of the blender or stirring if necessary) until a flour is achieved.
How to Make Sweet Potato Rolled Oat Protein Pancakes:
Begin by cooking the sweet potatoes. I boil mine for 20 to 25 minutes in water on the stove top, but if you’re in a hurry you can microwave them. Once cooked and cooled, mash the sweet potato. You will need 1 cup of mashed sweet potato.
Add the oats to a blender and blend until a flour forms (note: you can also use 1 cup of oat flour if you have it on hand).
Add in the rest of the dry ingredients (cinnamon, salt and baking powder) and blend until all of the dry ingredients are combined.
Add the remaining wet ingredients (sweet potato puree, eggs, egg whites, and vanilla extract) to the blender and blend until smooth and combined. Don’t worry about over-blending!
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat on the stove top and add enough oil to lightly coat the surface.
Pour pancake batter onto the hot skillet (I use about ¼ to ⅓ cup of batter per pancake) and cook until the sides firm up, about 3 minutes. Note: you can also make huge pancakes if you’d like. We usually take this approach and each eat two large pancakes in a sitting.
Flip and cook an additional minute or two, until cooked through and golden brown.
Listen. The first pancake is always a bad pancake. It usually turns out either burned or undercooked or splatters everywhere. Use it as your test run, make any adjustments to the heat, and don’t panic.
Enjoy sweet potato rolled oat protein pancakes with choice of toppings – I like mixed nut butter and a drizzle of maple syrup. Peanut butter and fresh fruit are great serving options too.
Store leftover pancakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. You can freeze pancakes in a freezer bag for up to 3 months.
And that’s it! These delicious pancakes are a great way of getting some health benefits into your breakfast while still enjoying your breakfast treat.
Make a double batch to have plenty of leftovers or to enjoy throughout the week.
The perfect way to start the day, this sweet potato pancakes recipe is the easiest way to get in some quality protein and enjoy your favorite breakfast food simultaneously.
Enjoy these healthy pancakes the next time you’re craving traditional pancakes but want to keep it health-conscious. Perfect for a fall morning or any time of year!
If you love making healthier pancake recipes, I have lots and lots of gluten-free pancake recipes to choose from. Here are some of my personal favorites.
More Healthy Pancake Recipes:
- Flourless Protein Pumpkin Pancakes
- Oatmeal Protein Pancakes
- Vegan Banana Pancakes
- Coconut Flour Zucchini Pancakes
- Lemon Coconut Flour Pancakes for Two
- Paleo Avocado Pancakes
- Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes
Break out the pure maple syrup, and sweet potato thy pancakes!
Sweet Potato Rolled Oat Protein Pancakes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 2 scoops collagen powder or protein powder*
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup mashed sweet potato (1 medium cooked sweet potato)
- 2 whole eggs
- 3 egg whites
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Begin by cooking the sweet potato. You can boil for 20 to 25 minutes on the stove top, roast it or microwave it. Once cooked and cooled, mash the sweet potato. You will need 1 cup of mashed sweet potato.
- Add the oats, ground cinnamon, baking powder, and sea salt (dry ingredients) to a blender and blend until a flour forms (note: you can also use 1 cup of oat flour if you have it on hand).
- Add the remaining ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth and combined. Don’t worry about over-blending!
- Heat a skillet over medium heat on the stove top and add enough oil to lightly coat the surface.
- Pour pancake batter onto the hot skillet (I use about ¼ to ⅓ cup of batter per pancake) and cook until the sides firm up, about 3 minutes. Flip and cook an additional minute or two, until cooked through.
- Enjoy sweet potato rolled oat protein pancakes with choice of toppings – I like mixed nut butter and pure maple syrup.
Notes
Nutrition
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wow, hadn’t seen sweet potato pancakes before, and I love sweet potatoes, thought I’d seen all types of recipes with them, but not pancakes, love it, thank you!
My pleasure! Hope you enjoy! xo
Why do you separate the eggs? I’m about to make this an it sounds so good I do not want to miss anything!
Hi Mary,
The only purpose for using egg whites in addition to whole eggs is to add protein without adding fat. If you aren’t concerned about the fat content, you can skip the egg whites and use 4 eggs 😀 Hope you enjoy! xo
Decided to make these this morning, and they did not disappoint! Easy, tasty, and “clean.” Enjoyed every part of this recipe! Thank you.
Do these freeze well? I’d like to make a batch to store in the freezer and pop in the microwave on busy mornings!
Hi Caroline!
They do! I almost always freeze leftover pancakes, and these ones freeze and reheat like a gem 😀 xoxo
Hi Julia
I got rid of my blender when a got my food processor. I notice you use a blender for several of the recipes. Will a food processor work also?
Thanks, Judy
Hi Judy,
A food processor should work just fine as long as it is large enough to hold the ingredients! My food processor is just very small so it wouldn’t work for this particular recipe. What’s the size of your food processor?
Hi Julia,
By chance would you know if this could be made vegan by replacing the eggs with chia egg or applesauce?
Just realised I have all these ingredients and I’m definitely gonna try making it.
Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Jay,
I haven’t tested the recipe yet using an egg replacement, but I think it would work. I would go with flax eggs personally. Let me know if you try it! xoxo
Yum!!! I’m eating these as we speak. So easy and so delicious! My new favorite breakfast. I’m not even really a pancake fan but I am now! Perfect way to use up extra sweet potatoes too!
So happy you like them, Ellen! xoxo
Looks great! What kind of protein powder do you use? Hemp?
Hi James!
I use hemp protein powder or goat whey protein powder. Occasionally I’ll do collagen peptides instead of protein powder 🙂 Let me know if you have any other questions! xo
These look delicious! Could you please tell me how big of a scoop for the Collagen Powder?
How many carbs would there be 8f you didn’t use maple syrup?
Hi jasmin! The nutrition facts are calculated for the pancakes alone without any toppings.
Mmmmm! This sounds so yummy, and I have all the ingredients on hand as a rule!!!! Any caveats before I try this recipe in my waffle iron? For some reason the extra crunch of waffles beats out pancakes for me.
@Sylvia W, did you ever try these as waffles? Curious If it went well!
Yum yum in my tum! Just had these, lovely thank you Julia 🙌🏼
I think that I could love these pancakes but not only am I gluten-free; I can’t eat eggs. Do you have any ideas?
Hi Amy! I haven’t tested the pancakes without eggs yet, but it may be possible to replace them with flax eggs. I’ve also had great success making pancakes using a gluten-free flour blend and using any non-dairy milk to replace the eggs. If you wanted to try this, you would replace the oats with 1 cup of your favorite gluten-free flour blend, omit the eggs, and add 1/2 cup of your favorite non-dairy milk (or regular cow’s milk works too). If the batter seems too thick, add 3 to 4 tablespoons of more milk until it seems like regular pancake batter. Let me know if you try it and how they turn out! xoxoxo
You mention two scoops of protein powder with an asterisk. I’ve never used protein powder. Is it necessary? And if so, are all the scoops the same size?
Hi Kelly! You can leave the protein powder out if you don’t have any on hand and/or don’t care about the protein content of the pancakes. A scoop of the protein powder I use is about 1 1/2 tablespoons. Honestly, I’m not sure if this is standard or not – I’m betting some brands may vary their scoop sizes. This to say, if you did want to add protein powder, you’d add about 1/4 cup. Hope this helps! xoxo
Could I used canned sweet potato in this recipe? It sounds delicious can’t wait to try it!!
Hi Linda! I haven’t tried the recipe using canned sweet potato so I’m not sure how it would work out, but I imagine they will turn out great! Let me know if you try it! xoxo
@Julia, They turned out perfect!! Delicious!! Thank you!!
Success! I’m so happy to hear it! Thank you for reporting back, Linda xoxox
@Julia, I used canned sweet potatoes I also didn’t have baking powder and Google the substitute with baking soda
We loved them
Love that you were able to make it work with what you had! Thanks so much for reporting back! xo
I am new to your site and tried these today. They were delicious. I made them for my son so I used whole eggs and added pecans, a tablespoon of coconut oil and ginger and tumeric. I did add the collagen peptides since that what I had.
One more note as it may impact really digging into other recipes on your site. Your ad placement really interferes with scrolling and reading your recipe in it’s entirety. I totally understand you need ads to make money on your site but the placement is problematic. Just letting you know.
Hi April! Welcome to my site! So thrilled you enjoyed the pancakes! I totally understand how annoying ads can be. Have you considered using an ad blocker? If ads on sites are bothersome, you may want to use an ad blocker so that you don’t have to deal with them at all when browsing the internet 🙂 As an alternative, most blogs (mine included) have the Jump To Recipe button at the top to help you navigate straight to the recipe. Hope this helps! xo
I love this recipe so much!! I added chopped nuts, blueberries &/or chocolate chips to mine! This can be multiple servings so I kept the leftovers in the fridge for the next day- they turned out perfect. I will probably make a double batch of the batter and keep on hand for breakfast 🙂
Aww I love hearing that, Nicole! I’m thrilled to hear you make a double batch and I love the idea of adding chocolate chips or berries – so delicious! xo