Top these fluffy Tiger Nut Flour Pancakes with fresh berries, nut butter and honey for an amazing grain-free, high fiber, paleo-friendly breakfast or brunch!
When I went to Expo West last month, I met with the folks at Organic Gemini, a company that makes awesome, quality food products centered around tiger nuts.
As I sampled their raw granola and all of their delicious Horchata drinks, I instantly knew these products would nestle their way into my kitchen. Excited to add a new gluten-free and/or grain-free flours to my baking arsenal, I connected with the brand.
It only took a couple of recipes using Organic Gemini’s TigerNut Flour for me to fall in love with the stuff. Not only is it super forgiving compared to other grain-free flours (as in, you don’t have to have the perfect golden ratio of eggs-to-fat-to-liquid-to-flour), but I find it’s much easier on my digestive system than almond flour and coconut flour.
Plus, when combined with tapioca flour, the texture of tiger nut flour goods is super similar to whole wheat. I’m now envisioning baking every muffin known to man with this magical mixture.
What Are Tiger Nuts?
So…Tiger nuts…what exactly are they, and how can we incorporate them into our cooking? Tiger nuts, are actually small, fibrous root vegetables (not nuts at all!) that originate from Africa and have been a large part of the human diet for thousands of years.
As it turns out, tiger nuts were a big part of our paleolithic ancestor’s diets and traces were found in a 6,000-year old Egyptian tomb.
In spite of the large role the little tubers have played in cultures overseas, they haven’t created waves in North American cuisine until recently because growing conditions for the planet aren’t ideal in the U.S. Tiger nuts can be consumed raw, roasted, dried, ground into flour and baked or a hydrated into tiger nut milk or pressed into oil.
Typically, the round tubers are dried before storing to prevent spoilage and are typically re-hydrated before consumption.
What You Need to Know About TigerNut flour:
- A great source of Resistant Starch, which is a prebiotic fiber that resists digestion and fuels our healthful probiotic bacteria.
- Naturally gluten-free and grain-free.
- Has a somewhat grainy texture similar to almond flour. When combined with tapioca flour, you get a fluffy consistency, similar to regular whole wheat or all-purpose flour.
- Contains a nutty, somewhat buttery flavor. I’d compare the flavor to lightly buttered popcorn.
- Can be used in baked goods from cookies and bars to quickbreads, and even pancakes, as shown in this recipe.
- To get more information about tiger nuts and TigerNut flour, check out this page.
Now let’s talk pancakes.
If you’re familiar with grain-free pancakes, you know they can be a bit of a pain in the beehive. The wet-to-dry ratio can be a bit complicated, they tend to require more cook time than regular pancakes, and unless the formula is just right, they can be dry or fall apart easily.
Essentially, grain-free pancakes are a challenge; however, these ones defy all odds and they…
- Turn out fluffy, tender, soft, and chewy
- Taste nutty/buttery in flavor
- Require only 4 ingredients: tiger nut flour, tapioca flour, eggs, and some form of milk (I used almond milk)
- Hold together very well and are not at all difficult to flip, contrary to the typical grain-free pancake
- Take no more time to prepare and cook than regular {all-purpose flour} pancakes
TigerNut Flour Pancake Flavor Options:
If you want to get really fancy with the recipe, you can replace half of the milk with a ripe banana for banana bread-style pancakes. You can also use full-fat coconut milk instead of almond milk for richer flavor, and add any sweetener of your choosing to the batter.
Feel like shredding up a carrot to make mock carrot cake pancakes? Go for it! Wanna add some gluten-free rolled oats and raisins to have a sort of dessert-for-breakfast oatmeal cookie pancake situation? You do you, m’dear.
As you can see, I enjoyed the pancakes with fresh berries, almond butter, sliced TigerNuts, and honey. You can go the butter and maple syrup route, opt for peanut butter and banana, make a fun and frisky fruit compote, make a pancake breakfast sammie with eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, you name it!
There are plenty of options to turn this basic recipe for tiger nut flour pancakes into any dreamy hot n’ steamy stack of your choosing.
More Delicious Gluten-Free Pancake Recipes:
- Sweet Potato Rolled Oat Protein Pancakes:
- Vegan Banana Pancakes
- Coconut Flour Zucchini Pancakes
- Paleo Avocado Pancakes
- Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes
Stack ’em high!
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag me at @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Tiger Nut Flour Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk see note*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup TigerNut flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- Pinch sea salt
- Coconut oil for cooking
Optional Add-ins:
- Pinch ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
For Serving:
- Fresh berries
- Almond butter
- Honey
Instructions
- Whisk together the eggs, almond milk, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Stir in the TigerNut flour, tapioca flour, and sea salt (and cinnamon if adding). Stir until combined and a thick batter forms (Note: as an alternative, you can add all of the ingredients to a blender and blend until combined).
- Heat a medium-sized non-stick skillet over medium heat and add enough coconut oil to generously coat the surface (about 2 tablespoons).
- Measure out a scant ¼ cup of batter and pour it onto the hot skillet. Cook until sides firm up, about 1 to 2 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side another 1 to 2 minutes, until cooked through. Repeat for remaining batter (Note: I typically cook 2 pancakes at a time on a 12-inch skillet).
- Serve with a dollop of almond butter, fresh fruit, honey, and sliced TigerNuts.
Nutrition
These are fantastic! I made them the first time as written, except I used canned coconut milk instead of almond. They were a bit chewy and dense but still delicious. The second time I made them, I still used coconut milk and also added 1 tsp of paleo baking powder. This made them fluffier and took them from great to AMAZING. My husband, who can eat normal food, said they tasted just like “real” pancakes. I see several other comments saying that the recipe needs some fat in it; maybe my use of full-fat canned coconut milk did the trick, because I give them 10 stars.
After reading several comments, I modified the recipe. I have made this modified recipe 4 times and every time turns out great. The whole family loves it!
I put all the dry ingredients in the blender: 1 cup Tigernut, 1/4 c of Tapioca, 2 Tbsp coconut sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon & 1/2 tsp baking soda. I blend it all together to cut a little bit more the tigernut grains.
Then I add all the wet ingredients to the blender: 2eggs. 1/4 c milk, 2 Tbsp of almond butter (or any nut butter of your choice), 1tsp vainilla.
then use 1/4 cup to pour. Enjoy!
Thanks for sharing, Marian!
I added two tablespoons of almond butter and 1/8 teaspoon at baking powder and only 1/4 cup of start and these were lovely. Great nutty flavor!
Sounds amazing, Shea! Thank you for sharing!
Golden appearance but Too chewy and tough. Needs baking soda and some fat in recipe.
Thanks for sharing, Britt. I’ll re-test the recipe and see if it needs any adjustments.
Could I substitute arrowroot flour for the tapioca flour?
Hi Sue! Yes, absolutely! Just as a heads up, some people have found the batter to be somewhat thin, so if this happens in your case, you can simply use more arrowroot flour to thicken up the batter. Hope you enjoy! xoxo
Long time baker here, and mine turned out as flavorless and dense hockey pucks.. it was a very sad Saturday morning. Can’t figure out what went wrong here. Maybe the tigernut flour is best saved for cookies.
Can these be made in a waffle iron? Would any alterations be needed? I’m terrible at flipping.. Thanks!!
I made them with gelatin eggs this morning in order to be AIP compliant. The recipe has great flavor and will try them again with a different egg sub. The gelatin egg made the batter finicky. They still turned out delicious but the gelatin made them more work than necessary.
I’m happy to hear they worked out decently with the gelatin egg. Hopefully a few tweaks will make them perfect for ya! 😉 xoxo
Tried this recipe as written, with extra fine, organic tiger nut flour and coconut milk in place of almond milk because I’m allergic. This was my first time using tiger nut flour. The addition of Bob’s Red Mill finely ground tapioca flour didn’t seem to give them much “rise”, they’re pretty flat, dense little guys.
The flavor is good, but the pancakes have a mildly “grainy/gritty” texture. I wonder if letting the batter rest for 20-30 minutes would help with this? It also tends to clump, so the blender is probably best for mixing.
Hi Amber! The grainy texture is just how the tiger nut flour is, unfortunately. Great point about the mixing – it may be easier to just mix everything in a mixing bowl rather than using a blender. xo