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Zucchini Chocolate Pancakes are vegan, gluten free friendly and low in calories! Made with simple wholesome, real food ingredients and oh so tasty! These pancakes are a sneaky way to add more healthy foods to your diet in a chocolaty way.
This Zucchini Cocoa Pancakes recipe was originally published March 2015. I retested, rephotographed and updated the content for you. Hope you love it!
Well well well look at what we have here… Healthy Chocolate Zucchini Pancakes! It’s been three years since I made these pancakes. I wanted to add them to my low calorie meal plans, but the pictures desperately needed updating. The old ones were pretty sad.
It was a good excuse to make an old recipe. I’m always experimenting with new recipes so I don’t always have the ability to make older ones regularly. I mean there’s only so much food one girl can eat.
Actually, zucchini is one of the easiest things to add to your diet because you can’t taste it. I tell those in my group coaching all the time to add shredded zucchini to oatmeal, quesadillas, etc. It’s an easy way to get the kids to eat it!
Let’s talk about making these pancakes, shall we?
They’re made egg-free with a flax egg. You can substitute a whole egg in place of the flax egg. I like the extra fiber the flax adds to the batter so if you do go the egg route, I recommend you still add one tablespoon of flax to hold the batter together.
I did not squeeze the liquid out of my zucchini after I shredded it in my food processor. For many of my recipes, I do not have to. I also live in Arizona where’s it very dry so if you want to be safe I recommend squeezing out excess liquid in a dishtowel before adding it to the batter.
I used Gluten Free Oat Flour for the recipe. I suspect almond flour would work in this recipe, although I have not tried it. Again, only so many pancakes one girl can eat.
Cooking times will depend on what you use to cook these. I used an electric skillet, but a cast iron skillet will cook the pancakes much faster. They are thin so they will cook quickly with whatever method you use.
Either way, these chocolate pancakes with zucchini will satisfy your cravings for carbs. I made 2 batches and frozen half to eat in a few weeks. I ended up eating them for dinner a few times!
Want more healthy pancake recipes? Try these healthy banana chocolate chip pancakes, healthy yogurt pancakes, this low carb pancake recipe, and yummy Paleo pancakes next!
Zucchini Chocolate Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon flax meal, plus 2 tbsp water to make a flax egg
- 1 banana, very ripe
- 1/4 cup zucchini, shredded
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, or milk of choice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup Gluten Free Flour, or regular oat flour
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- Optional stevia, or another zero calorie sweetener
Instructions
- Make flax egg by combining flax seeds and water in small bowl. Refrigerate flax with water 15 to 30 minutes until mixture thickens and has an egg like consistency.
- Place the banana, milk, vanilla extract and flax egg in a blender. Blend on high until smooth. Pour the mixture into a separate mixing bowl and stir in the shredded zucchini.
- Heat an electric griddle to medium heat.
- Scoop 1/3 cup of the batter onto the griddle. 1/3 of a cup equals 1 pancake. Cook each pancakes 5 minutes until bubbles form on top and the bottoms are golden brown. They will take a while to setup on the first side. Carefully, flip pancakes then cook an additional 4 to 6 minutes.
- Cool on a baking rack. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator up to 7 days or in the freezer 30 days.
Notes
- Measure the flour properly when making these muffins or you will end up with 2 times the amount of dry ingredients than you need.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I’m a sucker for anything with zucchini 🙂 They look delish! I’ll have to try these for my pancake-obsessed kiddos too.
They won’t even know the zucchini is there. 😉
Looks delicious! I’m having a craving right now! Will go buy berries instantly and try this. Thanks!
Are you putting the berries on top?
Loving this recipe! Saving it 🙂
Glad you like it girl!
I cringed when I read that about the kid running into you. I”m so sorry that happened. People can just be so damn mean!! And it feels like it’s the worst when you’re recovering from an injury. The mother of that kid sounded like a major bitch! I totally know the feeling–it’s like you’re healing and trying to do all you can stay healed and you don’t want to reinjure yourself with something not even workout related.
I also have similar run-ins with people all the damn time. I think the outside world is just really impatient and unkind to people who are very sensitive as I am and as you seem to be.
I’m glad you are healing though and yay for finding stuff you love shopping. I also haaaaate shopping. I try to do as much as I can online. It’s so exhausting and I never seem to find something that I truly like. Oh well–maybe I’m just too much of a perfectionist. Have a great week!
XOXO
I’m trying to figure out how not to be a perfectionist. I drive myself crazy sometimes with my pickiness.
Ah jeez, I’m sorry to hear about the terrible instance you had at the store with the 3 year old! People can be very inconsiderate, it blows my mind. And people wonder why I never want to give birth to my own children…ha! But really, my fiance and I decided mutually on this decision a long time ago.
I’m kind of beyond the having kids phase. I could not imagine doing it at this age. I wouldn’t have the patience.
never had zuchinni pancakes but this looks delicious
I wasn’t hear to see what happened to your ankle? What happened?
These pancakes look yummy. . .
Stay rested girl. It’s worth the recovery to come back stronger. 🙂 Enjoy the rest.
Hi Emily, the injury recap is link is in the post. https://skinnyfitalicious.com/injury-recap-health-advocate/
I have 4 kids, and if one of them runs into someone accidentally (although they are never allowed to push the cart), my first thought is apologizing profusely, not yelling at the person they walked,ran,bumped into!!!
You are very considerate woman!
ARGH! Your story reminds me of the time I had a kid ram the grocery cart into my achilles tendon. I yelped out loud and turned around to see who had done it and made eye contact with the (older) kid and his mother and they said nothing to me. NOTHING. Wth is wrong with people? And you’re so right… will it KILL them to say sorry? Really?!?!? How hard is it? Drives me absolutely fricking nuts. People totally suck sometimes!
That must have hurt! I don’t get why it’s so hard to say those two words. People are not like they used to be.
Those pancakes look mind blowing!! I am planning to make muffins tonight so I might make these for dinner. Yep, I love breakfast for dinner! Also, great job on dealing with the irate lady, I hate it when people don’t own up to the actions of their children!!
Yum! Muffins and pancakes. Can I come over?