Green Pancakes

You asked for them, and here they are: The bona fide kid- and adult-pleasing spinach breakfast pancakes made famous by my food-stamp challenge article. Given that I seem to have given birth to the one kid on earth who doesn’t like smoothies, ensuring adequate vegetable consumption has been a years-long process of trial-and-error, with these being the most successful result. They don’t taste like spinach in the slightest despite being quite obviously packed with it, and the fact they’re whole wheat is barely perceptible. We always have a freezer stash of these individually wrapped and ready to just pop in the toaster (or microwave) on busy school mornings. I promise they’re cheaper and healthier than anything you could find in the grocery-store freezer aisle.

They’re super-easy to make, too: Puree the liquid ingredients in the blender (yes, I’m an asshole and use a Vitamix, but you don’t have to! I made these in my 20-year-old Osterizer for years), stir the wet mixture into the flour, and drop it onto a hot skillet or griddle. Eat what you want while they’re hot, let the rest cool, then wrap individually in plastic wrap and keep them in the freezer. They reheat very well in the toaster (may take a couple cycles on low) or in the microwave.

Spinach pancakes

Makes about a dozen large pancakes.

1 cup milk (any kind of milk is fine)
1 bunch spinach, rinsed, thicker end of stalks cut off
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons melted butter (or coconut oil)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup whole-wheat flour (or white, if that’s less scary)
pinch of salt
vegetable oil to grease the griddle or pan

Stir together flour and salt. Combine milk, spinach, eggs, butter or coconut oil, sugar, and vanilla in the blender, blend until uniformly bright green with no chunks. Fold it into the flour until just combined; some lumps are okay. Add just enough vegetable oil to grease a pan or griddle preheated over medium heat. Pour batter onto pan or griddle, cook until firm and lightly golden on each side. Serve with plenty of butter and maple syrup.

P.S. You may notice there’s no leavening agent in the dry ingredients. This is intentional. I’ve tried various combinations of baking powder and baking soda and I just don’t like the way they puff up and get kind of dry and hard. However, in the attempt I happened to photograph, the result of which is pictured above, I did use 1 tsp baking powder, so if it’s really upsetting to you that your pancakes don’t look exactly like the picture, go ahead and add a little leavening agent. I won’t judge.