Cauliflower is surprisingly versatile.
Or maybe I’m surprisingly strange?
Either way, these are good. Â Cauliflower may seem like a strange thing to make pancakes with, but it’s one of those veggies (like spinach) that doesn’t have a strong taste.
 I had to do a few trials, but persistence paid off.  My first trials were without the oats, but it does need that addition to thicken properly.
What results in a super-fluffy pancake hiding a little extra veggie punch that NO ONE will ever guess is in there. Â I added a quick blackberry syrup and decorated with some toasted sunflower seeds, which added a nice crunch to every bite.
A couple of tips:
- Cut the cauliflower into small pieces to so that they will blend smoothly
- Make sure to grease the pan well to make flipping easier
- Don’t touch the pancakes until they are ready to flip. Â If you mess with them, it will take away from the fluff factor.
Fluffy Cauliflower Protein Pancakes
For the Pancakes:
- 2 T oatmeal
- 100g (~2/3 C) cauliflower
- 1/4 C egg whites
- 1 T (1/2 scoop) vanilla protein powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp no sodium baking powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp butter extract (optional)
- 5-6 drops liquid stevia
For the Blackberry Syrup:
- 1/4 C blackberries, mashed
- 1 tsp sugar-free syrup
In a blender (I used a Magic Bullet), pulse the oats into a flour.  Place in mixing bowl.
Place cauliflower in the blender cup with egg whites and mix until smooth. Â
Add oats back in, along with the remaining ingredients. Â Blend until combined.
Cook in a well-greased skillet (I used PAM).
Meanwhile, mix together syrup ingredients in a small bowl. Â Place in the microwave for ~10 seconds to warm and “melt” the berries.
Plate the ‘cakes and drizzle with syrup. Â I also added sunflower seeds as a crunchy garnish.
Serves 1.
How have you enjoyed making co-workers, friends, or family stare with strange but good creations this week? The link up rules can be found here or by clicking on “Strange But Good” in the menu bar above. In short, I want to see what concoctions have earned you weird looks from co-workers, family and friends! Post your Strange But Good creations, grab the logo below for your blog, and link up here.
Remember to use #strangebutgood in any Tweets and Instagrams of your creations. 🙂
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This week has certainly been strange… it’s so cool in Atlanta it feels like October! Â Normally this would be awesome, but I’m crossing my finger for a little warmth because I’m supposed to try paddle boarding for the first time this weekend!
What is your favorite way to sneak in extra veggies?
Do you like to make pancake breakfasts? Â Or are you an oat/egg/yogurt/other person?
Cauliflower needs a THERAPIST – it has far too many personalities! PICK ALREADY! lol
hahaha this comment made me giggle!
GiGi alwyas makes me pee myself. 😉
Should I sell GiGi Eats Diapers?!?!
This is a crazy one – what goes in in that brain of yours! 😉 Do they taste like cauliflower??
You don’t even WANT to know… 😉
No, you cannot taste the cauliflower at all.
I have seen cauliflower protein pancakes all over Instagram and have been wanting to make them. But as much as I love pancakes, I never have the desire to actually cook them.
Soooo you should probably cook up a batch and send them to me, with some of that blackberry syrup <3
It took me a while too, but I’m so lad I did. These are my new favorites!
You’d never have guessed there is cauliflower in there! Definitely trying this out, the other day I tried shredded zucchini but I think with cauliflower it might make it more fluffy, due to less water! Thanks for this! ps I am eating your chick-less chicken nuggets as I type this. Genius.
Zucchini will work, but you have to squeeze out the excess water.
So you liked the nuggets? 🙂
And once again- you leave me with no words….amazing use of cauliflower! Suddenly oatmeal pancakes seem so passe ;)! I love using cauliflower in pizza crusts but I am intrigued about how they hold up in pancakes. Just to clarify- the cauliflower is raw?
Thanks! I love my cauliflower crust too… but these are really, really good. It is raw – I find that the taste is stronger if you cook it, but with the ‘cakes you can’t taste the cauliflower in the least!
Cauliflower in pancakes! That’s new, but I bet it tastes really good.
It does!!! Let me know if you try it out. 🙂
I LOVE cauliflower in my pancakes! I haven’t found anything yet that makes them so thick and super fluffy! Yours look delicious 🙂
I think the biggest trick is NOT touching them until they are ready to flip. I was messing with mine too much before!
I looove added vegetables to pancakes. I never thought of cauliflower before, such e great idea!! Totally going to try these.
We have actually been adding cauliflower to our veggie pancakes since my kids starting eating solids. Although our recipe isn’t as pretty as yours. It’s more of throw every veggie that we have in the bowl and see how it goes. Yours look great!
It amazes me how many veggies you can hinde in revipes. My mom was the queen of blending broccoli and other veggies into sauces because we were SO picky growing up.
ok seriously this might take the cake (no laura, not a cauliflower cake!) for your strangest but good (goodest??) recipe yet!!!!
Ohhhh… cauliflower cake… I like it!!!
Creative! I do love your cauliflower pizza… at least as much as a pizza-lover can dig a cauliflower pizza. 😉 Seriously though, it’s good.
Thanks, Tiffany!!! Not too long and you’ll be trying to sneak veggies into your kid food. 😉
Paddleboarding was -so- much fun… you’re going to love it! And I have to admit that I would have never thought to use cauliflower in pancakes… pizza crust yes, but I’m still not sure how I feel about veggies at breakfast. That being said, veggies at dinner are perfectly acceptable… as are pancakes 😉
I think paddle boarding would be more fun if it hadn’t been rianing and cold. I’m defintiely giving it another shot when/if it ever warms up!
Now if only my tummy could handle cauliflower!
I don’t know for sure… but I’m thinking you could do this with broccoli… 😉
You are the Queen of Cauliflower, Laura! This sounds so good. Wonder if Ralph will notice the cauliflower? Well he doesn’t notice when I add green tea to his regular tea, so maybe this will work! Have a great day!
I bet you could sneak it by him! If you try it, I want to hear about it. 🙂
Do you tell him after the fact?
I would have never guessed cauliflower… I’ve got to try this! Maybe for dinner tonight…
Yay! Did you try it? You have to let me know if L approved. 😉
A couple years ago, my office had a weird food day and someone brought in cauliflower muffins and they were really good!
I’m an egg person 90% of the time, but sometimes on the weekends, I’ll make pancakes.
Muffins are on my list! Linz said cake… I’m thinking. 😉
Once again, you’ve put a vegetable somewhere where I would never expect to find one 😉 Intriguing!
That’s what she said… 😉
I agree, cauliflower is versatile. Kind of like cashews. This sounds fantastic to me! I’m jumping on the strangebutgood train for lunch today and snack last night. I should take pics and post but it’s an ugly mess LOL – hummus mixed with braggs amino acids, PB2 & Sriracha to go over broccoli slaw.
I would have never compared cauliflower to cashews… but you are so right!
this I HAVE to try…
I’m not a huge fan of pancakes but putting cauliflower in them does sound like a good idea!
Thanks! Let me know if you try it!
Dang girl, I would never even guess there were veggies in these! It’s so hard to get veggies in at breakfast, what a great idea!
I definitely need to try these!
I love sneaking veggies into things!! Great idea! Thanks for the fun link-up! 🙂
Thank you! I love seeing all of your fun creations. 🙂
I’m cracking up – you are TOO creative. I love this!!
Umm yah, can you say CAULIFLOWERAMAZINESS…BAM! Love this mix up! Need me a magic bullet in thailand so I can whip these up! Thanks for sharing!! Hope your weekend is awesome! Love + Shine CourtStar
I think any blender will do… I just like it for small jobs for easy clean up. 🙂
SO jealous of Thailand.
Aw man, I had hoped you had figured it out without oats, I keep trying & failing at my similar attempts. I’ve seen it done well win banana, but no fruit for meal 1. 🙂 I’ll keep trying!!
Yeah… maybe one of the gums would help it? I was happy with the compromise though – 2 T of oats is stil pretty darn low carb!
Have you checked out my sweet potato pan-lette? It’s like the banana concept of mashed with egg whites, but with a baked sweet potato (or winter squash).
How creative!!! I still want to try the pizza crust. You are awesome.
Thanks, friend! We need to have a pizza night!
i ran out of my favorite shirataki noodles a few weeks ago & filled in with “riced” (aka vitamix blended) cauliflower in my favorite dinner bowl! steamed the “rice”, dump on a huge amount of peach pineapple salsa, same amount of chopped jalapenos, egg whites, nutritional yeast, chili powder & garlic, its like the veggies just hide out in there- you can’t even tell 😉 all my power bars have veggies too! usually zukes or carrots, sometimes kale or spinach. bright green baked protein oat bars really freak people out when you have them in a baggie @ the gym
I LOVE cauliflower rice bowls! Have you tried parsnip rice too? It’s my favorite because it’s a lttle sweet.
Intriguing…
And I would like to write some sort of super enthusiastic comment about how I can’t wait to make them, but my baking (or anything even close to it) mojo is sorely lacking at the moment. So I can’t really promise to do anything more with the caulifower in my fridge than steam it, roast it, or eat it raw.
LOL! I need you to get your mojo back. Or just come to ATL for some Indian.
I would have never thought of cauliflower in pancakes! Love this!
These sound so good! I recently tried cauliflower pizza and totally need to try these too!
xx Kait
The pizza rocks, doesn’t it?! I’m beginning to think cauliflower is just as versatile as spinach. 🙂
I swear cauliflower is magical…. I am convinced there is some sort of molecular component to it that reacts to heat and eggs in magical ways. I bet Alton Brown would know.
I bet these taste amazing.
Cauliflower all the things all the ways. LOL.
I think I agree. Alton lives not too far from me… I should run this by him. 😉
picking up some cauliflower tonight and making these for brinner! they look amazing!!! and simple!
Oh, you have to let me know how you like them!!! I may do the same. 🙂
Hey lady — this is obviously an old recipe on your blog but new to me! I just had these for breakfast — I am in *love* with this recipe & with cauliflower rice in general! One thing I did notice was that the recipe states 100g of cauliflower, or about 1/3 cup — I was using already-riced cauliflower and I measured out 1/3 cup and that was only 39 grams. I went ahead and added another 45 grams since you were obviously using a food scale when you wrote the recipe, but if someone didn’t have a food scale and just measured out 1/3 cup I don’t know that their pancakes would turn out as fluffy and delicious as mine were just now 🙂 Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Hi! Thank so much for trying these out and letting me know how you liked them! AND for that tip. When I wrote this recipe pre-packaged cauliflower didn’t exist. I guess I should buy some and try it out now! I’m so glad you enjoyed the pancakes! Have you tried my pizza crust? I’m actually making that again tonight! 🙂