Start your day with super easy to make healthy oat pancakes topped with berry sauce! Each pancake is packed with oatmeal, flaxseed, oat bran and Greek yogurt.
It’s a fresh, sparkly new year which means it’s time to start your day off right with something healthy and satisfying. Yes, those two things can coexist, and they come as gorgeous golden brown oat pancakes with the most irresistible berry sauce poured on top!
Homemade pancakes can seem like an indulgent morning meal, but I’ve made just the right swaps to provide the nutrition your body needs without sacrificing on flavor. Sounds good, right? Each bite of these tender oat pancakes is loaded with protein, fiber, and fruit. If you’re ready to flip, let’s go!
How to Make Healthy Pancakes
I wanted to create a recipe that would have a similar taste as hot cakes, but not have a carbohydrate overload leaving you wanting to crawl back into bed for a nap after breakfast. These healthy oat pancakes with berry compote sauce are just what you need for a healthy and satisfying start to your day!
Make Your Own Flour
Instead of using wheat flour, you can make your own gluten-free oat flour from rolled oats. You just add it to a blender or food processor until it has the texture of whole wheat flour. You can buy pre-ground oat flour if you don’t have the equipment to make your own.
Add Protein
The ultimate combination of feeling satisfied and leveling your blood glucose levels is to have a balanced meal of protein, fiber, and carbohydrates. I learned this when I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with baby James. For added protein, this recipe has a generous amount of nonfat plain Greek yogurt and eggs.
Add fiber
The oat flour, oat bran, ground flaxseed, and fruit adds a healthy amount of additional fiber and omega-3 fatty acids for digestive health.
Phyto Power
Adding phytonutrients, plant-based nutrients is easy and essential to your diet. Instead of loading these oat cakes with syrup, a fresh fruit sauce and chunks of fruit act as a natural sweetener.
Homemade berry sauce
All you need is a blender or hand immersion blender to puree the strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. To add more texture, I add whole berries and chopped strawberries to create a richer compote.
With just a little bit of time to simmer, the sauce is vibrant and pourable with just the right amount of sweetness. If the berries are very sweet, you can reduce the amount of honey, or add stevia to reduce the calories even more.
I consider this pancake batter to be my secret nutritional powerhouse! The oats, bran and flax seed meal, provides extra fiber, Omega-3 fatty acids, and lignans. Don’t worry. You can barely taste it!
The combination of protein, probiotics, and fiber will leave you feeling satisfied and energized, just what you need to take on the day. I love topping my pancakes with fresh fruit! The warm, sweet berries are the perfect complement to the healthy oat pancakes.
These golden oat pancakes are tender in texture, with a delightful chew from the whole rolled oats. Now that you have no excuses to skip a healthy breakfast, it’s time to get cooking! What are your favorite ways to incorporate healthy ingredients into the most important meal of the day?
What are some benefits of eating Oatmeal?
Oatmeal is an excellent ingredient or breakfast option (traditional ground porridge) because it contains insoluble and soluble fibers. These fibers stay in your stomach longer, giving you the feeling of satiety for extended periods of time. Since this plant-based fiber is more difficult for humans to digest, it helps to maintain gastrointestinal health by adding bulk (insoluble fiber) and promotes regularity (soluble fiber absorbs water, becomes a gel to help move through the GI tract). There are many other benefits of oatmeal that include lowering cholesterol and decrease risk for high blood pressure, so it’s an excellent ingredient to add to part of your daily diet. As a general rule, the less processed the oats, the more fiber they contain and more health benefits. (Source: Dairy Council of California: Health Benefits of Oatmeal)
Healthy Oat Pancakes with Berry Sauce
Ingredients
Oat Pancakes
- 2 cups rolled oats, divided
- 4 teaspoons ground flaxseed meal
- 4 teaspoons oat bran, optional
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ground
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ cups plain greek yogurt
- ½ cup milk
- 4 large eggs
- ¼ cup honey, or maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- cooking spray, for greasing pan
Berry Compote Sauce
- 1 cup blueberries
- 1 cup raspberries
- 1 ½ cups strawberries, sliced
- 2 tablespoons honey, or maple syrup
Instructions
Berry Compote Sauce
- In a blender, puree a ½ cup of blueberries, ½ cup raspberries, and 1 cup sliced strawberries.
- Strain through a fine-mesh strainer to remove seeds, and transfer the puree to a medium-sized saucepan.
- Add 2 tablespoons of honey to the puree.
- Turn heat to medium, and bring the puree to a boil, stir, then reduce to low heat and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the remainder of the blueberries, raspberries and sliced strawberries to the cooked puree.
- Stir to combine and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, reserve and keep at room temperature.
Oat Pancakes
- In a blender or food processor, pulse 1 ½ cup oats until finely ground, about 1 minute.
- Add the flaxseed meal, oat bran, cinnamon, salt and baking powder to the blender.
- Blend to combine the dry ingredients for about 30 seconds.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, milk, eggs, honey and vanilla extract until combined.
- Whisk in the dry oat mixture, plus ½ cup whole rolled oats until combined, and smooth.
- Allow batter to sit for 5 minutes, and then stir before cooking each pancake.
- Set a large nonstick pan over medium heat for 1 minute, then lightly coat the pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Working in batches, add ¼ cup of pancake batter to the pan for each pancake.
- Cook until golden brown, 2-3 minutes on one side, and 1-2 minutes on the other side. Spray the pan with cooking spray in between each batch if needed.
Recipe Video
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Thalia @ butter and brioche says
I love having pancakes for breakfast! Definitely will be recreating your healthy pancakes, they look and sound delicious and obviously are a great way to start the day off!
Jessica Gavin says
I hope you enjoy the recipe Thalia!
Julia says
If I don’t like greek yogurt, is there a substitute? Or will they taste fine without it?
Jessica Gavin says
Hi Julia- Are you okay with substituting plain or vanilla yogurt instead of Greek? The yogurt is a big part of the recipe so something needs to substituted.
Erica says
I liked these better than traditional pancakes. I will try lemon zest next time. Thanks
Cassandra says
I just started using flaxseed in my smoothies. I was pleasantly surprised and ready to expand its use. I love that other than the oat bran these are all ingredients I usually have on hand. I’m excited to try these! Just curious what the serving size is for the nutritional information?
Jessica Gavin says
I love using ground flaxseed in recipes! So versatile and a lot of health benefits 🙂 You can just add more ground oats if you don’t have oat bran! The serving sized is based on one pancake plus the berry sauce, so just eat as many as you feel comfortable with from a calorie standpoint. Enjoy!
SUSAN BRUDNY says
Your recipe calls for two cups of rolled oats yet only uses one cup…
Jessica Gavin says
Hi Susan- You pulse 1 1/2 cups to make oat flour, then mix in the other 1/2 cup later for texture in the pancakes.
Wendy says
Looks great! I am going to try these tomorrow. Under the nutritional information, the serving size is not mentioned. What is the serving size to go along with the nutritional information?
Jessica Gavin says
Thank you Wendy! The serving size is one pancake plus sauce. So the calories can vary depending on how many pancakes and how much sauce you top them with. I hope you enjoyed the oat pancakes recipe!
Belinda says
I have used my version of oatmeal as flour for our breakfast muffins for 20 years. A fun thing is to pour 1/3 of batter into tin, add a tablespoon of fruit sauce, then top off with batter. We keep in fridge ready to run out of the door. Another quick “syrup” is healthy jelly and butter with any other additions like fruit, green yogurt, nuts etc. I don’t remember the last time we bought syrup!
Great recipe. Keep ‘m coming!!
Jessica Gavin says
I love your quick breakfast idea Belinda! I’ll have to try your homemade syrup as well, thank you for sharing 🙂
Debee says
Hello Jessica, I have 100℅ stone ground whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and whole flax seeds? Can I try with these being my only options? Thanks!
Devan says
Made these this morning for my partner and I (he’s not a big healthy eater) and he enjoyed them a lot! I subbed the milk for coconut milk! Also only did raspberries and strawberries with a splash of syrup for the berrie pure! So tasty! Thank you for the recipe !
rose says
how many pancakes are one serving?
Jessica Gavin says
The nutritional information is per 1 pancake plus the sauce.
Jody says
Love the berry sauce!
Julie M. says
Hi! I like to prep my food for the week so I was wondering how well the berry sauce keeps.
Jessica Gavin says
Hi Julie- The sauce should last about 3 days in an airtight container refrigerated. Make sure it’s completely cooled before you cover and chill.
Marisa says
If I use oat flour, should I use two cups also?
Thank you
hays potts says
Amazing recipie. All 4 kids loved it!
Jessica Gavin says
Always a win when the whole family enjoys the meal!
Carolyn says
Excellent recipe. I increased the baking powder by 1/2 tsp and they were nice and fluffy. I used gluten free oats and they were delicious.
Jessica Gavin says
Thanks for sharing your feedback, Carolyn! I will try adding the extra baking soda too for extra fluffy pancakes.