These Vegan Banana Cardamom waffles are a sure bet for turning the first meal of the day into something special. The ingredients are simple and the recipe comes together quickly. This is an easy way to surprise someone with breakfast in bed!
For real, weekday breakfasts in our house are super standard. Greg starts with toast and peanut butter. I start with a smoothie packed with fiber-rich fruit and a Complete shake mix to take me from 6 am to my 12 pm lunch break at work. He works from home, so he usually has a smoothie later in the morning. That’s the routine, pretty much every day.
But, on the weekends, we like to take advantage of the more flexible schedule and have something a little more special. Some days it is breakfast in bed and other times it is a post-run feast. This recipe has definitely made the weekend rotation!
The simple ingredients for delicious banana cardamom waffles
A word about waffles. Prepared waffles (from the freezer section) are expensive and most have added ingredients that you don’t really want (and forget about them being vegan). There is also the issue of the packaging to protect them until they make it to breakfast. So, we’re here to encourage everyone to jump in and go for it making waffles from scratch – you will love it!
Yes, You Need A Waffle Iron
Electric waffle irons are a great tool. Yes, you will not use them every day, but they aren’t prohibitively expensive and they don’t take up a ton of room. When we downsized and moved about 1800 miles south, there was a lot of deciding what was coming and what was being left behind. If you have ever done this, you understand the endless rounds of negotiations that happen. I held firm about the waffle iron. Greg argued that we didn’t use it regularly. Fair point, but let’s be honest, we all have stuff in our kitchen that we don’t use every day, but when we do use them, they make us happy. Believe that a waffle iron will make you happy. Don’t be afraid. They beep when they are hot enough. Pour in the batter. Close it, and they beep when the waffles are done. Super easy!
Cardamon Doesn’t Get The Love it Deserves
A word about Cardamom. Have you used it? It is a wonderful and, in my opinion, vastly underutilized spice. I really started appreciating it when I began to make Indian food, where its use is far more common. Then I made some Loquat and cardamom jam that was amazing and I realized that it is fabulous with sweet fruits (the jam was incredible, by the way).
When Greg and I were playing around with the recipe for these waffles, we had just added the cinnamon. He kept saying that it needed “something else”. I remembered the cardamom and adding it got us to the exact taste we were hoping for.
This is what it looks like when I’m working on a recipe. Notes on the counter beside me
Some Things Have No Substitute
A word about Flaxseed. Many vegan recipes use chia or flax seeds. Often they are practically interchangeable. This time they are not. The second time we made the recipe, we were out of flax and used chia. The thing about chia that makes amazing pudding is exactly why it is not a great choice for waffles. The inside seemed a bit gummy to us, so we don’t recommend that sort of substitution.
Dates are Important
I’m talking about the dates you eat, lol. We try to keep our recipes easy and accessible without using exotic, hard-to-find ingredients and that’s how we like it too. But, like the flax/chia situation, this is an important choice. We usually are using Khadrawy dates which are wonderfully soft and sweet, but they aren’t easy to find and we actually order them by the box from the wonderful people at 7 Hot Dates (definitely check them out!). Much more common in the stores, and perfect for this recipe, are Medjool dates. They are large, soft, and sweet and they mash up into the mix really well. The firm, golden brown dates called Deglet Noor are not going to work for this.
Time for a delicious breakfast of Banana Cardamom Waffles!Print
These Vegan Banana Cardamom waffles are a sure bet for turning the first meal of the day into something special. The ingredients are simple and the recipe comes together quickly. This is an easy way to surprise someone with breakfast in bed!
Ingredients
UnitsScale
2 very ripe bananas
4 dates (Medjool or Khadrawy)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2cups plant milk
1 Tbs raw apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs ground flax
2cups organic all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp cardamom
Instructions
Preheat waffle iron.
Combine the fruit, wet ingredients, and ground flax in a blender and blend until smooth.
In a separate mixing bowl, thoroughly blend the remaining dry ingredients.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and pour batter into the waffle iron base on the manufacturer’s instructions (our’s takes about 1/2 cup per waffle).
When cooked, serve with vegan butter and/or maple syrup.
Notes
We love dates and they are fairly easy to find. However, if you want something really special check out our source at www.7hotdates.com. A family farm producing a wide range of amazing organic dates.
Georgia is an unpretentious foodie who, at 50, transitioned from a vegetarian diet to a whole foods plant based diet and is loving it. She works as a nurse, plays as a quilter, loves to run, hates to race.
She thinks dogs are actually angels (in dog suits).
Thanks for sharing great article.