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Chocolate Hidden Vegetable Pancakes (That Actually Taste Good!)

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Chocolate hidden vegetable pancakes taste like rich, fudgy, chocolate pancakes, and are made with spinach, carrots, and apples. Judging by the taste, you would never guess how healthy they are!

You guys, this is not my type of recipe. Like, so not my type of recipe. I mean, hidden vegetable pancakes?! Why would you do that? And they couldn’t possibly taste good, right?

Wrong.

I used to always think like the above, and it never even occurred to me to try to hide vegetables in pancakes. Or any other baked goods. Or chocolate cakes. I kept my savory foods savory, and my baked goods sweet, and never the twain shall meet.

But one day, I was searching on Google (that’s how all interesting things start nowadays, isn’t it?) for a healthier pancake recipe. I previously mentioned my 5-year-old, who would eat pancakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper, if I would let him.

I didn’t really want to let him, though. I mean, pancakes are delicious, but aren’t all that healthy, and I didn’t feel so comfortable feeding him pancakes as full meals so often. Hence the Google search for healthy pancake recipes.

This chocolate hidden vegetable pancake recipe came up, and some strange impulse came over me, and I clicked on it.

So I was scrolling through the reviews, and I noticed that everyone was saying how delicious and amazing this recipe is.

And I thought, what the heck, let me try this.

So I tried it.

And the reviews are correct. It is delicious. My five-year-old agrees.

Are you ready? Off we go!

Chocolate Hidden Vegetable Pancakes Recipe

Adapted from Food Network

Chocolate Hidden Vegetable Pancakes Ingredients

1/2 cup carrots, peeled and chopped into large chunks
1/2 cup frozen spinach
1 apple, peeled and chopped into large chunks
6 oz plain yogurt
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons honey (or more, if desired)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips (or more, if desired)
oil, for frying

Chocolate Hidden Vegetable Pancakes Method

1. Place carrots, spinach, apple, yogurt, oats, cocoa, milk, honey, and vanilla into a high-powered blender. (You really do need a strong blender for this, like Magimix or Bosch with the blender attachment. The blender I currently have sucks and takes FOREVER to blend anything). Blend until mixture is smooth and liquidy, with no chunks of unblended veggies floating around.

Carrots, apples, and spinach in a blender.
Carrots, apples, and spinach, waiting to be blended up!
Blender with blended chocolate hidden vegetable pancake ingredients.
The first batch of ingredients blended up.

2. Put eggs in blender and blend for a few seconds to mix them in.
3. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the blender. Use your finger or a small spoon to quickly mix the baking powder, soda, and salt into the flour, then turn on the blender and blend until all the flour is fully incorporated.

Blender with flour sitting on top of the rest of the blended ingredients.
Put the flour on top of the blended ingredients…
Blender holding fully blended batter of chocolate hidden vegetable pancakes.
…and then blend it up!

4. Heat oil in a large frying pan. When oil is hot, pour out pancake-sized amounts of batter from the blender into the frying pan (or use a spoon, if you’d rather.) Sprinkle chocolate chips onto the pancakes. They are ready to be flipped when bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes and the edges turn darker brown.

Three chocolate hidden vegetable pancakes in a frying pan, ready to be flipped.
These pancakes need to be flipped already!

5. Flip the pancakes, and fry for another minute or so until the bottom is darker brown. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to soak up some oil.

Frying pan with three chocolate hidden vegetable pancakes after they have been flipped.
Let ’em fry for a bit on this side now

6. Serve with some sliced carrots to get even more veggies into the kids’ systems!

A few chocolate hidden vegetable pancakes stacked on a paper-towel-lined plate.
Chocolate hidden vegetable pancakes.

And that’s it! What do you think about hiding vegetables in food? Are you a fan or not so much? Let me know in the comments!

Check out some delicious desserts!

One bowl brownies
Caramel cheesecake
Best donut holes
Whole wheat tahini cookies
Double peanut butter sandwich cookies
Homemade cinnamon buns

Or some marvelous mains!

Easy Shepherd’s Pie
Onion garlic brown sugar chicken
Hot dog stir fry
Garlic knots from scratch
No vodka vodka sauce

Check out our “how to blog” series!

So you want to be a blogger
So you started a blog. Now what?
How to, like, make your blog look professional, and stuff

Enjoyed the post? Tried the recipe and found it delicious? Then make sure to tell your friends! All of them. Every single one. Even that one girl from high school who you haven’t really kept in touch with but you see on FaceBook every so often. She probably needs some Chocolate Hidden Vegetable Pancakes in her life. Go tell her how awesome they are. You can use our sharing buttons to share the post on FB, Pinterest, Twitter,  or WhatsApp. That’s more than enough options for anybody.
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Chocolate hidden vegetable pancakes pinterest image.

chocolate hidden vegetable pancakes on a plate, with sliced carrots and chocolate chips scattered around.

Chocolate Hidden Vegetable Pancakes

Bee
Chocolate hidden vegetable pancakes taste like rich, fudgy, chocolate pancakes, and are made with spinach, carrots, and apples. Judging by the taste, you would never guess how healthy they are!
5 from 2 votes
Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 10 mins
Total Time 20 mins
Course Breakfast, brunch, Main Course
Cuisine American
Servings 4 people
Calories 396 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 cup carrots peeled and chopped into large chunks
  • 1/2 cup frozen spinach
  • 1 apple peeled and chopped into large chunks
  • 6 oz plain yogurt
  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/4 cup cocoa
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 3 tablespoons honey or more, if desired
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup chocolate chips or more, if desired
  • oil for frying

Instructions
 

  • Place carrots, spinach, apple, yogurt, oats, cocoa, milk, honey, and vanilla into a high-powered blender. (You really do need a strong blender for this, like Magimix or Bosch with the blender attachment). Blend until mixture is smooth and liquidy, with no chunks of unblended veggies floating around.
  • Add eggs to blender and blend for a few seconds to mix them in.
  • Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the blender. Use your finger or a small spoon to quickly mix the baking powder, soda, and salt into the flour, then turn on the blender and blend until all the flour is fully incorporated.
  • Heat oil in a large frying pan. When oil is hot, pour out pancake-sized amounts of batter from the blender into the frying pan (or use a spoon, if you'd rather.) Sprinkle chocolate chips onto the pancakes. They are ready to be flipped when bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes and the edges turn darker brown.
  • Flip the pancakes, and fry for another minute or so until the bottom is darker brown. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to soak up some oil.
  • Serve with some sliced carrots to get even more veggies into the kids' systems!

Notes

Nutrition information is an estimate and is provided for informational purposes only. If you have any specific dietary needs please contact your healthcare professional.
Keyword chocolate, chocolate hidden vegetable pancakes, hidden vegetable, pancakes

This Post Has 38 Comments

  1. Jenny

    Cool recipe

  2. Sudipta Dev Chakraborti

    Great recipe. I’ve never had chocolate vegetable pancake before. Will surely try it out. Thank you for being so generous and sharing the recipe.

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      You’re welcome! Enjoy!

  3. Monidipa Dutta

    So yummy! I can’t wait to give this recipe a try! It left me drooling..!!

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      I hope you enjoy them!

  4. Marysa

    I should make these for my kids. It’s nice to find some ways to sneak veggies into their food, and spinach seems to be an easy veggie to hide.

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      Yeah, this is a great way to get kids to eat spinach (although my 8-year-old recently asked if instead of meat hand pies I can make them with spinach. So I guess I don’t need to worry that much about getting him to eat his veggies…)

  5. Annie Cho

    What an awesome way to sneak in vegetables. Using cocoa to mask the taste of vegetables is so clever!
    xoxo
    Annie

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      The cocoa also masks the color 😉

  6. Keshia Richmond

    This might work for some vegetable adverse children—adults even. Interesting concept for pancakes.

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      Well, it works to get me to eat vegetables, so I guess that means it works on adults too…

  7. Emmie

    omg, I never knew you could put veggies into pancakes! I have to try these soon. Thanks so much for sharing. I’ll try to reply when I’ve tried them.

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      I never knew you could put veggies in pancakes either until I tried these! Let me know how they come out for you!

  8. dani

    I will definitely try this. =)

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      Great! I hope you enjoy!

  9. Heather

    These would be great for winter break when my daughters are home and we aren’t rushing to get out the door every morning. But I’ll probably make them without them helping in the kitchen so they don’t see the magical veggie ingredients. 🙂

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      Yup, I always make sure to make these when my kids aren’t around so they’ll actually eat them 🙂

  10. ana

    I love pancakes and I always have trouble trying to make them healthier! this is definitely a recipe that I will try! thanks for sharing 🙂

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      You’re very welcome!

  11. Narmadha

    Wow.. nice idea and looks amazing.. can’t wait to try them

  12. Alexandra

    What a clever way to get some veggies into something as delicious as pancakes! Will try!

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      Yup, isn’t it great?
      I hope you enjoy them!

  13. Terri Beavers

    I have the hardest time trying to get my grandkids to eat veggies. Their parents loved them as kids but they don’t. This would be a great way to make sure they were getting the nutrients they need.

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      Yes, this is a great way to get kids to eat veggies. That’s why I love the recipe so much.

  14. Sundeep

    Wow that’s a wonderful recipe. This recipe looks like a lot of fun I am going to give it a shot. Thanks for sharing

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      You’re very welcome! Enjoy!

  15. Candace

    What?! This is insane!! I love this idea. Sometimes we don’t find how to have our vegetables in a fun way. We tend to get tired of having always the same. This seems like a solution. Love it!

    XO
    Candace
    http://www.thebeautybeau.com

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      Glad you like the recipe!

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      You’re welcome! Enjoy!

  16. Brittany Vantrease

    I’ve hidden chia seeds in pancakes, but never vegetables. I wonder if I could get away with this. Hmmm….

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      It definitely doesn’t hurt to try 🙂

  17. Tara Pittman

    What a great way to sneak the veggies in. I would have to see if my boys would eat them

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      Well, all my boys love them, so hopefully yours will too.

  18. Chad

    This looks sooooo delicious and very easy to prepare! I am gonna try to make it for sure. Thanks a lot for the recipe.

    Chad
    http://www.mosaicslab.com

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      You’re very welcome! Enjoy!

  19. Other B

    Do you think this will work with whole wheat flour?

    1. Bee - Bites 'N Pieces

      I’ve never tried it, but I don’t see why not.

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