High Protein Waffles

These high protein waffles are my favorite answer to the dilemma of how to remake breakfast without staples of eggs, dairy, meat and wheat. Along come beans, oats and flax for a treat the whole family can love: these High protein waffles! Celebrate your Independence from animal products!

Years ago we stayed overnight with relatives who had hosted Thanksgiving Dinner. They live too far away for us to drive home after dinner. I knew they would all be eating a traditional breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, sausage and such, so I needed an alternative for myself. I brought the makings for these waffles. The rest of them all asked if they could have a taste. Since the recipe makes about ten waffles and the batter does not keep well, I was happy to share. Rave reviews all the way around and requests for the recipe. 

That took care of holiday gifts for this crew. I printed copies of the recipe for each household and provided them with dry ingredients, pre-mixed. All they needed to do was soak the beans, in a separate packet with the kombu or kelp, the night before. The next morning they could drain the beans, add the combined dry ingredients, plus water, blend and bake in a waffle iron. By New Year’s Day I had heard from every one of them that they had successfully made the waffles and would be making them again.

Ami Karnosh, the PCC Cooks instructor from whom I got the recipe, told this story: Her husband would not eat any but Eggo brand waffles. As a nutritionist, she recoiled from their ingredients and made it her mission to develop a recipe he would eat that would be healthier. She found one from Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes and modified it with this result.  I took a look at the Eggo Homestyle ingredients and it is all enriched flour, vegetable oil (including cottonseed, a concentrated dose of pesticides!) Sugar plus Dextrose (an additional Sugar), eggs and whey (byproduct of the dairy industry) 

I have listed Eggo’s nutritional details at the end of this post with amounts for Ami’s in parentheses next to each amount. 

A comment on the page that lists the ingredients for Eggo’s wraps it up: “Our grocery list looks something like this….Fat free milk, chocolate milk, eggs, bread, Eggos, cheese slices …” I did not see any fruit or vegetables listed, nor any protein sources other than dairy and eggs. 

And another comment: “With food so hard to get these days we were so pleased when we found this large box in our downstairs freezer. Guess we are the lucky ones for there are none to be found in the stores. We would miss that great crunchiness right out of the toaster.” These homemade waffles will freeze well so you can make your own crunchiness in the toaster any time you want. You may need to make one batch to eat and then a second to have some on hand.

Equipment : High-speed blender and a waffle iron

Ingredients 1/2 cup dry cannellini, white kidney, or great Northern beans (or 15 oz. can, drain and rinse) plus a 1 inch piece of dried khombu or kelp

2 1/4 cups water
1 3/4 cups old-fashioned oats (make sure they are gluten free if needed)
1/2 Tablespoon maple syrup 

3 Tablespoons whole flaxseeds, ground and 1/ 2 to 1 tsp. cinnamon, to taste.

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 tsp (or less as desired) salt

Instructions 

1. The night before: Place beans in a large bowl with a 1” piece of dried kombu or kelp. Cover generously with water. Soak overnight. If not using the next day, refrigerate the soaked beans for up to 5 days.
2. In the morning: preheat a non-stick waffle iron. Drain beans, discarding the soaking water. Place in a blender with 2 1/4 cups fresh water and oats, maple syrup, flaxseeds, , vanilla, baking powder, and salt. Blend until smooth, light, and foamy. If your blender is not super powerful, blend the water and beans first, then add and blend the remaining ingredients one at a time.
3. Pour a generous 1/3 to 1/ 2 cup of batter onto the hot waffle iron for each 4′′ waffle. Close the iron and cook a minimum of 8 minutes. If the iron is hard to open, let the waffle cook for another minute or two. (I brush the waffle iron with melted coconut oil between each waffle to make sure they don’t stick)
   
4. Repeat with remaining batter, blend or stir the batter briefly before pouring each waffle. If the batter thickens, add enough water to return it to its original consistency.
   
5. The waffles should be golden brown and crisp. Serve immediately or cool completely on a rack and freeze in an airtight container. Serve with your favorite toppings. The pictured waffle had a cherry pomegranate molasses and cocoa powder compote smeared on top of almond butter.

Notes 

These Waffles, while they do take some dedicated time to make, will satisfy that crunchy waffle urge and not only fill but fuel you for a healthy start to your day. The end of Ami’s story was that these waffles have replaced Eggos as the only ones her husband will eat.

recipe from Ami Karnosh PCC Cooks class on “Bountiful Breakfasts”

Nutritional informaation 

180 (196) cals per 2 waffle serving breaks down to 5 (3) g fat, 1.5 (0) g saturated / 5 (0) mg Cholesterol, 350 (386) mg sodium, 30 (35) g Carbohydrate, <1 (6) g Fiber, 4 (2) g Sugar, 4 (10) g Protein.

Since you are in charge of this recipe, you could greatly reduce the sodium by adding half the salt. Please let me know in the comments if you have made these, any questions? suggestions? how were they received?