The Best Ragi Pancakes with Bananas (Gluten-Free)

Ragi pancakes are made with finger millet flour instead of wheat, bound with mashed banana and ground chia rather than eggs. They come out dark, soft and nutty, closer to a hearty buckwheat pancake than a fluffy American one, and the whole lot takes about 15 minutes. Serve with maple syrup and whatever toppings you like.

The children’s favourite food is pancakes. When a stack of pancakes coated with maple syrup is placed in front of them, their cheeks light up. As parents, we attempt to make pancakes as nutritious as possible by adding chopped fruits or using wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour.

Children want something sweet and flavourful, and we want them to eat well. So we often turn to bananas, jaggery, or other whole-food sweeteners to get the right combination of sweetness and nutrients. This pancake dish is one kids actually finish.

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This gluten-free, plant-based, nut-free and soy-free recipe is built on ragi flour, a high-fibre millet you will find in Indian grocery shops and most health food aisles.

What Are Ragi Pancakes?

Ragi Banana Pancakes are made with ragi flour (also known as finger millet flour), mashed ripe bananas, and a few other basic ingredients. They are quick to prepare and ready to eat in under 15 minutes.

Ragi is finger millet, sometimes sold as red millet, and it is a whole grain rather than a refined flour. It is worth being straight about what that does and does not mean. Ragi is genuinely high in calcium for a cereal, with roughly 340 mg per 100 g of flour, several times what wheat flour gives you. Its iron content is more ordinary, around 3 to 4 mg per 100 g, which is comparable to other whole grains rather than exceptional, and plant iron is absorbed less readily than iron from animal foods. So: a good whole grain with a real calcium advantage, not a cure for anything.

How is ragi flour different from wheat flour?

This is the part that trips people up. Ragi has no gluten at all, so there is nothing in the batter forming a stretchy network. That changes three things.

The batter will not hold air the way a wheat batter does, so these pancakes set rather than puff. Expect a soft, close-textured pancake about a centimetre thick, not a tall fluffy stack.

Ragi drinks liquid. The flour keeps absorbing for several minutes after mixing, so a batter that looked right when you stirred it can be stiff by the third pancake. Loosen it with a splash more milk as you go.

And it is already dark reddish brown, so you cannot judge doneness by colour the way you can with wheat. Go by the surface instead. Wait until bubbles come up and stay open, and the edges look dry and matte, before you flip.

Tips for cooking ragi pancakes

• Sift the ragi flour, or at least whisk it well before adding liquid. It clumps more than wheat flour and the lumps do not break up once wet.
• Give the ground chia or flax ten minutes with a little water to gel before it goes in. That gel is doing the job the egg would do, and it needs the time to thicken.
• Cook on medium, not medium-high. Because ragi holds so much moisture, a very hot pan sets the outside before the middle is done, and you get a gummy centre.
• Sacrifice the first pancake. It tells you whether the pan is too hot, whether the batter is too thick, and whether you need more oil.
• Do not press the pancake down with the spatula after flipping. There is no gluten to spring back, so you are only squashing out what little air there is.
• Let the cooked pancakes sit on a rack rather than stacked on a plate. Steam trapped between them softens the surface.

Is it possible to feed Ragi Pancakes to infants every day?

Ragi porridge is a traditional early food in parts of India, and plain cooked ragi is easy for small children to eat. This particular recipe is not really baby food, though. It has added maple syrup and a fair amount of baking powder, and added sweeteners are usually left out for children under two.

If you are introducing ragi to a baby, plain ragi porridge is the version to use, and it is worth raising with your child health nurse or GP first. Either way, variety matters more than any single grain, so rotate ragi through the week alongside other foods rather than serving it daily.

For older kids, ragi-based dishes 2 to 3 times a week works well: porridge, dosa, idli, pancakes and so on.

Share the image below to your Pinterest board if you like these Ragi Pancakes.

List of Ingredients

• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground chia seeds (or substitute with ground flax)
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp oil of choice
• 1 tbsp aluminium-free baking powder
• 1 cup (about 120 g) Red Millet (Ragi) flour
• 1 cup (250 ml) non-dairy milk
• 1 mashed banana

Directions

1. Preheat a skillet or griddle by setting the burner to medium-high heat.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, ground chia or flax, baking powder, and salt.
3. Combine the mashed banana, maple syrup, oil, vanilla extract, vinegar, spices, and vegan milk in a large mixing bowl. Using a spatula, combine the ingredients. This recipe makes 2 cups (500 ml) of batter.
4. Ladle the batter onto your heated griddle or pan in the correct quantity (I use a 1/3 cup, or 80 ml, measure). At medium heat, I fry them for two minutes per side.
5. Serve straight away.

Suggestions

We enjoy the texture of 1/3 cup (80 ml) whole-fat coconut milk (the sort that comes in a can) and 2/3 cup (160 ml) non-dairy milk beverage, and there is no coconut flavour to speak of.

The oil in this method can be replaced with more fruit puree or left out entirely. In this scenario, I advise using at least 1/3 cup (80 ml), but not more than 1/2 cup (125 ml), of whole-fat coconut milk.

A high ratio of coconut milk to non-dairy beverage, in my opinion, messes with the consistency.

Frequently asked questions

What do ragi pancakes taste like?

Earthy and nutty, with a mild malty note underneath, and nothing like a plain wheat pancake. The banana softens the earthiness considerably and the cinnamon and nutmeg round it out. If it is your first time with finger millet, the flavour reads as closer to buckwheat or dark rye than to anything made with white flour.

Is ragi flour gluten free?

Yes, finger millet contains no gluten. The one thing to watch is the packet rather than the grain, since millet flours are often milled in facilities that also handle wheat. If you are cooking for coeliac disease, buy a flour that is certified gluten free rather than assuming, and check the rest of your ingredients too.

Why are my ragi pancakes dense or gummy?

Almost always heat or thickness. A pan that is too hot seals the outside before the middle cooks, so drop the temperature and give them longer. Batter that is too thick has the same effect, so thin it with milk until it ladles off the spoon in a slow ribbon. Flipping too early is the third culprit, so wait for the bubbles.

Can you make the batter ahead?

Not really. Ragi keeps absorbing liquid and the baking powder starts reacting the moment it meets the wet ingredients, so batter left overnight goes stiff and flat. Mix the dry ingredients the night before if you want a head start, then add the wet ones in the morning. Cooked pancakes keep three days in the fridge or three months in the freezer, reheated in a toaster.

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