I thought I was going to bring you a savory recipe today, but pancakes were on my mind. So what’s a girl to do but bring ya the goods.
Side note: I watched, not one, but two movies this weekend. Chemical Hearts and Fathers and Daughters, both on Prime. They were pretty heavy, but I enjoyed them and it was the perfect was to decompress and relax.
Speaking of relaxing, what’s better than making a big plate of pancakes, enjoying a cup of coffee and easing into your morning? These zucchini bread pancakes are fluffy and flavorful, they just so happen to be Abra’s favorite pancake. And that’s saying a lot.
Ingredient in healthy zucchini pancakes
These deliciously fluffy zucchini bread pancakes are made with super simple ingredients that keep them dairy free, naturally sweetened and full of cozy spices for the perfect breakfast. You’ll need:
- Whole wheat pastry flour: I love making pancakes and baked goods with whole wheat pastry flour because it’s filled with whole grains and keeps them super fluffy. You can also use white whole wheat flour or all purpose flour if you prefer.
- Cinnamon & nutmeg: a little cinnamon and nutmeg gives these pancakes that cozy zucchini bread flavor.
- Baking soda & salt: these will help with the fluff factor and flavor.
- Zucchini: shredded zucchini gives these pancakes plenty of moisture without using a ton of oil or butter. Plus, you can feel good about a veggie for breakfast!
- Egg: you’ll just need 1 egg in this healthy zucchini pancake recipe. I haven’t tested it with a flax egg but let me know if you do.
- Maple syrup: we’re naturally sweetening these pancakes with a little pure maple syrup in the batter (and on top, if you’d like!) You can also use honey.
- Coconut oil: you’ll need 1 tablespoon of coconut oil to make sure these are perfectly moist. You can also use butter or vegan butter.
- Vanilla: for a little additional flavor.
- Milk: I like to use unsweetened vanilla almond milk to keep these pancakes dairy free but feel free to use any milk you’d like.
- Optional: add your favorite mix-ins like chopped pecans or maybe some chocolate chips!
How to make zucchini bread pancakes
These whole wheat zucchini bread pancakes are incredibly easy to make and come together in under 30 minutes.
- In a large bowl, whisk together whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
- In a separate large bowl, combine shredded zucchini, egg, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla and almond milk until smooth and well combined. Fold in pecans if using.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. If the batter looks too thick add just a splash more milk. If it’s way too wet, add another tablespoon of flour.
- Lightly coat a large nonstick skillet or griddle with coconut oil or butter and place over medium heat. Drop batter by 1/3 cup onto skillet and spread out a bit with a spoon if necessary. Cook until bubbles appear on top, about 2 minutes.
- Flip cakes and cook until golden brown on underside, 2 minutes. Wipe skillet clean and repeat with more coconut oil (or butter) and remaining batter. You may need to reduce the heat after the second batch to prevent burning.
Looking for more tips for cooking the best fluffy pancakes? Check out my full guide here!
What makes these zucchini pancakes healthy?
This stack of zucchini bread pancakes is a healthier version of your traditional IHOP pancakes (and even fluffier, promise).
- They’re made with whole grains thanks to whole wheat pastry flour. I also think regular flour or oat flour might work well.
- They’re packed with fiber thanks to zucchini. And who doesn’t like getting a boost of veggies in the AM?
- They’re dairy free using a bit of coconut oil and dairy free milk
Now what you top them with is up to you. I always go with peanut butter (or my homemade pecan butter would be amazing) and a drizzle of pure maple syrup. Keepin’ it classic.
Tips for making zucchini pancakes
- Be sure to squeeze out all of the excess moisture from your zucchini after shredding it. Measure the shredded zucchini before you squeeze out the moisture.
- Once you’ve melted your coconut oil make sure it’s cool to the touch (not hot) otherwise it will coagulate the egg.
- Do not overmix your batter! This will result in a gummy pancake texture.
- Cook your pancakes over medium heat so that they cook evenly. If you flip your pancakes and they appear to be cooking too fast, feel free to reduce the temp to medium-low so that they don’t burn.
How to keep pancakes warm
You can also make these whole wheat zucchini bread pancakes ahead of time and keep them warm in the oven. Simply place oven at 200 degrees F, then add pancakes to a baking sheet or oven-safe plate and place in the oven until ready to serve.
How to freeze pancakes
If you want to make your healthy zucchini pancakes ahead of time and serve them at a later date, you can place the pancakes on a baking sheet so they aren’t touching and place in the freezer for 30 minutes, then place them in freezer safe containers and freeze for up to 3 months. Once ready to reheat, simply add pancakes to a plate and microwave for 30-60 seconds or until warm.
More zucchini recipes to try:
Heart Healthy Olive Oil Salted Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
Coconut Chocolate Zucchini Smoothie (with sneaky veggies)
Peanut Butter Zucchini Bread Baked Oatmeal
Healthy Marbled Chocolate Zucchini Banana Bread
I hope you get a chance to make these fluffy, healthy zucchini bread pancakes soon! If you make them be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked them. You can also share a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #ambitiouskitchen. Enjoy, xo!
Fluffy Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread Pancakes

Fluffy whole wheat zucchini bread pancakes with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. These healthy zucchini pancakes are dairy free, naturally sweetened with pure maple syrup and taste just like a slice of your favorite classic zucchini bread. Add chocolate chips or pecans if you'd like!
Ingredients
- For the dry ingredients:
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour*
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoons cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- For the wet ingredients:
- 1 heaping cup shredded zucchini, squeezed of excess moisture with a paper towel (from 1 medium zucchini)
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (or honey)
- 1 tablespoon melted and cooled coconut oil (or sub melted butter)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or milk of choice)
- Optional: ¼ cup chopped pecans
Instructions
-
In a large bowl, whisk together whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
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In a separate large bowl, combine shredded zucchini, egg, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla and almond milk until smooth and well combined. Fold in pecans if using.
-
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. If the batter looks too thick add just a splash more milk. If it’s way to wet, add another tablespoon of flour.
-
Lightly coat a large nonstick skillet or griddle with coconut oil or butter and place over medium heat. Drop batter by 1/3 cup onto skillet and spread out a bit with a spoon if necessary. Cook until bubbles appear on top, about 2 minutes.
-
Flip cakes and cook until golden brown on underside, 2 minutes. Wipe skillet clean and repeat with more coconut oil (or butter) and remaining batter. You may need to reduce the heat after the second batch to prevent burning. Serves 4, 2 pancakes each.
Recipe Notes
How to freeze pancakes: if you want to make these pancakes ahead of time and serve them at a later date, you can place the pancakes on a baking sheet so they aren’t touching and place in the freezer for 30 minutes, then place them in freezer safe containers and freeze for up to 3 months. Once ready to reheat, simply add pancakes to a plate and microwave for 30-60 seconds or until warm.
*If you want to make these gluten free, I suggest using oat flour or an all purpose GF flour for these pancakes. I have not tested a gf version so cannot be sure that they'll work correctly.
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
56 comments
Is there a gluten free option? Would you suggest an all purpose blend? Thank you!
Hi Paige! Sara (below) suggested a cup 4 cup whole grain blend by Thomas Keller found a target 🙂
@ Paige k. Try the cup 4 cup whole grain blend (green bag) by Thomas Keller. It’s the best GF substitute blend for whole wheat I have found. I buy mine at super target or target.com. (I have no affiliation to either brands :))
Hi, wanna try this! Is it possible to use spelt flour instead of whole wheat? and olive oil instead of coconut oil? ~~
Hi Claudia! Yes to both 🙂 enjoy!
Already said this on Insta, but the plan for this weekend is making these + your peach crisp. Gonna be awesome! I was wondering, for these, do you think spelt flour would work? Oh and I’m already envisioning topping them with a nice almond butter drizzle. MMMMM
Amazing! I want your weekend plans. I think spelt flour should work! And definitely get that almond butter drizzle going…
I’m eating these pancakes for breakfast as I type! They’re absolutely wonderful and very filling with the whole wheat flour. One thing to note is that I almost had to double the liquid (added some extra water instead more almond milk). I also used just an egg white instead of the whole egg. Trying to save on calories where ever possible…tomorrow my husband and I are heading to Grand Cayman and I want to start the trip on a good foot!
Hi Halina, I just made these again this morning as written and they worked perfectly. Since you didn’t use the full egg, that means the recipe will have lost some of it’s liquid.
I have EVERYTHING I need for these pancakes. Breakfast for dinner (aka BRINNER) is likely happening tonight! 😀 YUM! Love zucchini season!
THE BEST! We made these this morning and they were amazing 🙂
SO GOOD! My garden is overflowing with zucchini so when my husband saw these he was skeptical to what other way are you going to feed me zucchini. We both loved them though! Fluffy, flavorful, perfect with a little maple syrup.
So great to hear! Great way to mix up those zucchini recipes 🙂
Hi, these look and sound amazing. I have brown rice flour on hand so thought I’d try that. Will you know how it turns out. Jenn
Hi Jenn! Hope they turned out for you 🙂
This has to be one of the most delectable-looking recipes of your blog! Anything with zucchini is so appealing to me. I would love to try veganizing this recipe!
I love these pancakes! I followed the recipe pretty closely, although I changed he flour (used whole wheat flour), and I was so happy with the results! I will be adding these to my breakfast rotation.
I’m so glad you loved these! They’re on my rotation, too 🙂
Hello! Have you made the batter ahead of time to make the pancakes later? I’m wondering if it would save okay for a day or two.
Hi Amanda! I haven’t tried it, but I bet it would stay for about a day 🙂
If you do, they probably won’t be fluffy because the chemical reaction would wear off.
I would mix dry ingredients and then wet ingredients and keep them separate until the last direction.
Sorry, last minute, not last direction haha.
Yum!! I just made these gluten free by subbing 1/2 c gf flour and 1/2 c almond flour. SO good! Thanks for the recipe!
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed these!
These were perfection. Included them in my weekly faves and basically raved about them to anyone who would listen. I didn’t have whole wheat pastry flour, so I subbed in 1/2 cup spelt flour and 1/2 cup oat flour, and it was awesome. Oh and I served them with Trader Joe’s mixed nut butter YUMMMMM!
So great to hear! And glad that new ratio worked out for you. Delish topped with nut butter!
These were so good! I had to do some swaps because I didn’t have all the ingredients at hand and because I live in Brazil. I also veganized them:
– 1/2 cup whole wheat flour + 1/2 cup all purpose flour instead of 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
– 1 tbsp chia + 3 tbsp water instead of 1 egg
– cashew milk instead of unsweetened vanilla almond
– olive oil instead of coconut
– molasses instead of honey
I made half of the batter on the first day and the rest on the next day and they turned out the same! Super delicious! Thank you for so many amazing zucchini recipes, Monique! Will try out the Paleo Zucchini Banana Bread Bars this week 😀
Amazing! So glad you found swaps that worked out for you 🙂
Ummm…Zucchini in pancakes? YES. Such an amazing idea!! I need to get on these ASAP. I think these would be amazing with a nice glob of almond butter, and I don’t think I’ll be able to resist some chocolate chips as well. Thanks for the inspiration!
– MAK
SO GOOD! And absolutely yes to the almond butter!
I saw zucchini and knew that I had to try the recipe. Wait, pancakes? Huh. YES PANCAKES! The recipe says “They’re slightly sweet with a hint of cinnamon” – that is exactly what they are 🙂 I am more of a “cinnamon in your face” type of girl, so I will probably up the cinnamon next time. There will most definitely be a next time. I also replaced the egg with ground flaxseed/water and they were still pretty darn fluffy! Great way to get more veggies into breakfast for the fam 🙂
Right?! The sneaky zucchini is amazing in here 🙂 Glad those swaps worked out for you!
Delicious!
One of my favs!
Do you think it would be possible for these be baked in a small baking pan for sheet pan-ish pancakes?! (Super lazy sounding, I know!)
Hmmm I don’t think they’d have the same result from the oven! They’re super quick to flip though – promise 🙂
These are super YUM! They smell so good when they are frying too. I did a few swaps: I used spelt flour, honey, and olive oil in the recipe. I did not squeeze out the zucchini, and I added 2 T. ground flax. I made them the night before (to speed up breakfast on a school morning 🙂 ). They turned out so good! Definitely keeping this in my recipe collection. Making these until my zucchini supply runs out for this year!
Glad those swaps worked out! Perfect school morning breakfast 🙂
I used half King Arthur gluten-free flour and half Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flour (just what I had) and it turned out fine. I used oat milk and probably used a bit more than half a cup as it was pretty thick.
Very tasty! A bit hard to get the center fully cooked probably due to the zucchini. I did squeeze it out a lot, however.
These pancakes are fluffy and beautiful.
Can I sub 2 Tablespoons of sugar if I don’t have any maple syrup or honey?
Absolutely!
I made these pancakes this morning using gluten-free flour. My daughter, 22, loves zucchini so I thought she would love these (and she’s the one is gluten-free). Without even trying them she said oh I don’t want those I’ll taste the little strings of zucchini. Geez… I told her to just try one as you can’t tell there’s zucchini in them unless you looked at them. Unfortunately, she did not try one so she will never know how good they are! I got to eat them all! Yummy! 😋
You’ll have to sneak her a bite next time! Glad you got to enjoy them 🙂
Whenever I need a yummy pancake recipe I always head over to Monique’s page. I have tried all of the blender pancake recipes and they are delicious. I decided to venture out and try these zucchini pancakes and WOW. They are delicious. Everyone in my family wanted more- next time I will have to double the recipe. I added chocolate chips and almond butter!
Amazing! I’m so glad!
These are great! I didn’t sop out the excess zucchini moisture so I didn’t add milk. I also adapted them to your blender banana oat pancakes and subbed oats for flour and threw everything together in the blender. Texture and flavour are super delicious! Thanks for this recipe, I wrote it down for future use!
I’m glad that worked out well! Such a great breakfast 🙂
Oh! A pancake recipes with zucchini sounds new to me, gotta try this! Thank you for the nice recipe.
They’re amazing! Enjoy 🙂
WOW. The fluff factor of these pancakes is insane!! I subbed applesauce for the oil and used a flax egg to make them vegan and they still browned and rose perfectly. I haven’t made pancakes this good in years, and it was a great way to use up the leftover zucchini in my fridge. Definitely will be making these again!
Isn’t it amazing?? I’m glad those swaps worked out well!
These are delicious! I used Cup4Cup wholesome flour.
Perfect! I’m glad that worked out well.
Great recipe! Just made it and family loved it!
So happy to hear that!