Today presents a wonderful opportunity to use vegan waffle recipes. Yes, this is the day when many churches and households host their pre-Lent pancake feasts. Unfortunately, most of them aren’t vegan.  According to at least one historical account of Shrove Tuesday pancake feasts, this tradition began as a way of using up the perishable milk, butter and eggs that were forbidden during Lent.

From a vegan or total vegetarian perspective, having pancakes on Shrove or Fat Tuesday may seem paradoxical because, well, we have no milk, butter or eggs that will go bad. Of course, since the tradition already exists, it presents a good opportunity to improve the lives of our fellow creatures while many others are merely “shriving” or repenting for sins.

Most vegan waffle recipes can be converted to pancakes quite easily. Pancakes usually need less oil, so that can be reduced to 1 or 2 tablespoons. If the first pancake comes out too thick when using your favorite waffle batter, just add a little more soymilk or water to the mix. Outside of that, you should be pretty much set to go. (Because the waffle iron is less forgiving than the skillet, converting a pancake recipe to a waffle recipe is a bit trickier.)

If you’re feeling lucky or spend so much time in the kitchen that you can judge measurements with your eyes, you can follow Moby’s vegan pancakes method.

My personal favorite for cooking vegan pancakes is a well-seasoned iron skillet on a gas range; and I usually use vegan margarine rather than canola oil because I like the extra bit of saltiness.

When your pancakes are vegan, you can tell people you celebrate “Fat but Cholesterol Free Tuesday,” and grin as they roll their eyeballs. (If you’re vegan or vegetarian, it will make up for all those Fridays this time of year when you’re asked, “So fish is also considered meat?”)

In vegan waffle recipes, using soymilk, nut-based milk or water in lieu of milk is no big deal, and replacing the egg is often simply a matter of making sure there’s adequate binding (holding together) and leavening (fluffiness). Baking powder and baking soda (and sometimes egg replacer powder, which has many of the same characteristics) generally do the trick for leavening, and flours with a high-gluten content such as wheat often have plenty of binding on their own. You do still need to generously oil your iron, though; and it still helps to include some oil in the batter.

However, when we get into gluten-free waffle making, and start substituting flours like rice flours/tapioca flour mixtures or pre-mixed gluten free blends, there may not be enough binding. This is where xanthan gum can be a life saver. A chain of sugars produced by bacteria found on certain plants, it has thickening and binding properties, and is sold as a powder. While an 8 oz. bag runs over $10, it lasts for a very long time because it is used in very small quantities.

For a mix making roughly 4 waffles, I find that 1 teaspoon or less of xanthan gum generally does the trick, unless the waffle also includes a lot of non-flour add-ins that impede binding. Do be aware that greater quantities of xanthan gum will also make your waffles a little crustier and denser, and not quite as light and fluffy, so it may take a little experimenting to find your perfect balance.

It’s a very warm summer day here in the ‘Burgh, as I know it is in many other parts of the world. To be honest, I’m slightly less enthusiastic about hot foods in July and August than I am other times of the year. Hence, my fewer postings during the summer months. Lately, cereal with some nice cold soymilk and some fresh fruit have been a common breakfast food. However, another Pittsburgh Vegan Meetup member recently requested ideas for cold breakfast foods, triggering a few neurons.

While waffles themselves aren’t generally good when they’re cold, they can go very well with cold toppings. Here are a few easy suggestions for making your vegan waffles a cool and refreshing dairy-free summer treat.

• When making waffles in the summer, make them in larger batches and freeze them. Next time you’re craving a waffle, you don’t have to spend much time in the kitchen near the hot iron. Just pop them into the toaster. If your iron makes round waffles, just don’t forget to break them into quarters before freezing so they fit into the toaster.
• If you’re craving a waffle with fruit, don’t bake the fruit into the waffle or cook it into the syrup. Keep it cool and fresh. Make a big bowl of fruit salad, and chill it to make a delicious waffle topping. This is particularly great to do this time of year, when fresh fruit is in abundance in many more locations–and local usually means fresher and tastier. The fresh blueberries from our local CSA farm share have been excellent this year!
• Use soy ice cream or sorbet, if you want it to be a little healthier, cold soy yogurt on top of the waffles. What I really enjoy is a “waffle ice cream sandwich”–two waffle quarters with some vegan ice cream in between. This is particularly good with some of the dessert waffles on this site.
• If you like chilled avocado, guacamole, or hummus, those can also add a cool twist to a waffle.
• The other day I even had the crazy idea of making waffle-shaped ice cubes or frozen orange juice-sicles! Yeah, I know I think about waffles a bit too much sometimes. However, none of our waffle makers have removable grids, and we don’t have one of those old-fashioned waffle makers that you use over a gas flame or campfire. The latter probably wouldn’t fit into our freezer with the long handle anyway. Oh, well… If you’re feeling adventurous and give this a try, let me know!

You can get by with a $20 waffle maker if you’re not making waffles in high volumes and don’t mind a slightly longer cook time. That’s what we used for our first several waffle parties. However, if you’re serious about making waffles, you’ll probably want to consider something slightly higher-end.

Our favorite waffle iron so far is the Waring Pro WMK300. We now have two of these! Although its $60-$80 price range is significantly above the $15-$20 starting point for waffle iron prices, it’s about the best you can get before jumping into the $200-and-up “industrial” models. It has a temperature adjustment, a removable tray to catch overflow, a higher power rating than most other models (1200 watts–this equates to a faster cooking time) and a grill that rotates 180 degrees after you close it to help spread the batter evenly and make the waffle somewhat fluffier. We got by for years with much more basic waffle irons, but recently decided to purchase one of these because we make so many waffles–however, this one is now our favorite by far. To get waffles with a crispier outside, we often leave them in for half a minute to a minute past the time the built-in timer goes off.

Although we haven’t had the opportunity to try one, Krups manufactures a similar model (FDD912) in the same price range. 

Note that if you get a waffle maker with a larger grid, you definitely want the higher wattage, as the same energy must be spread across a much larger area.

It is now relatively common knowledge that whole grain flour is much healthier than white flour. However, whole wheat flour produces a somewhat denser and less “fluffy” waffle. You can achieve a “compromise” by using half whole grain buckwheat (not a type of wheat!) or wheat flour and half unbleached white flour–or you may prefer the taste of whole wheat white flour, available at some stores. There are also flours made from other grains, including spelt, rye, amaranth, and oats, that make great waffles. These have different nutritional profiles than wheat, and for some individuals, are easier to digest. In the Pittsburgh area, for example, you can buy pre-made waffle mix with spelt at locations including the East End Food Co-op.

A few tips, in case you don’t get that perfect waffle on the first try:

If your waffle comes out too tough or “rubbery” (THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST COMMON ERROR) , you may have mixed the batter too well–you want it to still be fairly “lumpy” before you pour it into the waffle iron.

If your waffle sticks to the iron, you have several options. If possible, let it cook a little longer before opening the iron. In general, vegan waffles seem to need a little longer to cook than non-vegan waffles. Try adding more oil to the grids–or add at least some oil if you didn’t before, even with a nonstick coating. If you’re going for a particularly light and fluffy waffle, or one that’s very moist on the inside, there’s a greater tendency it will pull apart when you open the iron–you may want to add some Ener-G egg replacer to provide a little additional “binding.” If these all fail, and you have consistent sticking problems, you may need a higher-power waffle iron. If your waffle iron is very old, it’s possible that the coating has pits and scratches in it, especially if you’ve used abrasive or metal items on the grills. To preserve the waffle grid’s surface, use wooden utensils like chopsticks to clean out “stuck” waffle pieces–don’t use metal forks or butter knives.

If your waffle isn’t quite as crispy on the outside as you’d like it to be, try adding some sweetner such as sugar if the recipe doesn’t already call for it, or turn up your iron’s heat (if it has such an adjustment).

If the waffle comes out too soft in the middle, you may just need to set the iron’s heat on a lower setting (again, if it has such an adjustment) and cook it a little longer, or add less of the “mushy” substance–yogurt, banana, applesauce, etc.

If your waffle comes out too dry, experiment with adding a little more of any of the liquid or liquid-containing ingredients: soymilk, applesauce, banana, and/or oil, depending upon what type of flavor you want.

Perhaps you already have a recipe you enjoy that you’d like to convert into a great vegan dish or vegan waffle topping recipe, if you could simply find a substitute for the non-vegan ingredients. Here are a few easy substitutions with ingredients that aren’t too difficult to find, especially if you have a local food co-op, Whole Foods or health food store.

MILK: soymilk or ricemilk (or even almond milk, if you prefer). Note that soymilk comes in a variety of flavors if you wish to be creative, but unsweetened, unflavored soymilk will come the closest. We usually use the latter because that’s what we generally keep on hand for other purposes.

BUTTER: Canola or safflower oil, a butter substitute based upon these vegetable oils (e.g., Earth Balance), or even applesauce will work. Applesauce makes the waffle close to being fat-free, but we still prefer using some oil to add a little extra “richness” and prevent sticking, even when using applesauce.

SOUR CREAM OR CREAM CHEESE: A company named Tofutti makes dairy-free, soy-based versions of both of these; just be sure to get the NON-hydrogenated version (yellow/white, not blue/white) container of the cream cheese if possible, as trans-fats aren’t very healthy.

BEEF & CHICKEN: We’ve made excellent vegan versions of chile, cheese/beef, and sloppy joe with SmartGround and Gimme Lean, beef substitutes that you simply open up, crumble into a pan with some olive oil, saute for a few minutes (with onion and spices if necessary), and then mix in with your favorite dish. The oil helps satisfy the craving for the fat, which is much of what many people miss about the flavor of meat–in this case, however, you can control how much oil/fat you want to have, and avoid the cholesterol and most of the saturated fat altogether. You can also buy veggie burgers, cook them, and crumble them up. While not quite as meat-like, you can also use seitan, based upon wheat gluten, as a chicken or beef substitute; or you can buy meatless chicken tenders and cut them into small pieces to use in a topping–e.g., if you want to make vegan chicken and waffles. There are many other meat substitutes on the market, including tempeh, spiced soy sausages, and stir-fry strips.

EGG: For many recipes, the baking powder and baking soda take care of the leavening on their own, and ingredients such as banana and gluten in grains take care of the binding.  However, I often add a little egg replacer for a little additional fluffiness and binding, as vegan waffles do sometimes have an additional tendency to stick, especially if your waffle iron is relatively low-power (below 1,100 watts) or spreads its power across a very large surface. The recipes we include or reference here already factor in an egg replacer, with the amount already defined, so you don’t have to worry about “experimenting.” Beyond this, consult Jo Stepaniak’s “Grassroots Veganism” site for a number of recommended egg equivalents. In addition to her recommendations, we’ve had good success with Ener-G egg replacer (available in Pittsburgh at the East End Food Coop–even though one box is just under $5.00, it’s the equivalent of several dozen eggs) and pumpkin. Jo also mentions finely ground flaxseed mixed with water–note that if you invest in a standard $15 coffee grinder, you can then grind a small amount every few days to put on your breakfast cereal to provide a regular (and cholesterol-free!) source of omega-3 fatty acids. The Post Punk Kitchen offers similar ideas on egg equivalents. My wife recently developed an excellent vegan peanut butter cookie recipe using the flaxseed and water substitution, and I plan to post the results of my experiments with flaxseeds in waffles here in the future.