Black Rice Pancakes With Blueberries & Coconut Milk
Black Rice Pancakes With Blueberries And Coconut Milk.
Vegan Pancakes For Breakfast Or Dessert, From The Bali Retreat Cooking Class.
Soak The Rice At Least 4 Hours, Then Cook Low And Slow.
Introduction to black rice pancakes
Black rice pancakes are soaked black rice blended with coconut milk and water into a thick batter, cooked slowly in a pan with blueberries on top, and served with fruit, cinnamon and coconut yoghurt. They’re vegan, and you soak the rice for at least 4 hours. There’s also a thinner version made with black rice flour and white rice flour, like the pancakes we eat at the Bali retreat.
Black rice pancakes were one of the recipes given to me in the free cooking class at a Flametree Bali yoga retreat. After enjoying them there, I set out to make my own, and added blueberries.
Black rice has a scrummy, slightly nutty taste, and I aim to eat it regularly. My black rice pudding is another favourite from the retreat.
If you have any comments or questions, please contact us. Or chat with me at a Flametree yoga or meditation class via these timetables.
Black rice pancakes, ready to eat
One of my black rice pancakes, rolled up and ready to eat.
Ingredients for black rice pancakes
Here are the ingredients for this Flametree Yoga Studio dish.
For the blueberry black rice pancakes
- 1 large cup of black rice
- Half a cup of coconut milk
- Half a cup of water
- Half a teaspoon of salt, or less, to taste
- A quarter of a teaspoon of baking powder
- Half a cup of fresh or frozen blueberries
- A little olive oil, for the pan
For the thinner retreat version
- Black rice flour and white rice flour, with the white rice flour making up about a third to a half of the mix
To serve
- Cinnamon, to sprinkle on the finished pancakes
- Coconut yoghurt
- Banana and other fresh fruit, such as strawberries, kiwi fruit or tropical fruit
- A little lemon or lime juice, if you like
You’ll usually find black rice at the major supermarkets, or at Asian shops. In Darwin, I nearly always find it at the Asian Food Emporium on Bagot Road. You can get white rice flour at Woolworths, or at Asian supermarkets.
The black rice pancake ingredients
The ingredients for the blueberry pancakes. In the red bowl is black rice flour we made by grinding black rice in the coffee grinder! Fresh or frozen blueberries both work.
Black rice flour from an Asian shop
The black rice flour I bought at an Asian shop. It’s the so-called glutinous, or sticky, black rice, and it works well for these pancakes.
How to make black rice pancakes
Use these steps to make the blueberry black rice pancakes. This version is a little thicker, so it takes longer to cook, and it starts with black rice itself rather than flour.
Step 1: Soak the rice
- Soak the black rice for a minimum of 4 hours.
Step 2: Make the batter
- Put the rice in a blender with water and coconut milk.
- Blend until the rice is crushed, but not 100% smooth like it would be if you were using flour.
- Pour it into a mixing bowl, and add the rest of the coconut milk, more water, the salt and the baking powder.
- Stir with a spoon until you get a thick paste. Again, not too smooth, so don’t overdo it.
Step 3: Cook the first side
- Heat a non-stick pan. Even a wok is fine.
- Add a small amount of olive oil, just so the pancake doesn’t stick.
- With a ladle, add a large dollop of batter to the warm pan. Leave it quite thick.
- Let it cook just a little, then add blueberries to the top of the pancake.
- Cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes before you turn it. It will bubble, and you can check when it’s cooked enough to flip with a spatula.
Step 4: Cook the second side
- Cook the other side for 6 to 8 minutes, depending on the heat. Be careful not to burn it.
Step 5: Serve
- Serve on a plate with fruit, like fresh banana slices, strawberry slices, or both.
- Sprinkle the whole lot with cinnamon.
- See if you like it with coconut yoghurt, and a little lemon or lime juice.
Blueberry black rice pancake
A thick blueberry black rice pancake, with the blueberries cooked into the top.
How to make the thinner black rice pancakes from the retreat
The thinner pancakes are more like the ones we eat regularly at Flametree Bali retreats. They’re also delicious, and you can fill them with whatever fresh fruit you like.
- Leave out the blueberries.
- Use black rice flour mixed with white rice flour. The white rice flour makes up about a third to a half of the mix. My favourite is 50:50.
- Mix it with a mixing spoon, not a blender.
- Make the batter pourable, so the pancakes end up thin, like the ones in the pictures below.
- Otherwise, follow most of the steps above.
The black rice pancakes I first tasted in Bali
Delicious black rice pancakes from the Flametree retreat in Bali. This is the thinner kind.
Black and white rice flour pancake, with filling
A pancake made with half black rice flour and half white rice flour, and no blueberries. Here’s the coconut yoghurt and fruit filling, before I rolled it up.
My black rice pancake dessert roll
A black rice pancake rolled up with fruit and coconut yoghurt inside, made with a 50:50 mix of black rice flour and white rice flour.
Thin black rice pancake with banana
My version of the black rice pancakes without blueberries. Also delicious.
With strawberries and banana
My final version, made with a mix of black and white rice flour. Totally moreish!
Are black rice pancakes vegan and gluten free?
They’re vegan. The pancakes are black rice, coconut milk, water, salt and baking powder, cooked in a little olive oil and served with fruit and coconut yoghurt.
Black rice and white rice flour contain no gluten. Black sticky rice is sometimes called glutinous rice, but here glutinous just means sticky. Some baking powders contain wheat, so check the label if you need them gluten free.
Where can you buy black rice flour?
The easiest option is an Asian supermarket. That’s where I bought the black rice flour in the picture above. But black rice flour is often hard to find in the West, and even in Bali.
If you can’t find it, buy black rice and make the flour yourself. In Darwin, I nearly always find black rice at the Asian Food Emporium on Bagot Road.
How do you make black rice flour?
Grind black rice in a coffee grinder, or in a blender with a grinding attachment. With a regular coffee grinder, it takes just a few minutes to make enough black rice flour for a stack of pancakes.
Black rice pancakes: quick questions answered
How long do black rice pancakes take?
Soak the rice for at least 4 hours. On a low heat, a thick blueberry pancake then takes about 10 minutes on the first side and 6 to 8 minutes on the second.
How do I know when to flip the pancake?
It will bubble. Check that it’s cooked enough to lift with a spatula, then flip it.
Can I use frozen blueberries?
Yes. Fresh or frozen blueberries both work.
Why add white rice flour?
White rice flour gives a different taste, and makes the pancake a little easier to handle. The Bali retreat version uses it.
Where did this black rice pancakes recipe come from?
Black rice pancakes were one of the recipes given to me in the free cooking class at a Flametree Bali yoga retreat. The blueberry version is my own.
More Flametree black rice recipes
Love black rice? Try my Indonesian black rice pudding, my black rice noodles with tofu stir fry, or my black sesame bliss balls with black rice.
Do you have a vegan recipe or dish you’d like to share?
Please contact me with any dishes you’d like to share with me.
Obviously, I’m especially interested in any dish that is already a great Darwin vegan option.
Alternatively, it may be a potential vegan Darwin recipe that I could adapt, or be inspired by, as I did here.
Experience eating alternatives at a Flametree Yoga Retreat
By the way, there are several upcoming Flametree yoga retreats in Bali in 2027.
Contact us for details of our Darwin yoga retreat packages, or our yoga class packages in the orange lines below.
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Meanwhile, start or re-start yoga or meditation with one of the HALF price deals below, or check out the retreat deals.
Learning to eat mindfully, as a result of yoga and pranayama meditation, is a great way to start more of a vegetarian or vegan journey, or simply mindfully eat whatever you choose.
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Recipe by Chris Lalor, Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin NT. General information only.
Thanks Chris! Will try. I usually make pancakes for the kids by grinding up unstablised oats. We sometimes blend a banana and an egg to the mix. I wonder if mixing a banana into a black rice based pancake would be an option too. Cheers Lisa
Hi Lisa. Thanks for your comments. We find banana cooked into things like this, is usually good. Would be worth experimenting with the size of the chunks of banana. Let’s know how you go. Stuart