I’m not a vegetarian anymore – but I still love these easy vegan banana pancakes

My vegan pancakes taste better than anything your grandma has ever made in her life – I guarantee it.

I’m not vegan, but I used to be a vegetarian. It had nothing to do with health, ethics, or the need to promote clean living. I was dating a girl in Los Angeles, California who is vegan, and she sort of talked me into it by saying things like, “Are you going to live the rest of your life as a meat eater?” and “Look, what I just got from the farmers market; these are the prettiest blueberries you will ever have!” and “wearing leather shoes is just plain evil. Will you continue to live your life like this?”

I didn’t have a hard time giving up chicken, or at least not as hard as I thought it would. I’ve never really had a relationship with steak. After all, that’s what happened during my “excuse me waiter, can you tell the chef to make my steak extra-extra-extra-extra well done because I’d really like to bite into a piece of leather?” during my question days.

It was impossible to do without eggs. And I would never go without leather sneakers – let’s not be crazy. But to avoid their constant criticism, I began to identify as a vegetarian.

And like a good guy, I wasn’t just a vegetarian in Los Angeles; I brought my vegetarian lifestyle back to Baltimore. My favorite dishes were citrus tofu ribs, portobello burgers with fries, lush kale salads, and when in doubt, a rotating selection of almond milk smoothies. Aside from the smoothies, about 90% of my dishes came from some soul-food inspired veggie spots popping up all over town.

The coolest part was that being a vegetarian allowed me to be just as biased as the woman I dated. “Ugh, do you want to eat beef?” I asked my friend Al. “That’s gross!” He told me to play in traffic before I bite into his burger.

On one of those trips to Los Angeles, my biased counterpart and I went to a vegan restaurant that served everything you could find in a greasy diner in Baltimore, only made in its delicious vegan version. Like a chicken cheese fake or a beetroot, stuffed with thinly sliced ​​chunks of tofu colored deep red with beetroot juice. Man, these people sure were creative.

When they arrived for Sunday brunch, banana pancakes were on the menu. I had about three orders with a side of veggie sausage. Needless to say, it was one of the most delicious meals I have ever eaten. So good that I studied the menu to prepare it myself.

The long-distance relationship between me and the vegan never really worked for me and I don’t think we would have had a future even if we lived in the same city. But after we stopped talking, I continued to be a vegetarian for about a year — and I still eat a version of those pancakes to this day. Here is the recipe for one or two people. However, if you plan to cook for a large crowd, consider bringing more with you.