Crispy on the outside but soft and fluffy on the inside, these vegan almond flour waffles are grain free, paleo, and the perfect weekend breakfast! They store well in both the fridge and freezer which makes them perfect for meal prep.
Are you team waffles or pancakes? If you’re reading this, I’m going to take a wild guess and assume you’re team waffle. But then again, I’m writing this and I’m usually team pancake so I probably shouldn’t assume!
Despite my love for a tall stack of fluffy pancakes, I have to say, these almond flour waffles are one of my favorite recipes to date. They’re easy to make, vegan, paleo, crispy but fluffy, refined sugar free, made with no eggs and grain free.
They have such a great flavor and smell delicious as they’re cooking, and have the perfect little pockets for puddles of maple syrup.
As you might guess, this recipe does call for almond flour, but if you have a nut allergy, you can try this belgian waffle recipe instead.
Key ingredients
There aren’t many vegan AND grain free waffle recipes out there. Most contain eggs (which is used as a binding agent), so I subbed for a flax egg plus apple sauce and almond butter to really seal the deal.
Vegan and gluten free is a much easier task, but vegan and grain free, not so much. I don’t recommend making any substitutions to the recipe to ensure the best result.
Almond Flour: This will make up the base of the recipe. Be sure to use almond flour and not almond meal. These are two different ingredients and will drastically change the final recipe. And yes, the almond flour will help these waffles get nice and crispy!
Tapioca Starch/Flour: Unless you want your waffles to crumble all over the place, don’t skip this ingredient! This is a key binding agent and works well to hold the ingredients together.
Almond Milk: Any non dairy milk will work for this recipe, but unsweetened vanilla almond milk has always been a personal favorite.
Apple Sauce: To help bind everything together. I do not recommend subbing for oil because the apple sauce is necessary to make these fluffy, and we get plenty of fat from the almond flour/butter.
Almond Butter: To give the waffles some fluff and texture. Any nut butter should work just fine, but I suggest one with a more neutral flavor.
Maple Syrup: For sweetness! Coconut sugar, brown sugar or honey will also work. To make these a bit more keto friendly, you can sub your favorite sugar free maple syrup alternative.
Flax Seeds: To make a “flax egg” to bind everything. Real egg also works but will make the waffles a bit lighter and fluffier. Still delicious though!
How to make this recipe
All you’ll need to do is make your flax egg by combining the flax seeds and water. Let this sit aside for about 5-10 minutes to thicken. After a few minutes, if you give it a stir, it should have almost an egg like consistency and will work to bind all of the ingredients together.
Meanwhile, combine all the dry ingredients, and mix together. Add in the wet ingredients and whisk together until you have a batter.
Next, use a ladle, ½ measuring cup, or pour about ⅓ of the batter onto a hot waffle maker and let cook until the waffle maker beeps. Don’t lift the top up until it beeps!
All waffle makers are different, but I suggest setting the maker to a higher setting because these take a bit longer to cook than normal waffles. If you set it too low, the waffles won’t be finished cooking and they’ll pull apart when you open it.
On that note, be sure you do not open the waffle maker while they are cooking! This will cause them to separate and will make clean up rather difficult. I used to do this all the time as a kid and it never went over very well!
Once the waffles are all done, top them off with some fresh berries, maple syrup, or a dollop of coconut whipped cream!
Can I freeze them?
Yes, these waffles store really well in the fridge or freezer! They will last in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for about 3 weeks. Let them cool completely and then store in an air tight container or freezer safe bag.
Tips & variations
You can use regular egg in place of the flax egg if desired. This will yield an even fluffier and lighter waffle.
Be sure to use blanched almond flour and not whole almond meal for these waffles. While similar, they have very different textures and will yield different results.
To keep these waffles warm and crispy while the others are cooking, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and place the waffles directly on the rack to stay warm while the other waffles cook. You can also pop them in the toaster if they’ve been sitting out for a bit.
Try these recipes next!
- Avocado Mango Smoothie
- Vegan Chocolate Milkshake
- How To Make Oatmeal
- Paleo Blueberry Muffins
- Sweet Potato Breakfast Bowl
If you want more recipes straight to your inbox, be sure to subscribe to my email list! As always, be sure to tag me on instagram so I can see your creation. Leave a comment and rating below if you try this recipe!
Vegan and Paleo Almond Flour Waffles
Ingredients
- 1 cup blanched almond flour
- ½ cup tapioca starch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 2 ½ tbsp water
- ½ cup non dairy milk
- 2 tbsp apple sauce
- 2 tbsp almond butter
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Combine the ground flax and water in a bowl, whisk together and set aside to thicken.
- Add the almond flour, tapioca starch, baking powder, and sea salt in a large mixing bowl and mix together.
- Add in all remaining ingredients and whisk together. Stir in the flax egg.
- Heat a waffle maker and grease with oil to prevent sticking. I suggest setting the waffle maker to one of the higher settings. All of them are different, but I set mine on level 5 out of 6 since these waffles require a bit of a longer cooking time than regular waffles.
- Use a ladle to scoop out the batter into the waffle maker.
- Repeat until all batter has been used.
- If you want the waffles to get extra crispy, pop them in the toaster for about 30 seconds to crisp up the outside or keep them warm in a low temperature oven.
- Serve with maple syrup and berries and enjoy!
Michelle
These are A-mazing!! The BEST I have tried in the last 4 years! I do not feel the need to ever try any other waffle recipe out there!
Thank you for a great recipe!!
Claire Cary
Such a nice review, thank you, Michelle!
Claire
Can we use banana instead of apple sauce?
Claire Cary
Yes! That should work, just mash it really well so it has an almost apple sauce like consistency. You don’t want any banana chunks or it could end up a bit gummy. The flavor will of course be slightly different, but still good!
Danna
These are great. Healthy, filling, delicious. Kid approved too. Thank you!
Claire Cary
Love when my recipes are kid approved! Thanks Danna!
Natasha from Australia
Delicious recipe. I made as pancakes also as I don’t have a waffle maker. I subbed lemon juice for the ACV as I can’t have vinegar. I made the 3x recipe as cooking for 4 adults – just wanted to let you know the flaxseed ingredient water component for the 3x recipe did not increase so I used 7 tablespoons water with the 3 tablespoons flaxseed (you only had 2.5 tablespoons which was the same as 1x recipe ingredients). Everything turned out perfectly – light and fluffy on the inside and a slight crunch on the outside edges. Thanks for a great recipe. I’ve tried so many gluten free/vegan pancake recipes over the past several years and this is my favourite!
Claire Cary
Thank you Natasha! I just updated the recipe card so the water component should now adjust properly when you scale it. Thanks for letting me know! So happy you enjoyed these : )
Shelique Symonett
This week I tried the vegan waffles, love them. I don’t have a waffle maker so I turned them into pancakes. Delicious.
Claire Cary
Perfect! Love this recipe as pancakes too!
Danielle
These are exceptional. They are more flavorful than waffles with normal flour and are healthier! We have Ben making them on the weekends for an easy week day meal. THANK YOU!!!!!
Claire Cary
What a compliment! I totally agree 🙂 so happy you enjoyed these!
Danielle
Wow! This morning is my second time making these (and I am making a double batch so we have some leftover for the week). They are incredible! My husband and I loved the flavor profile – it has so much going on with ingredients we are happy to put into our body. Thank you for sharing this new staple in our home!
Claire Cary
Thank you Danielle! So happy you enjoyed them, they’re one of my favorites!
Colene
Help!!!! What am I doing wrong? The only substitution I made in the recipe was using almond butter powder and adding water to make the consistency of almond butter. When I opened the griddle, I had to scrape them out, the middle was still doughy. They taste amazing. I turned up the heat, turned down the heat and even gave up and made pancakes with the unused batter (and they were still doughy). Was it my substitution? Was the griddle too hot or not hot enough? Any help is appreciated.
Claire Cary
It’s definitely the substitution! I wouldn’t recommend almond butter powder because it won’t have the same fat content as regular almond butter and will change the way the ingredients act together. Make sure you grease your griddle well and use regular almond butter. Because this recipe is grain free and vegan, substitutions don’t really work very well unfortunately!
Dawn
These were by far the best waffles I have ever had! They were so good! Only change was I used Arrowroot flour instead of Tapioca. Everyone loved them! Will definitely be making them again 🙂
Claire Cary
You are so sweet, thank you Dawn! So glad they worked out with the arrowroot!
Mindy
For all three of my waffles, they did not come out in one piece but stuck to the waffle iron each time. I did everything according to the recipe and it seemed like either I didn’t cook fully in the middle or there was not enough oil in the batter to make things come off the waffle iron. The taste of the waffle crumbs were good after I picked it out of the waffle iron, but so disappointed about the way they came out. There seem to be an off a lot of steam coming out of the waffle iron, And I assumed that it had to do with the applesauce, but maybe the recipe needs to have some coconut oil inside the batter? For the first two waffles, the waffle iron was almost on the maximum, and then on the third waffle I lowered it to 3/4, and let it cook for longer, and all three came out the same way.
Claire Cary
Sorry they didn’t work out! Did you grease the waffle iron? I always recommend doing that!
Victoria J.
This was a great recipe! I used arrowroot flour instead of tapioca starch, almond extract instead of vanilla, pear sauce instead of applesauce, and ground some almond silvers to make an almond meal… I added blueberries and a little coconut oil and accidentally left out the ACV, but these still came out GREAT!!!!! I haven’t had the best luck using these alternative flours and really enjoying the texture, but these were nice and crispy on the outside just like you said. The coconut oil cooking spray helped, as well as adding more coconut oil… blueberries did make them stick a little, but with patience, I peeled the waffles out mostly in tact!
Claire Cary
So glad they still worked with all those subs! Especially almond meal/flour behave differently, I’m glad it worked out! Thanks for the feedback 🙂
Camille
Thank you so so much for this recipe. I have spent so much money in recent weeks trying to make a GF GF DF CF recipe for my son that he would eat. This is it! He is almost 3 and very picky and he loved it. For anyone who is looking for a recipe that works, mixes and binds well, this is it. I also tried it as a pancake mix and it woks just as well. I subscribed to your recipe book and I’m looking forward to trying more recipes. Thanks again.
Claire Cary
Hi Camille, thank you so much for your sweet comment! I’m so happy your son enjoyed them, I was such a picky eater as a child, so I can imagine the struggle! Hope you try out more recipes!
Ophelia selam
These are amazing!!!! Crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. thank you!!!
Lisa
Absolutely amazing and perfect in every way!
Claire Cary
Thank you, Lisa!
Shawna
Hi! I want to make “chicken” and waffles for dinner so need a savory batter (or neutral, just not sweet). I can see the obvious things to leave out but was wondering how the almond butter would affect a waffle that isnt supposed to be sweet? Any thoughts on a sub for this? Call me crazy but i thought i might make a walnut butter for a sub…
Claire Cary
Hi! I actually think the almond butter will be ok as long as it is unsweetened. You can try walnut butter as well though if you prefer. Let me know how it turns out!