Best Vegan Waffles | Gluten-Free
These delicious vegan gluten-free waffles are a breakfast dream come true, with a crispy exterior and fluffy interior that will make your mornings magical. Perfect for everyone, they’re a tasty, allergen-friendly way to start the day!
My husband and I have always loved waffles but, when we went plant-based in 2013, I thought we would never be able to eat them again. Thankfully, I was wrong! We eat these delicious waffles and even healthy banana oat pancakes that are also gluten-free and vegan. Some mornings I make this smoked tempeh breakfast bacon to go alongside them to make a hearty and healthy start to the day!
Reasons you will love these waffles
- Deliciously Crispy and Fluffy: These vegan and gluten-free waffles have a perfectly crispy exterior and a fluffy interior, making them a delightful breakfast treat.
- Easy to Make: With a simple recipe that requires minimal ingredients and effort, these waffles are quick and easy to prepare, perfect for busy mornings.
- Allergen-Friendly: Free from gluten and animal products, these waffles are suitable for a variety of dietary needs, ensuring everyone can enjoy them.
- Versatile and Customizable: Easily adaptable with your favorite toppings like fresh fruit, maple syrup, or nut butter, these waffles can be customized to suit your taste preferences.
Ingredients you will need
- Oats- I will show you how easy it is to make oat flour in your blender in about one minute. You could always buy it, but it’s a bit pricey.
- Flax meal- If you have flaxseeds, they will; you will just need to grind them in your blender. We will be making a vegan egg replacer called a flax egg.
- Plant milk- My preference is almond milk, but soy, cashew, or other varieties of plant milk are fine too. If you want to make homemade cashew milk, it is very simple to do in a blender, and it doesn’t need to be strained like most nut milk.
- Baking powder- This pairs with salt to help the batter rise.
- Vanilla- The warm delicious flavor of vanilla enhances these waffles.
- Maple syrup- This is the perfect sweetener for waffles.
Gluten-free oats
Oats are naturally gluten-free, however, they can be cross-contaminated during processing if the facility also processes other grains. If you are gluten-intolerant, be sure any oats bought say “certified gluten-free.”
It is so easy to make gluten-free oat flour at a fraction of the cost of those name brands. I am about to show you how to make gluten-free oat flour in your blender
How to make vegan waffles
The recipe card at the bottom of the page has the full list of ingredients with measurements and instructions.
STEP #1: To begin this recipe, you are going to need some oat flour. Though you can buy it in the baking section of many grocery stores, I highly recommend making your own because it takes minutes. Place the oats in a blender and process for less than one minute or until they become a fine powdery flour. Remove from the blender and pour it into a large bowl.
STEP #2: Go ahead and make the flax egg which is a vegan egg substitute. Combine flax meal and warm water in a bowl. Whisk together vigorously. Allow it to sit for 5 minutes (or up to 30 minutes) to gel and become an egg white consistency. One flax egg = one regular egg.
STEP #3: Next, add the baking powder and salt to the large bowl with oat flour and whisk to combine the dry ingredients well.
STEP #4: In a medium-sized bowl, add almond milk, vanilla, maple syrup, and flax egg. Whisk together the wet ingredients.
STEP #5: Pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl with dry ingredients and whisk thoroughly. The batter needs to be the consistency you see in the demonstration video, so if yours seems a little thick, add a couple more tablespoons of plant milk to thin it down.
STEP #6: Pour spoonfuls of batter into the preheated waffle maker and close the lid. Allow it to cook for 5-7 minutes. Then lift the lid to see if they are brown enough for you. I like mine golden brown. You will need a good non-stick waffle iron to keep this recipe completely from sticking.
STEP #7: This should make about 4 large waffles, depending on the size of your waffle iron. Top with fresh berries and maple syrup and serve immediately.
Your Questions Answered
I decided to use some flax egg in this vegan waffle mix, and it worked wonderfully. If you aren’t sure what flax egg is, it’s a vegan egg substitute used in baking.
Our favorite toppings are pure maple syrup and fresh berries such as strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries. Oftentimes, I’ll also add slices of banana, and more recently my Healthy Chia Jam – Strawberry.
These keep well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 7 days.
Absolutely! I freeze these all the time. Simply remove them from the freezer and defrost them in the oven or toaster when you’re ready to serve them again.
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Vegan Waffles
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole oats
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cups almond milk or other plant milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup optional
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seed meal
- 1/3 cup water
- fresh berries for topping
- maple syrup for topping
Instructions
- Preheat nonstick waffle iron. I used a setting of 4 on mine, and I've included the brand I recommend below.
- Make oat flour by placing oats in blender and blending for less than one minute, or until they become a fine powdery flour. Remove from blender and pour into large bowl.
- Go ahead and make the flax egg which is a vegan egg substitute. Combine flax meal and warm water in a bowl. Whisk together vigorously. Allow it to sit for 5 minutes (or up to 30 minutes) to gel and become an egg white consistency. One flax egg = one regular egg.
- Add the baking powder and salt to the large bowl with oat flour and whisk to combine the dry ingredients well.
- In a medium sized bowl, add almond milk, vanilla, maple syrup, and flax egg. Whisk together the wet ingredients.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl with dry ingredients and whisk thoroughly.
- The batter needs to be the consistency you see in the demonstration video, so if yours seems a little thick, add a couple more tablespoons of almond milk to thin down. Allowing the batter to sit for about 5 minutes will also help thicken it up.
- Pour spoonfuls of batter into waffle maker and close lid.
- Allow to cook for 5-7 minutes. Then lift the lid to see if they are brown enough for you. I like mine golden brown.
- This should make about 4 large waffles, depending on the size of your waffle iron.
- Top with fresh berries and maple syrup and serve immediately.
- To reheat later, simply place in toaster oven.
Video
Notes
- Storage- These keep well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 7 days.
- Freezable- Absolutely! I freeze these all the time. Simply remove them from the freezer and defrost them in the oven or toaster when you’re ready to serve them again.
- Toppings- Our favorite toppings are pure maple syrup and fresh berries such as strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries. Oftentimes, I’ll also add slices of banana, and more recently my Healthy Chia Jam – Strawberry.
Nutrition
Disclaimer
To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.
can you just throw everything in the blender?
Hi Cat- I don’t think I would throw everything in the blender with the flour. The batter will thicken up too quickly and give you less control in adjusting the consistency.
Terri, you’re going to think this is weird, but I’d like to know how to modify this to make pancakes. I’ve tried making pancakes but most vegan recipes use banana which just tastes odd to me, plus they always end up heavy and way too moist.. Even my husband hates all the vegan pancake recipes I’ve tried. Your waffle recipe has no bananas, so I’m curious, does this recipe need to be modified to be cooked as pancakes? Thank you!
Hi Cynthia- Yes, I think this recipe would be fine for pancakes. There is also a pancake recipe on this site by Kim Campbell that doesn’t use pancakes that you might want to try.
These waffles never fail me, love them!
I’m so glad to hear that! We love them too.
I need to use up my oat flour. Would I still use 2 cups of the actual flour or is 2 cups just for whole oats that will later be ground up?
Hi Jill- This would be 2 cups of the flour already ground up.
This is my favorite waffle recipe (thank you for sharing, Terri!). I recently had to switch waffle makers as the one I was using stopped working. The waffles keep sticking to the new waffle maker. From what I read, waffles with no oil will tend to stick to the waffle makers. I would buy the same waffle maker that stopped working since the waffles never stuck to it, but they no longer make it. Wondering if you have any suggestions?
Hi Ron- I am so glad that this waffle recipe has become your favorite! Personally, I have a Cuisinart waffle maker and don’t have any problems with sticking at all. I do season mine regularly because it helps as well.
I add chopped walnuts.
These are the BEST waffles I have ever made! I make a large batch once a week. Taking them camping this weekend to turn some friends on to them. YUM!!!
Do I still use 2 cups if I use a different flour? These are yummy but I would like to try something else. Thanks
Hi Janet- If you use whole wheat flour or spelt or something similar (not gluten-free), the measurement should be the same. The other gluten-free flours can be tricky, and the measurements will need to change depending on the type of flour.
I was wondering how many waffles this makes…you said it made four but is it four pieces/one big waffle (size of entire waffle maker) or four big waffles the size of the entire waffle maker (which would be sixteen pieces if you broke the pieces off)?
Hi Alexy- It really depends on your waffle maker, as some make much larger and thicker waffles than others. With my waffle iron, this recipe makes 4 whole waffles, so 16 smaller pieces.
Terri, THANKS SO MUCH for this GREAT recipe! We started making it months ago and everyone LOVES it (in my family AND friends who I’ve given your recipe to). We make it times 4 for a big enough batch to freeze waffles for the toaster later on busy days! 🙂
I just noticed that we’ve been measuring the flax seed instead of the flax meal, and the recipe still has been working just fine for us.
I will continue to send friends to your website, thanks for being there for us WFPB people!
Hi Chris- That is absolutely FANTABULOUS! I’m glad that your family is enjoying the waffles as much as well do. 😀
Hello, just a question, in the video it’s written 1tbsp of flax meal but in the recipe card 2, which one is the correct one please? thank you in advance.
Hi Bella- It should be 2 Tbsp of the flax meal. That’s a typo in the video that I didn’t even know about. 🙂
@Terri Edwards, thank you. My question also!!
I don’t have a high powered blender, so I ran the oats through my food processor for about two minutes. There were still some coarse bits, so I sifted it through a medium mesh strainer. I was left with a little less than a third of a cup of coarse bits. I then ran the coarse bits through my coffee grinder. The waffles were a hair coarser than I would prefer, but they were still excellent. I’ll be making these again for sure. I may just buy some oat flour. Between the oats and the flax, I love their nutty flavor.
For the oats, does it matter if they’re rolled or quick oats?
Hi Jenn- Either old fashioned or quick oats will work just fine with these waffles.
@Jenn, I use Aldi’s Rolled Oats Old Fashioned.