Best Vegan Waffles | Gluten-Free
These Vegan Waffles are healthy, gluten-free, and delicious! They are light and fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside.
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 very wrong.
We love these waffles because they’re…
- Crispy on the outside
- Eggless
- Non-dairy
- Gluten-free
- Simple to make
- Amazingly delicious
Are waffles vegan?
Waffles are not normally vegan.
I kid you not. My husband and I haven’t had waffles in more than six years, because I haven’t been able to find a way to make them eggless, dairy-free, and tasty all at the same time. That is until now!
I guarantee that friends and family who regularly eat dairy and eggs will find absolutely nothing to complain about with the taste or texture of these delicious waffles. They are light and fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. There is even a slightly nutty taste thanks to the ground flaxseed in the flax egg.
Not too long ago, a follower messaged me that she had made my Banana Oatmeal Pancake recipe batter and used it in her waffle iron. She said it turned out terrific.
Since then, I’ve been wanting to play around with the recipe to try and come up with a recipe for vegan waffles.
How to make waffles for a healthy vegan breakfast
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 less than 3 minutes.
The recipe card at the bottom of the page has the full list of ingredients with measurements and instructions.
Oat flour for waffles
We aren’t gluten-free, but both my pancake and waffle recipes do happen to be because they are made with oat flour.
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.
Make the oat flour by placing oats in a blender and blending for less than one minute, or until they become a fine powdery flour. Remove from blender and pour it into a large bowl.
My article, How to Make Oat Flour & 10 Recipes, shows how easy it is.
Making a flax egg
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.
Go ahead and make the flax egg. To do this, I don’t even wash my blender after making the oat flour, because the flour falls right out with a little tap and is plenty clean for making this egg substitute.
Combine the flaxseed and water and blend in blender. It will become like the consistency of egg whites. Scrape from blender and set to the side.
Next, 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 (or other plant milk) to thin down.
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 definitely need a good non-stick waffle iron to keep this recipe completely oil-free and heart-healthy.
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.
Plant-based vegan sausage makes a great addition when serving this for breakfast. It is one of the many products that I like to order from MamaSezz meal delivery service. It comes ready to heat and eat, and it can also be frozen.
Your Questions Answered:
- Q: How do you store these waffles? These keep well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 7 days.
- Q: Can they be frozen? 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.
- Q: What do you top the waffles with? 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.
Other great plant-based diet breakfast recipes
- Best Vegan Blueberry Muffins
- Banana Oat Pancakes
- Vegan French Toast
- Breakfast Scramble
- Apple Cinnamon Muffins
You might consider adding a little Smoked Tempeh Bacon for an even heartier meal to start the day!
For those of you new to the whole food plant-based lifestyle, we’ve created a FREE 7-Day Plant-Based Menu Planner to help you get started!
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here.
If you try this recipe, please let us know how you like it by rating it and leaving a comment. We love to hear from you!
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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.
- Make the flax egg. To do this, I don't even wash my blender after making the oat flour, because the flour falls right out with a little tap and is plenty clean for making this egg substitute.
- Combine the flax seed and water and blend in blender. It will become like the consistency of egg whites. Scrape from blender and set to the side.
- 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
- Q: How do you store these waffles? These keep well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 7 days.
- Q: Can they be frozen? 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.
- Q: What do you top the waffles with? 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.
About Terri Edwards
Hi guys! I am the content creator behind EatPlant-Based and a licensed Food for Life instructor with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. I am passionate about sharing healthy recipes and tips to empower others to get healthy. I’m so glad you’re here! Read More…
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.
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.
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!!
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. 😀
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.
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.
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!!!
I add chopped walnuts.
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 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.
These waffles never fail me, love them!
I’m so glad to hear that! We love them too.
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.
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.