Prickly Pear & Pitaya Protein Pancakes

   Pretty, aren't they? Perfectly palatable. And it's pancakes, this time, not porridge.
   Yes, I've been playing with prickly pears again, and this time some dragonfruit has slipped into the mix. Its own subtle sweetness paired with the watermelon-like prickly pear makes for a wonderfully refreshing flavour you wouldn't expect to find in a pancake, and yet at the same time feels as though it should have been there all along. It's a really wonderful recipe for summer pancakes, and you can adapt your favourite pancake recipe (or dry mix - I'm guilty of frequently turning towards Flapjacked's buttermilk protein pancake mix) to work with it. I've included a basic recipe below with 10g of protein - it makes about 4 pancakes and serves one, so no waste nor temptation to overload on breakfast.

   Prickly pear can be a nuisance. It's riddled with seeds, and those seeds are big and solid. Not pleasant to chew. That said, while I'm happy to include the seeds in my porridge - in fairness, porridge takes minimal chewing - here I was a little more wary. While there are no prickly pear seeds in the pancakes, they remain in the pulp on top, though it's a totally optional detail. Instead, while I cooked and softened the entire fruit for my prickly pear & blueberry porridge, here I strained the juice out of one fruit and reserved the pulp with a sieve. If you'd rather more juice and little to no pulp, you can always put the fruit in a blender and strain the seeds out instead. It would be quicker, and you'd get all the fibre stuffed directly into the pancakes instead, but I preferred the pulp and seeds. Because I am foolish brave.
   Dragonfruit seeds, however, are no trouble at all, so you needn't worry about all those teeny, tiny little things. I used a melon baller to get the little scoops of dragonfruit. It has a very similar consistency to avocado, and you prep it the same way. It's very low in carbs (about 9g per 100g fruit) and loaded with protein, polyunsaturated fats, B-vitamins and antioxidants, so it's a really great addition to any breakfast. It's difficult to source, though - like prickly pears, you don't generally find them sitting in any old green grocer's or supermarket - but this dragonfruit was also purchased for the intention of some rather special themed porridges I've been working on, so I tracked them down from Fine Food Specialist. It's not cheap, but a dragonfruit generally weighs about 200g and across two porridges and these pancakes, I've used a little over half of the single fruit I bought. It's freezable, too - see my notes below.

Ingredients

Serves 1
1 serving dry protein pancake mix
or
30g oat flour, 10g protein powder & 1/4 tsp baking soda
40ml skimmed milk
30g dragonfruit - about 5 melonballed pieces. Reserve a few balls for decoration if desired.
1 prickly pear
Optional 10g white chocolate
Optional light cream, 25g

Method

1. Either puree/juice the prickly pear in your blender, or chop into pieces with 2 tbsp water in a pan and simmer for 10 minutes. Mash to a pulp with a fork (don't drain).

2. Set the pureed/mashed pear in a strainer over a bowl and push it around/continue to mash it to press out all of the juice. Ultimately, you're removing the seeds. Transfer the juice to a measuring jug, add 40ml milk and top up with water until you have a total of 80ml liquid (or however much your pancake mix requires).

3. Make the pancake batter. Combine the oat flour, protein powder and baking soda in a bowl and mix. Slowly add the liquid, stirring all the while.

4. Mash the dragonfruit and combine into the mix. The seeds here are fine.

5. Allow to thicken for 5 minutes, and heat a frying pan over medium-low heat, add a drop of coconut oil and then spoon in some of the batter. Cook for 2 minutes, then flip, cook for 2-3 more minutes.
   I actually prefer to bake mine (kind of removes the whole 'pan'cake thing, but there we go), so I preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180 C/350 F, line a baking sheet with paper and spoon 4 pancakes onto it, and bake on the middle shelf for 10 minutes. Longer if need be.

6. Chop your white chocolate if using and sprinkle between each pancake as you stack them. Top with dragonfruit, prickly pear pulp and cream, if desired.

Notes

• I used 1 Hotel Chocolate white chocolate baton (8g), cut first into quarters (one for each pancake) and then chopped each into pieces.
• I sourced my dragonfruit and prickly pears from Fine Foods Specialist.
• How to prepare prickly pear.
• How to prepare & store dragonfruit.

Nutrition
With above pancake mix recipe, no cream, no chocolate
226 cals, 3.5g fat (0.5g sat), 35.5g carbs (8.5g natural sugars), 7.5g fibre, 17g protein