CHEAT MEALS

Pancakes tend to be lumped in with fried bread and doughnuts in the nutritional stakes. But that says less about the food per se and more about our lack of alimentary nous. So, just in time for Lent, we’ve escorted the pancake out of stodge city and into

Our high-protein pancakes flip Shrove Tuesday stodge into everyday fitness fuel

Over in Trump town they drown them in syrup and call it breakfast. The Japanese serve them as okonomiyaki – a versatile savoury concoction translating as ‘how you like’. Us Brits? Well, there’s that Tuesday before Lent and, um…

Not for the first time in matters of real import, we’ve got this all wrong. The Shrove Tuesday tradition – load up on carbs before embarking on a 40-day fast – has resulted in us viewing the pancake as pure gluttony. But this represents a serious lack of imagination.

“With ingenuity, the pancake is the perfect vessel to provide the ideal balance of protein, carbs and fats,” says Alex Ferentinos, nutrition consultant to the British Lions. “Choose the toppings wisely and it forms the perfect base for rounding out your daily macros.”

In order to help you stay the hand holding the Nutella jar, we asked a trio of healthconscious chefs to come up with ways to not just upgrade the pancake, but to make it one of the most virtuous dishes in your repertoire. The resulting recipes are good for you, but no less gourmet for it.

With one eye on your waistline and the other on your palate, we’ve crafted a dozen towers of flavour, all under the watchful eye of our nutritional foreman, Ferentinos. Call it a 12-point plan for your pan. We’ll see you on the flipside.