Celebrities sharing their pancake photos and recipes seems to be something of a trend these days — looking at you Jimmy Kimmel and Chelsea Clinton. And now James Van Der Beek is getting in on the fun. Over the weekend, Van Der Beek posted a series of pictures and videos of his pancake-making process, and like Chelsea Clinton's spinach-cakes, there's a secret ingredient involved.
While preparing his "famous" pancakes for his kids, the actor explained that he adds mung beans to his mix. The father of four explained that mung beans are one of the ingredients typically used to make the Indian dish dal.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
To get the mung beans ready for his flapjacks, Van Der Beek boils them with rice. According to James' video, boiling the beans makes their shells loosen so they're easy to remove — hot tip! After the beans are shelled, Van Der Beek blended them with dates, and the resulting liquid was added to a gluten free pancake batter. Then, he let the kids take it from there with the whisk.
Savory mung bean pancakes are dishes in both Korean and Indian cuisines. So really what makes this actor's recipe unique isn't his secret ingredient, it's the fact that his mung bean pancakes are made to be sweet — they contain dates and were served with syrup. Still, based on the reactions from his kids, we'd definitely try it. You can too, by checking out the full recipe on People.com. No word yet on how these flapjacks would compare to those of the other celebs who've share their recipes (Jimmy Kimmel still wins for presentation), but James Van Der Beek's kids look satisfied in the Instagram photos.