The 2018 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) champion, Hafthor Björnsson, has been relatively quiet on social media and YouTube after defeating 2017 WSM champion Eddie Hall by unanimous decision in their heated boxing match on March 19, 2022, in Dubai, UAE. After Hall fulfilled their bet of the match’s loser getting the winner’s name tattooed on themselves (Hall tattooed Björnsson’s name on the inside of his foot), Björnsson went on somewhat of a hiatus.
“The Mountian” is back, this time in the kitchen. On July 10, 2022, he published a video on his YouTube channel wherein he taught his 617,000 subscribers his protein pancake recipe. Björnsson has extensively documented the diet he used to shed weight for his shift from strongman to boxing, but this is the first time he’s endeavored to share his go-to pancake breakfast. Check it out below:
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Björnsson’s Pancake Recipe
Björnsson qualifies his recipe by stating that it uses simple ingredients and is easy to make. The recipe consists of:
- Whole eggs
- Bananas
- Flax seeds
- Chia seeds
- Hemp seeds
- Cinnamon
- Oats
- Whey protein powder — Björnsson used a vanilla peanut butter flavor
Björnsson prefers the bananas to have ripened to acquire a slight browning on their peels. Riper bananas tend to be sweeter and add to the taste of the pancake batter. He tosses two bananas into a mixer and churns them up before adding seven eggs, including all the yolks.
By no means am I a chef.
Björnsson eyeballs the number of flax seeds he tosses into the mixture, but it’s approximately one-and-a-half tablespoons. He presumably matched that amount for the hemp and chia seeds but ground them up first, so they are finer when added to the batter mixture. He grinds 60 grams of oats and tosses it into the mixer. A sprinkling of cinnamon and two scoops of whey finish the batter before it’s poured onto a skillet on low heat.
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To slick the skillet, Björnsson uses coconut oil, coconut spray, olive oil, or butter. He used the latter for the recipe in the video. After a few flips on the pan, Björnsson’s wife taste-tested them to rave reviews, noting that they were pretty thick in texture. With all the added seeds combined with the oats, a thicker consistency was Björnsson’s goal. He recommended using fewer oats if thinner pancakes are preferred.
Björnsson is still training at his gym, Thor’s Power Gym, six days per week. On the day this video was filmed, Björnsson had two training sessions, though he did not say if it was in preparation for another boxing match or something else. We’ll see what endeavor “The Mountain” takes on next, but rest assured he will continue to eat healthy in the interim.
Featured image: @thorbjornsson on Instagram