Cold weather is creeping in… I can feel it in the mornings. My toes are cold when I creep down the stairs in search of my kettle. I need my tea first thing in the morning. And what’s better with a cup of tea in the morning than a home-baked muffin?
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this massive zucchini that we plucked from our garden.
He was HUGE. And he taunted me. “Use me! Don’t let me go to waste! You grew me from seed, remember?”
So I decided to whip up some zucchini muffins.
And then I realized that I was out of milk. Don’t you hate it when that happens?
As I stood at the fridge door and sighed, visions of delicious zucchini muffins still danced in my head. So I decided to make do with what I had. I conjured up all of my good ideas and suddenly, our friends, The Lovely Vegan Family, popped into my brain.
Vegans don’t drink milk. They surely eat muffins! I will make vegan muffins! Ta-daaaa! I’m a genius!
I stumbled upon a recipe for Zucchini Banana Bread that I used as the foundation for this recipe, but I made a few tweaks in the process. In the end, I was left with moist, delicious muffins that were good for both the omnivores and herbivores alike!
- 2 cups shredded zucchini
- 1 cup mashed ripe banana
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup raisins
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees; grease a 12 cup muffin tin
- Mix the mashed banana, applesauce, sugar and vanilla together in a bowl.
- Stir in shredded zucchini.
- Add 1 cup flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt to zucchini mixture and combine.
- Stir in remaining 1/2 cup of flour and raisins.
- Scoop into muffin tins at 3/4 full
- Bake in oven for approximately 20-22 min, or until toothpick inserted comes clean.
- Cool and enjoy!
These muffins only used about 1/3 of my gigantic zucchini. The rest has been grated and is waiting to used in this recipe again.
Thankfully, the Lovely Vegan Family came over for a visit today, and I got to share my zucchini-laden creations.
Lucy Vegan (whom we call “Lucy One” ; “Lucy Two” is our own little blondie) sampled one of these muffins and declared them a hit! She even had seconds! Marla Vegan – the mama and master chef of this crew – immediately asked for the recipe.
I call that success.
Try these and see for yourself. It’s a muffin with a vegetable in it – how can you go wrong?
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47 comments
Bronwyn MayB
Nice! Good job. I have a couple of zucchini I got from my SiL. I will have to try this (tweaked for GF, of course!!)
Tara
I was suprised at how good these were, to be honest! Let me know if you try them! (And how do you make them gluten-free? Is it just the type of flour?)
April
I used this recipe to twice now as gluten free muffins, just swap the regular for a gluten free all purpose flour (I used the El Peto brand) and they turned out amazing. I also reduced the sugar to 1/2cup and substituted the raisins for dairy free chocolate chips, . . .my 4 year old son can not get enough of them!!
Kenz @ Interiors by Kenz
Zucchini all the things! We just made zucchini brownies this weekend. And they were fantastic. Why does zucchini make everything taste better? I’ll never know.
Tara
Oooh… zucchini brownies! Do tell! That sounds scrumptious!
Emily
Yum! I love banana bread and zucchini bread, but I’ve never had them combined! Pinned!
Tara
They’re so delish, Emily! You’ll have to try them! And the banana makes it even more moist!
Bethany
Looks so good! Zucchini bread reminds me of my grandma, she used to always make it, and I remember it took me a while before would try it, haha! Boy was I missing out 🙂
Tara
Oh, it took Mr. Suburble a while before he really came around to zucchini breads and muffins. He still isn’t a huge fan of zucchini in meals, but he’s definitely embraced the zucchini baking!
Danni@SiloHillFarm
Tara these look delicious and yay for you…bounty from your garden!!
Tara
Yes! I actually grew something and then ate it! It’s been pretty awesome with the cucumers and zucchinis. The tomatoes and the beans? Those are another story. 🙁
Amy of while wearing heels
YUM! That zucchini is impressive. You did good this year. I often find myself missing an ingredient but rarely am I able to successfully improvise as well as you have. These look delicious.
Tara
I think it was my grumbly stomach that helped me to improvise the way I did. There’s something about a craving for baked goods that causes me to become an instant genius.
Of course, once the carbs hit my mouth, I’m back to my old IQ. 😉
Mel
Yum see now I can use you ideas as my summer approaches
Tara
I think that Spring and Fall are going to be the months where we cross over a bit. Though Australia is always quite a bit hotter than Canada, right? (Pffft…. I’m so worldly… I should know this!)
La Cuisine d’Helene
I love anything with zucchinis. It makes the baking goods so moist.
Tara
You’re so right. I also almost always add a bit more zucchini than the recipe calls for. I live on the edge like that! 😉
Marilyn
OMG these are so yummy….I absolutely LOVE zucchini bread a muffins!
Brandagamba
I tried these with a mini muffin tin as I couldn’t find my standard one. I usually cut the bake time by 5 minutes with minis but in this case they were uncooked doing that. Not worried about anyone getting sick as there is no egg in it but popped them back in for a few in hopes of making them a little more done. Delicious either way though. Quick easy vegan treats are the best.
Tara
Good to know! I often cut my mini muffins down to about 17-18 minutes too (for some reason, that’s a lucky number with minis for me!) – but if they come out uncooked… yikes! I’ll definitely give these a try in my little tins – maybe it’s a moisture thing? Thank you so much for commenting!
Alexandra
These look DELISH! Do you think I could substitute greek yogurt for the applesauce?? I just stumbled upon your blog and love it!
Tara
Oh, I’m positive that you could, Alexandra. I have a great banana chocolate chip recipe that uses yogurt, and it is a no-fail recipe. Of course, it won’t be vegan anymore, but something tells me that you aren’t too concerned with that! 😉
Michelle
YAY!!! Your brilliance is exactly what i was looking for today! I have no yogurt and wanted to use applesauce but I had no idea how. Thank you, excited to go make these 🙂
Tara
Oh, fantastic! Michelle – tell me what you think of them. They were a BIG hit round these parts!
Kim
What kind of flour?
Tara
Kim- I just used regular white all-purpose flour. You could probably get away with whole wheat flour, or half-white, half-whole wheat. It might change the texture just a bit.
Let me know if you try them! I’d love to hear your feedback!
Alisha
Could these be switched up with pumpkin? I love that these are all healthy ingredient s. Made 2 dozen last night for breakfasts for our five children to go along with a smoothie. My husband tried one this morning and gave the thumbs up. Hoping pumpkin banana muffins this same way could switch it up a bit because muffins are the perfect grab and go with our hectic schedule. Even better when the muffins are perfectly healthy brain fuel for the kids to start their school day. Great recipe! Thanks for sharing!
Tara
Alisha, I don’t see why you couldn’t use pumpkin. I would probably taste the batter prior to scooping it in the tins to be sure that the bananas and sugar were sweet enough to work with the pumpkin puree.
Let me know how they turn out! I’d love to sprinkle the top of pumpkin banana muffins with some seeds. So yummy!
Becks
Came across this recipe after googling ‘banana zucchini muffins’. This is exactly what I’m looking for. My toddler sons are, despite us always putting all foods in front of them, the pickiest eaters. Figured this would be a good way to get some veggies in them. Do you think it would work to add a few chocolate chips to the mix? Thanks!
Tara
Oh Becks, I definitely think that chocolate chips would work in these muffins. I know that my kids would definitely appreciate a few in the mix! 😉
And I hear you on the picky kids. Mine would gladly eat plain noodles every day of their lives. Not frustrating at all. 😛
Becks
Great! I’ll be making these tomorrow. It’s SO frustrating! Ever since our kids started on solids, we always gave them everything. And they both ate whatever we put in front of them until they each turned about 15 months…it’s like a switch flipped and they stopped eating all those foods and only eat a handful of items. Ugh! 😛
Tara
Soooo been there… whenever we go to a restaurant we just have to find out if they serve grilled cheese.
Because that’s ALL they will eat at a restaurant. No…. not picky at all. 😛
Michelle
These were the most disgusting muffins I have ever tasted. What a waste of quality ingredients!
Tara
Michelle, I’m sorry that they didn’t turn out for you. It’s strange, because they’ve always worked out for me – but I guess everyones’s tastes are different. Best of luck finding the winning recipe for you and your family!
Elizabeth
My daughter and I made these today, and they are delicious! We used 1/2 cup choc chips and 1/2 cup pecans in place of the cup of raisins. We will definitely be using this recipe again. Thank you!
Tara
Elizabeth, I’m so glad you enjoyed them! I’ve used chocolate chips, but never pecans before. I’m definitely going to try them!
Jess Halas
This recipe is super delish, but I would defo cut out most of the sugar. I used 1/4 c and that was still too much. Also, it needs some adjusting on it’s density. For me, it was way too moist.
Tara
Hi Jess! I wonder – were you using unsweetened applesauce? Or maybe I just like things a bit sweeter (which is entirely true).
As for the density issue, I’ll keep that in mind the next time I make these muffins. Thank you so much for the comment!
Jess Halas
I used unsweetened applesauce. That was a good thought though. I am not accustomed to lots of sugar in my recipes. I just made this again this morn and reduced the sugar to two tbs. we will see. I also drained the zucchini and added a tad more flour.
Jess Halas
It was perfect! I also switched the raisins with walnuts! Love it!
Tara
I’m so glad you liked it, Jess! Nuts give such a nice texture in muffins; I always go for the sweet of raisins, but I think I need to reach for the walnuts more often.
Tara
Just two tbsp!! And it turned out! That’s fantastic news. (Also, I am very jealous of your not-so-sweet-tooth; I am the kind of girl that digs through her children’s Hallowe’en candy for the sweetest little morsels – it’s terrible, I know). Once my kitchen gets sorted – it’s in a chaotic renovation right now – I am going to try this recipe with your modifications. Thank you for sharing! I’m excited to give it a whirl!
Donka
These are a yummy moist treat! I add 1/2 of fine shred carrots too. I didn’t use as much sugar as mentioned and threw in some flax seeds 🙂
Tara
Oh, the carrots sound delicious – thank you for sharing your modifications! 🙂
Tia Lent
I just made these muffins and was sad at their turn out. The bottoms of the muffins turned out really gummy and I have no idea what I did wrong. I think I followed the directions pretty close. If anyone has any idea what I did wrong I would sure love to know. Thanks!
-Tia
(Vegan Since Feb 2014)
Tara
Oh Tia, that IS disappointing. Did you check the muffins with a toothpick while they were cooking – were they cooked all the way through when they came out? I wish I had an answer here that could explain it. Hopefully someone else can chime in.
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