About the Recipe
vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free
Kids in the Kitchen: The ingredients here are vegan so it's okay if kids eat the raw batter in the process. Try giving them tasting spatulas so they can dip in. My kids love dumping the ingredients into bowls, mashing the bananas, grating the zucchini and stirring it all together. The ingredients blend easily, which means you can stir them instead of using electric beaters.
Gluten-Free: I find the easiest way to make this recipe gluten-free is to make it with gluten-free oat flour. If you don’t have oat flour on hand, just take the same amount of whole oats (for 2 cups of oat flour use 2 cups of whole oats) and throw them in the blender to make them into oat flour. If gluten is not a problem for you, this recipe also works well with spelt flour or whole wheat pastry flour.
Zucchini: I usually grate the zucchini on the fine side of the grater. This makes it blend into the recipe better.
Substitutions: You can substitute the bananas and zucchini for other fruits and vegetables, such as pumpkin and chopped apples or sweet potato and grated carrots. You will want the total amount to add up to about 2 cups. You can also add any nuts or dried fruit combinations your family enjoys!
With love from Lizz
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
1 Tbsp (15 mL) ground flaxseed
3 medium-sized, very ripe bananas, mashed
1 small zucchini, peeled & grated (about 1 cup/250 mL)
½ cup (125 mL) unrefined sugar, such as cane, sucanat, or coconut
4 Tbsp (60 mL) oil, such as melted coconut, sunflower, olive oil
½ cup (125 ML) unsweetened, non-dairy milk
1 tsp (4 mL) pure vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
2¼ cups (500 mL) oat flour
2 ½ tsps (5 mL) baking powder
½ tsp (2 mL) baking soda
¼ tsp (1 mL) salt
½ tsp (2 mL) cinnamon
½ cup (125 mL) mini, non-dairy chocolate chips (optional)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare the muffin tins by lightly greasing the cups with vegan butter, coconut oil or another oil.
In a small bowl combine the flaxseed with 3 Tbsp of water. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
In a medium-sized bowl mash the bananas. Peel and grate the zucchini and then add it to the mashed banana. Mix in the other wet ingredients: ground flaxseed and water mixture, sugar, oil, milk, and vanilla.
In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Stir in the chocolate chips, if using.
Spoon the batter into muffin cups and bake for 22 minutes or until cooked through.