I looked for a dairy-free, healthy zucchini bread muffin for years.
The internet is full of baked goods that you can stuff with grated zucchini, but I specifically wanted a muffin recipe that worked for my family: dairy-free, whole grain, naturally sweetened, and easy to make, with no weird ingredients. Here it is.
Easy Dairy-Free Zucchini Muffins
While cooking and baking dairy-free, I found that the best way to save money was to avoid a lot of processed dairy-free substitutions. We don’t use vegan butter or dairy-free yogurt or soy cheese. Instead, I try to use real food that we can find at most grocery stores.
Instead of butter or vegan butter or coconut oil, these muffins use plain olive oil. Normally, I don’t recommend using olive oil for baking, but in some recipes, like this one (and my dairy-free chocolate cake recipe), olive oil is perfect.
Healthy Dairy-Free Snack
These healthy zucchini muffins work great for breakfasts, snacks, or desserts. They use a bunch of better-for-you ingredients in order to make a better-for-you muffin.
Whole Grains
For these muffins, you can use whole wheat flour or spelt flour (which is what I use). Einkorn flour and gluten-free flour blend should work as well, although I have not tested them yet.
Spelt flour is an ancient form of wheat that has significantly less gluten than modern wheat, and it has a rich, nutty flavor that is perfect for sweet baked goods.
More Spelt Recipes:
- Whole wheat spelt banana bread
- Spelt blueberry muffins
- Cinnamon raisin spelt drops
- Spelt banana muffins
Oil or Butter
Obviously, because these are dairy-free muffins, I use olive oil. Typically, I avoid using olive oil for baking, because the flavor is too strong and will overwhelm the other flavors in your recipe. However, in some recipes, like this one (and my dairy-free chocolate cake recipe), olive oil is perfect.
You can use any other oil you feel comfortable using – avocado oil and grapeseed oil are other options. If you are not dairy-free, you can melt butter and use that instead.
If you want to save money (and save on expensive olive oil!), try substituting half to two-thirds of the oil with applesauce. It will make the muffins taste less rich – and more like a low-fat baked good – but it will save you money.
Sugar or Honey
For this recipe, I use honey or maple syrup as the main sweetener. It tastes delicious and is more natural than processed sugar. Honey is sweeter than maple syrup, but both taste great in this recipe.
However, if you prefer to use a granulated sweetener (sugar, organic sugar, turbinado, evaporated cane juice, rapadura, sucanat, etc.), simply replace the half cup of honey with one cup of granulated sweetener.
Eggs
If you are egg-free, make these into vegan zucchini muffins with a flax egg or chia-egg (from this recipe!).
Zucchini
I use a box grater to shred the zucchini (the smaller the better in this case), and if you can’t bake the muffins right away, you can freeze the grated zucchini in 1-2 cup portions in the freezer. When you’re ready to bake, simply let the zucchini thaw overnight in the fridge before adding it to your batter.
If the green in zucchini is off-putting, try using summer squash instead. That’s what we use in this hidden veggie-baked oatmeal.
Healthy Snack for Lunchboxes
Filled with whole grains, healthy fats, and natural sweeteners, these dairy-free zucchini muffins are the perfect lunch box snack. They pack well, are hearty and sweet, and if you make a big batch of them, they freeze well for quick lunchbox prep.
If you make a big batch of muffins and freeze them, I recommend that you let them cool completely overnight (this will prevent ice crystals from forming when they freeze), wrap them individually in plastic wrap (or an eco-friendly alternative), then pack them in a gallon-size freezer bag in the freezer. They taste fresher when you wrap them individually.
However, if you’re like me and you don’t like to use plastic wrap (or you know the muffins simply won’t last long), just toss the cooled muffins in the freezer bag. Try to use unwrapped frozen muffins in the next one to two months.
Hidden Veggie Muffins
If you have selective eaters who are still adjusting to different tastes and textures, zucchini muffins are a great way to get them eating veggies and expanding their tastes! It’s a sweet, nutty muffin that is loaded with veggies. If the green in zucchini is off-putting, try using summer squash instead. That’s what we use in this hidden veggie-baked oatmeal.
In general, I try not to “sneak” vegetables into my kids’ food. I follow a lot of Katie’s Picky Eater principles because I ultimately want my kids to be healthy, balanced eaters when they grow up. However, just like I add spinach to my smoothies, I add zucchini to my muffins, because plants are important and it’s fun to eat them when they taste sweet.
Zucchini Recipe Kids Will Eat
Finding zucchini recipes that kids will eat can be challenging. While I like to expose my kids to a wide variety of vegetables and ways that we can prepare them, sometimes we need something easy. We need a recipe that our kids automatically love, full of good ingredients.
Some zucchini bread muffin recipes call for chocolate chips. Some don’t. I tested this recipe on my family without chocolate chips, and they thought it was delicious. So these muffins can stand alone without help from chocolate chips. However, I personally prefer my zucchini bread with chocolate chips, so I usually add them.
If you like chopped nuts, you can add those as well. Walnuts (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!) would work best in this recipe.
Print
Dairy-Free Zucchini Muffin Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6–9 muffins 1x
- Category: Snack
- Method: Baked
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
These healthy zucchini muffins work great for breakfasts, snacks, or desserts. They use a bunch of better-for-you ingredients in order to make a better-for-you muffin.
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1/2 c. honey or maple syrup (or 1 cup sugar)
- 1/2 c. olive oil (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 c. shredded zucchini
- 1 1/2 c. whole grain flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt (Use the code kitchenstewardship for 15% off of your first purchase)
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
- Optional: 1 cup each of chocolate chips and/or chopped walnuts (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the egg, honey, oil, and vanilla. Stir in the zucchini. Add the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt (Use the code kitchenstewardship for 15% off of your first purchase), cinnamon, and nutmeg, and mix together quickly. Do not overmix. Gently stir in the chocolate chips and nuts (if using).
- Line a muffin tin with paper liners, or grease them generously. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop the batter into the liners. Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean (it might have some melted chocolate on it if you added chocolate chips).
- Cool for 5-10 minutes before removing them from the muffin pan and placing them on a cooling rack.
Notes
You can use any other oil you feel comfortable using – avocado oil and grapeseed oil are other options. If you are not dairy-free, you can melt butter and use that instead.
If you want to save money (and save on expensive olive oil!), try substituting half to two-thirds of the oil with applesauce. It will make the muffins taste less rich – and more like a low-fat baked good – but it will save you money.
If you are egg-free, make these into vegan zucchini muffins with a flax-egg or chia-egg (from this recipe!).
If you make a big batch of muffins and freeze them, I recommend that you let them cool completely overnight (this will prevent ice crystals from forming when they freeze), wrap them individually in plastic wrap (or an eco-friendly alternative), then pack them in a gallon-size freezer bag in the freezer. They taste fresher when you wrap them individually. However, if you’re like me and you don’t like to use plastic wrap (or you know the muffins simply won’t last long), just toss the cooled muffins in the freezer bag. Try to use unwrapped muffins in the next one to two months.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 232
- Sugar: 16g
- Sodium: 209mg
- Fat: 12g
- Saturated Fat: 2g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 31g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 4g
- Cholesterol: 18mg
What’s your favorite zucchini recipe?
