Banana Spinach Muffins – Healthy, Easy & Sweet
Making spinach muffins in a blender is a quick and easy method to get more green veggies into your diet. These nutritious and delicious spinach muffins with bananas make a great breakfast or snack for young children or adults! These simple blender muffins are moist, soft, and naturally sweetened with raw honey and a banana that you’ll never guess they’re filled with fresh spinach!
Spinach Muffins
Spinach is an incredibly nutrient-dense vegetable. It is rich in calcium, iron, folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin K, and carotenoids.
Whenever I crave some healthier versions of muffins I literally run to the garden to grab some fresh spinach. If you don’t have your own garden, make sure you buy it from a trusted farmer’s market since in case they have some pesticide residues.
I have baked a lot of muffins both sweet and veggie-filled, and these are surely among my all-time favorites! Not only are they incredibly simple to prepare—everything can be done in a blender—but they also have a delightful flavor and texture. It might be difficult to believe, but these muffins taste better the more spinach I add.
Why You’ll Love Them
- Easy to make: Simply combine the ingredients in a blender and process until the batter has a smooth appearance. There isn’t an additional bowl to clean because you can pour it straight from the blender pitcher onto a muffin tin that has been buttered or covered with parchment paper squares.
- Made with only 5 simple pantry ingredients – One of the best things about muffins is that you don’t need 10+ ingredients to make them taste fantastic! I bet you have almost if not every required ingredient already in your pantry!
- Super healthy – Believe it or not, you can use these muffins as a healthier and more flavorful replacement for bread! I use it all the time! Easy to make plus super healthy! There is no refined sugar or the use of white flour! It is made solely with organic whole wheat flour, and sweetened with raw honey!
- They taste fantastic. Since the muffins are just slightly sweetened with honey, they taste sweet rather than like spinach. If you’d like, you could even grate some dark chocolate on top to make them look prettier as a snack!
Ingredients You Need
Spinach – For the most neutral flavor, use fresh baby spinach instead of frozen, which is more concentrated and frequently fried before freezing. Preferably use ones from your garden, but if you don’t grow your own food, make sure you buy from a trusted farmer’s market.
Banana – Whenever a banana appears, it sparks the flavor with sweetness and adds additional vitamins and minerals. Make sure to use super-ripe banana (with lots of brown spots) for natural sweetness.
Eggs – You’ll need 2 small-medium eggs in this muffin recipe. I haven’t tested them with an egg alternative, but let me know if you do!
Yogurt – You can use plain yogurt or Greek yogurt.
Applesauce – You can simply make quick applesauce by finely grating or blending an apple! It adds needed moisture and additional juicy flavor to muffins!
Honey – Use raw and unsweetened honey to add natural sweetness to the muffins.
Whole wheat flour – I created two variations of these muffins: one with only whole wheat flour and the other with a mixture of whole wheat and oat flour. Both came out really nicely! To make the gluten-free version, you can experiment by combining oat flour with almond flour and see how it works out. Since there is no gluten, you might need to add additional flour.
Baking powder & Baking soda – As with baking soda, the purpose of baking powder is to create air bubbles that give muffins their light, airy texture.
Alternatives, Tips & Tricks For The Best Spinach Muffins
- Use super-ripe bananas. This is what will provide just the right amount of sweetness to the muffins. Ensure that there are several brown areas!
- Try using the gluten-free flours – I made these muffins in 2 versions, both using only whole wheat flour and mixing it with oat flour. Both turned out pretty well! You can experiment and try mixing the oat and almond flour for the gluten-free version and see how it’ll turn out. You’ll may need to add more flour since there is no gluten.
- Use powdered baking soda. For the muffins to rise correctly, remember to use both baking powder and baking soda. Don’t omit the baking soda since it is used when there’s an acidic ingredient present in the recipe.
Recipe Card: Instructions
Banana Spinach Muffins
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 1 ½ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- a pinch of salt
Wet ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 large banana
- ¾ cup (170 grams) plain yogurt or Greek yogurt
- ⅓ unsweetened applesauce
- ¼ cup raw unsweetened honey
- 1-2 cups (30-60 grams) fresh spinach
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions
- Warm the oven to 375 °F (190°C) and grease a standard-sized muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place all the ingredients in a blender (except flour) and blend until extremely smooth, pausing occasionally to scrape down the bowl edges. To make the batter green, you want to mix in the greens very finely, like you would in a smoothie.
- Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and add the flour. Mix with a spatula until well incorporated.
- Pour batter into the prepared muffin tin, that was previously greased or covered with parchment paper squares to prevent sticking.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the sides begin to softly brown and the center is firm to the touch. (You may also examine whether a clean toothpick comes out when inserted into the muffins).
Notes
- If the mixture is too thick add more plain yogurt or stir in some dairy-free milk.
