These Banana Quinoa Muffins are fluffy banana muffins made from raw quinoa, blended with oats for a healthy vegan, gluten-free muffin in the morning. These quinoa muffins are also easy to make in less than 30 minutes for a quick weekly breakfast.
You know my passion for quinoa recipes, especially adding quinoa into breakfast and desserts like in my quinoa brownies or quinoa breakfast bake. It’s a great alternative to my protein donuts and overnight oats with protein powder if you want protein but don’t want to use protein powder.
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Banana Quinoa Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cups Quinoa - uncooked, rinsed (note 1)
- 3 medium Bananas - 270g/9.5 oz peeled banana
- 1 ½ cups Quick Oats - (note 2)
- ½ cup Unrefined Cane Sugar - (note 3)
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ¼ cup Melted Coconut Oil - (note 4)
- 2 cups Almond Milk - (note 5)
Instructions
- You need a high-speed blender for this recipe, or the quinoa won't blend into flour.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 12-hole muffin pan with paper liner cases and lightly spray oil in the cases. Set it aside.
- Peel and weigh the amount of peeled banana required by the recipe for precision and to avoid dry or overly moist muffins.
- In a sieve, rinse the raw quinoa under cold water.
- In a blender, add raw, rinsed, drained quinoa, quick oats, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, bananas, salt, vanilla extract, almond milk, and melted coconut oil.
- Blend on the high-speed setting – speed 10 of a Vitamix Pro – for 40 seconds or until the batter is smooth with no pieces of quinoa.
- Rest the batter for 5 minutes in the blender before filling the muffin paper liners.
- Fill each muffin up to 3/4 their level. The recipe makes 16 muffins, so I used two 12-muffin pans. You can set aside the remaining batter and cook it after the first batch is cooked.
- Bake the muffins on the center rack for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center come out clean.
- Cool down on the wire rack for 30-40 minutes before serving.
Storage
- Store in the fridge for up to 4 days in a sealed box. Or freeze them in zip-lock bags and thaw the day before at room temperature.
Notes
Equipment
Nutrition
Why You Need To Bake With Quinoa
The reason I love quinoa so much is not really because it’s of its taste. However, I think quinoa has a slightly earthy flavor that takes some time to appreciate. It’s very much an acquired taste. But, I love quinoa for its nutritional profile.
Getting all your essential amino acids on a vegan diet can be challenging without supplements. And that’s why you should add quinoa to your plate. Quinoa is what we call a complete vegan protein source. It contains all the amino acids you need on a vegan diet.
So if you are like me and are not a big fan of quinoa, try adding it to sweet recipes! You will get all its benefits without even noticing you are eating quinoa.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Raw Quinoa – You can use any color of quinoa. I use white quinoa because it makes lovely golden brown muffins that kids will eat without asking me what’s in there.
- Quick Oats – You can use old-fashioned oats or quick oats, but the former makes the batter a little drier.
- Almond Milk – Or any plant-based milk you love like oat milk, hemp milk, or soy milk.
- Vanilla Extract – To add a delicious flavor.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda – for some rise.
- Melted Coconut Oil – Coconut oil is my preferred option, but you can also use canola oil or melted vegan butter.
- Unrefined Cane Sugar – or coconut sugar.
- Cinnamon – for taste.
- Ripe Bananas or yellow bananas – peel the banana and weigh before making the muffins, so you are sure the batter will be the right consistency.
You can stir some delicious ingredients into the batter before pouring it into the pan.
Add in half a cup of the below for a nice crunch:
- Dark Chocolate Chips
- Chopped Walnuts or Chopped Pecans
- Dried Raisins
Storage Instructions
You can store the Quinoa Muffins in the fridge for up to 4 days in a sealed box. It’s also possible to freeze them in zip-lock bags and thaw them the day before at room temperature.
More Quinoa Recipes
Below are more quinoa recipes for you to try:
can you replace sugar with maple syrup?
I don’t think it’d work, the batter might be too wet with maple syrup.
Don’t have a Vitamix blender. What are other options here?
Unfortunately you need a blender.
I am sugar free, do you think using apple puree would be a suitable replacement for the sugar?
Unfortunately no, applesauce will make the muffins ultra dense and packed. But you can replace sugar by erythritol or allulose they firm up muffins and add natural sweeteness.
I just made these.Halved the recipe to try a small batch first.They turned out exactly as in ur pics and are delicious.Great option for a cheat day bite.
Can you use regular oats instead of quick oats in this recipe?
Yes, but they come out a bit more dry