This Healthy Banana Zucchini Bread has a delicious moist cinnamon banana crumble filled with crunchy pecans. This is a delicious, healthy banana bread to sneak some greens into your morning. Plus, this banana bread is also vegan, egg-free, and dairy-free.
Ingredients and Substitutions
It’s a very easy bread to make using a few simple, wholesome ingredients. Let’s see what you need to make this delicious banana bread with zucchini.
- White Whole Wheat Flour – Or all-purpose flour. It also works with all-purpose gluten-free flour, but the crumb is a bit denser and drier.
- Ripe Bananas – The riper, the sweeter the bread will taste, but yellow bananas also work very well.
- Shredded Zucchini – For this particular recipe, you won’t need to squeeze out the water from the zucchini. This is because the bread is made of high-fiber white wholewheat flour that balances the extra moisture from the zucchini. It’s also convenient as it makes this zucchini bread recipe way faster.
- Extra Virgin Light Olive Oil – Or vegetable oil you love, including melted coconut oil.
- Plant-based Yogurt of choice – Coconut yogurt is my favorite
- Brown Sugar or coconut sugar – You can use any crystal sweetener you have in your pantry but not a liquid sweetener like maple syrup. In fact, liquid sweetener makes this bread gummy and heavy, so it’s better to avoid it.
- Pecans or Walnuts – The addition of nuts is optional, but it adds a delicious crunch and some healthy fats, plant-based proteins, and fiber. Another option is to swap the nuts for chocolate chips. If you do so, choose sugar-free dark chocolate chips to avoid adding too much sugar to this healthy banana zucchini bread recipe.
If you don’t want to use white wholewheat flour, there are other options. Use the same amount of:
- All-purpose flour or cake flour
- White spelt flour
- All-purpose gluten-free flour
However, note that this recipe won’t work with almond flour, coconut flour, or oat flour. Since this is an egg-free banana zucchini bread, these three flours won’t be able to hold the bread crumbs together. You can add many delicious ingredients to this banana zucchini bread batter. We really enjoy 1/2 cup of chopped pecans, but if you don’t have any, try some of the options below:
- Dark chocolate chips
- Shredded coconut
- Chopped walnuts
- Dried fruits – chopped apricots, dates, or dried raisins
How To Make Healthy Banana Zucchini Bread
This recipe is a healthy banana zucchini bread made without eggs, dairy, or refined sugar and uses nourishing whole wheat flour.
- First, peel and mash the bananas on a chopping board, and measure the exact amount required by the recipe. This is very important because bananas add not only moisture but also some texture. If you don’t add enough of them, the bread can end up dry or fragile and less sweet.
- Next, trim the end of the zucchini and shred them on the smaller grater blade of your food processor or hand grater. Measure 1 cup of shredded zucchini, but don’t squeeze the moisture from them. My other vegan zucchini bread recipe calls for squeezing out the zucchini water, but for this banana zucchini bread, the zucchini moisture gives the bread its texture, so keep it.
- Next, combine the mashed bananas with olive oil, sugar, vanilla extract, shredded zucchini, and chopped pecans. Set aside.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until just combined. Don’t over-mix the batter to avoid gummy bread. If your batter is too dry, you can add a splash of almond milk at room temperature up to 2 tablespoons.
- First, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Next, line a 9-inch x 5-inch pan with parchment paper and lightly oil the paper with coconut oil or olive oil. Then, transfer the banana bread batter into the pan and sprinkle extra pecans nuts on top of the bread if desired.
- Bake your healthy banana zucchini bread in the center rack of the oven for 60-70 minutes. It’s quite a big loaf, and it takes a while to bake.
That’s why I recommend tenting the top of the loaf pan with a piece of foil to prevent the top of the bread from burning.
Baking Tips
Check the baking process regularly by inserting a toothpick in the center of the zucchini banana bread to check if it’s cooked through. If the pick inserted in the center comes out clean, then the bread is ready. If it comes out very wet, keep baking for longer.
Let the baked banana zucchini bread cool down on a wire rack for at least 3 hours or overnight. The longer it cools down, the better the texture will be.
Serving
You can serve this banana bread with zucchini on its own. It’s sweet and delicious plain. But, for a nutritious breakfast, add a dollop of one of the spreads below.
- Peanut butter
- Almond butter
- Cashew butter
- Chia seed jam
Frequently Asked Questions
This banana zucchini bread stores very well in the fridge, in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
This vegan zucchini bread can be frozen. The best is to freeze slices so you can thaw one serving at a time when you feel like eating a slice of banana bread.
This banana zucchini bread is a very healthy banana bread to start the day or snack on.
The main reasons it’s healthier than regular banana zucchini bread are:
– Less saturated fat – this recipe doesn’t use eggs or butter and only olive oil as the fat. Olive oil is a healthy low-saturated fat oil to bake bread and is high in healthy fat, including omega-3 and omega-6.
– Less sugar – this recipe contains only a low amount of added sugar and unrefined sugar to add more nutrients to your banana bread.
– High in fiber – white whole wheat flour is higher in fiber and makes more nourishing, fulfilling baked goods than white flour.
More Zucchini Recipes
I love baking with zucchini because it adds the most delicious moist texture to bread and brownies. It’s also a great way to use all the overgrown summer zucchini or to sneak a piece of greens into your plate while enjoying a treat. Below I listed my favorite zucchini recipes for you to try.
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Healthy Banana Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup Mashed Banana - about 2 large bananas
- ¼ cup Dairy-Free Yogurt
- 1 cup Shredded Zucchini - packed in the cup, not squeezed.
- 1 ¾ cup White Wholewheat Flour - or spelt flour or All-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ½ cup Brown Sugar - or coconut sugar or white sugar
- ⅓ cup Light Olive Oil - or melted coconut oil or vegetable oil you like
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup Pecan - finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) .
- Line a 9×5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Grease the paper with olive oil. Set aside.
- Peel and mash bananas and measure the exact amount required by the recipe. Set aside.1 cup Mashed Banana
- Trim the ends of the zucchini, shred with the fine grater blade of a food processor or hand grater, Pack into a cup to measure the amount you need, don't squeeze out the water from the zucchini unless they are super watery. Set aside.1 cup Shredded Zucchini
- In a mixing bowl, whisk flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together.1 3/4 cup White Wholewheat Flour, 2 teaspoon Baking Powder, 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda, 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- In a large mixing bowl, combine mashed bananas, yogurt, olive oil, shredded zucchini.1/2 cup Brown Sugar, 1/3 cup Light Olive Oil, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract, 1/2 cup Pecan
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Don't over mix to avoid gummy or dense bread. If too dry, this happens if you accidentally remove the juice from the zucchini, you can add up to 2 tablespoons of almond milk at room temperature to bring the batter together.
- Transfer the batter into the loaf pan and sprinkle extra chopped pecans on top if desired.
- Bake 350°F (180°C) for 60-80 minutes – I recommend tenting the pan with a piece of foil after 45 minutes to prevent the top from browning too fast. The bread is ready when a pick inserted in the middle of the bread comes out dry or with a little crumb on it.
- Cool down for 3 hours or overnight before slicing. The bread will deflate slightly and get all its texture when it reaches room temperature.
- Store in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze up to 3 months in freezer bags.
This bread was surprisingly easy and delicious! I love banana bread with some butter on it and this has the benefit added greens! Made exactly as written!
Only difference I made in this recipe he was I added shredded carrots to the bread which was excellent. Baked it at a lower temperature for a longer period of time 325° for about 75 minutes. Covered with foil so it wouldn’t Brown too much.
Great idea!!
Bonjour, pourrais-je avoir les recettes en français?. Y a-t-il la traduction ?. Merci
Le mieux c’est de traduire avec Google Translate!
Can I use almond or coconut flour ? Is yes what changes do we make ?
No, not without massively changing the recipe!
Healthy and delicious recipe I try all of your recipe..
Oh thank you so much!!
Do i need to peel the zucchinis?
No, it’s up to you
If I wanted to add Chia Seeds for nutrition benefits, do I need to adjust the recipe above? I don’t want to dry out the break by adding the seeds but I do not know what I would need to adjust.
You are right, chia seeds are high fiber and highly liquid absorbent. They might dry out the crumb. Maybe add a small amount no more than 2-3 tablespoons and keep the zucchini liquid in the batter to add moisture for the seeds. I hope it works well.
I made muffins with this recipe. The only changes I made was 1/4 cup Almond Milk and 1/4 cup additional sugar because the bananas weren’t that sweet.
Great no egg, no dairy recipe!
Can I make these into muffins?
Absolutely, but you’ll have to reduce the cooking time.
I made this today- it is fantastic! A hit with the whole family! Thank you for the recipe!