Spinach Banana Muffins (No Eggs, Gluten-Free)
Jump to Recipe Print it
Pin it!
Rate it!
Save
These moist Vegan Spinach Banana Muffins, or monster muffins as toddlers call them, are healthy banana muffins for kids’ snacks.
They are packed with nutrients, fiber, protein, and also refined sugar-free.
Bonus, these spinach blender muffins are also egg-free and dairy-free—the perfect vegan snack for kids.
What Are Spinach Banana Muffins?
Green monster muffins or hulk muffins are healthy toddler muffins made of banana and spinach.
They are nutritious kid snacks or on-the-go breakfasts packed with fruits, vegetables, and plant-based proteins.
Their name comes from their flashy, vibrant green color, very attractive to kids’ little eyes.
Parents love to give a funny name to these muffins to encourage kids to eat them more.
Some call them hulk muffins, monster muffins, or dinosaur muffins!
How To Make Spinach Banana Muffins
It is effortless to make spinach banana muffins for toddlers in your blender.
Of course, you must have a high-speed blender, strong enough to pulse all the ingredients together, or the texture of your muffins come out gritty.
Ingredients
The ingredients you need to make this monster muffins recipe are:
- Instant oats, rolled oats, or oat flour – I highly recommend using instant oat for this banana spinach muffins blender recipe. Instant oats are basically rolled oats that have been pulsed to a finer texture. Rolled oats are coarser and can be difficult to blend if you don’t have a powerful blender, which means you will have to blend the batter faster and longer to create a smooth muffin batter. As a result, over-blended muffin batter creates a tunnel effect in baked muffins – it means that the muffins will form holes in their center when baked. Using instant oats avoids this problem.
- Almond milk or any dairy-free milk you like
- Lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Ripe banana – peel the bananas and weigh them for precision.
- Fresh spinach – I am using fresh baby spinach, but frozen spinach works as well. Thaw the frozen spinach, squeeze out all their juice, and pat dry on absorbent paper before weighting and adding to the blender. Another option is to use trimmed fresh kale.
- Maple syrup – or any liquid sweetener you love.
- Melted coconut oil – or vegetable oil of choice or light olive oil.
- Vanilla extract
Combining Ingredients
The key to making light and fluffy blender muffins is to create a smooth batter in your blender.
First, add all the wet ingredients to the bottom of the blender jug: almond milk, lemon juice, coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla.
Then, add soft ingredients: spinach and banana. Finally, add the dry ingredients: instant oats or rolled oats, baking powder, and baking soda.
Blend on high speed until the batter is smooth and not grainy. Rest 5 minutes in the blender before filling muffins.
Filling Muffin Tray
Now, line paper muffin cups into your muffin tray. You can use one large muffin tray with 12 holes or 3 mini muffin pans with 12 holes.
Then, fill each muffin case up to 3/4 and place the muffin tin in the center rack of your oven.
Bake in an oven preheated to 350°C (180°C) for 15 minutes for mini muffins or 20-22 minutes for large muffins.
Cooling Down
Transfer the baked goods onto a cooling rack and wait for about 1 hour before serving these spinach banana mini muffins to kids.
Storing Spinach Blender Muffins
These easy spinach banana muffins store very well in the fridge in a sealed container or lunchboxes for up to 3 days.
Another way to store them for longer is to freeze your mini spinach muffins in ziplock bags or airtight boxes.
Thaw the muffins the day before in the fridge or 3 hours at room temperature before serving these green monster muffins as an easy toddler meal.
Allergy Swaps
You can replace instant oats with white whole wheat flour instead of an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend – make sure it contains gum like Bob’s red mills.
The recipe steps will be slightly different as you can’t blend the gluten-free flour in the blender, or the batter will be very dense and the muffins thick as a rock.
First, stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Blend all the remaining ingredients until they form a smooth green smoothie.
Pour this green mixture onto the bowl with the flour. Stir until it forms a thick batter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Are My Muffins Grainy Or Packed?
This happens if your oats didn’t blend into a thin flour in the blender. It can be because you used rolled oats instead of instant oats.
As mentioned above, rolled oats are coarse and difficult to pulse into a fine flour.
Or your blender is not powerful enough to break the oats into flour and create a smooth muffin batter.
If so, use all-purpose flour or make your own oat flour first.
Then, add the oat flour into a large mixing bowl, process the remaining ingredients into a green smoothie, and pour onto the homemade oat flour or regular flour.
Stir to form the muffin batter and use it as regular.
Can I Add Chocolate Chips?
Yes, for bigger kids, you can add up to 1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips into the muffin batter or sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top of each muffin.
I recommend sprinkling the chocolate chips on top of the baked muffins. The chocolate chips gently melt, and they won’t brown too fast in the oven.
Can I Remove The Sweetener?
Plus, removing the liquid sweetener will impact the texture of the muffins. They will end up drier and less sweet.
These spinach muffins contain a very low amount of unrefined sugar from maple syrup.
I don’t recommend removing the sweetener if you have picky eaters because it hides perfectly the spinach flavor.
When Should I Eat Monster Muffins?
These monster muffins are perfect for toddler breakfast or vegan kids lunchbox snacks because they contain plant-based proteins from oats, natural sugar from bananas, and nutrients from spinach and all the previous ingredients.
They make a complete breakfast that kids love.
More Vegan Kids Recipes
If you’re looking for kid-friendly recipes, you’ll love these:
Don’t forget to check all my Ripe Banana Recipes ideas for more ways to use those ripe bananas!
Have you made these spinach banana toddler muffins with your little one? Share your comment or review below! I love to hear your feedback on my recipes.
Your friend! Carine
Spinach Blender Muffins
Ingredients
- ½ cup Almond Milk - or milk of choice
- 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
- ¼ cup Melted Coconut Oil - or any vegetable oil
- ¼ cup Maple Syrup
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 2.5 oz Spinach
- 1 cup Mashed Bananas - 8.3 oz, it's about 2 large peeled bananas
- 2 cups Instant Rolled oats - (6.8 oz) or rolled oats
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 340°F (170°C) or 325°F fan-forced mode (160°C). Line two 12-hole mini muffin tray with a paper liner. Set aside.
- Measure all your ingredients in a small bowl for precision. Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature if using coconut oil, or the oil can firm up in contact with cold milk.
- Place all the ingredients in the jug of a high-speed blender, follow the order listed in the recipe card above.
- Blend on high speed to form a thick green batter. You may have to stop the blender and scrape down the sides of the bowl or use the blender stick to help the batter mix well together. Stop when the batter is smooth and consistent, not grainy. Rest the batter for 5 minutes in the jug to thicken.
- Transfer the batter into the prepared muffin tray.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a pick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. You can foil the top of the tray after 8 minutes to prevent the top from browning and keep the muffin color very green.
- Cool down on a cooling rack.
Storage
- Store up to 4 days in a sealed container in the fridge or freeze and thaw 3 hours before at room temperature.
These come out perfectly every time we make them. We usually do 12 regular size muffins. Nutritious and my toddler loves them! Thank you!
We have a coconut allergy – would olive oil work next best? We have a soy allergy also, so can’t do vegetable. Or maybe applesauce as a sub for coconut oil?
Thanks!
You can replace coconut oil by avocado oil or light olive oil.
how much is 2.5oz of spinach in cups? I cannot eat oats, can I replace with almond flour, if so how much? Thank You!
It’s about 1 cup baby spinach packed in a cup. Oats can not be replaced by almond flour it won’t work. I didn’t try something else yet so I can’t recommend more I am sorry
Will omitting maple syrup do anything to the muffins?
Yes, they will be dryer without liquid sweetener
Just wanted to share that these came out perfect! My daughter is now obsessed with them and I love them too. I used oat milk instead of almond milk (due to a nut allergy) and it all turned out great. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Thank you so much!
I have oat flour on hand and so will have to use that—would it still be 2 cups? Thanks!
It should be almost the same amount, may 1/4 cup extra if you found the batter too liquid
I accidently left these on the counter overnight, will they be ok to eat still.
Absolutely, one night is fine.
These are a huge hit with my toddler (and myself!) We call them Dinosaur muffins, my little one DEVOURS them lol. Thank you for an easy, but still super yummy, recipe! I’m not great in the kitchen but these are easy to follow & make. Excited to try the chocolate spinach muffins next!
Thank you so much !
The amount of each ingredient is not listed
The amount appears before this comment section, in the recipe card. Enjoy!
Not sure if this message will be seen – but I tried to make these tonight and used the quick cooking rolled oats from Bob’s Red Mill. I don’t have mini muffin tins so I used regular and filled the cups about 1/2 full with batter. I blended the ingredients until it was smooth, per the instructions, and covered the muffins with tin foil after 8 minutes. But these muffins did not rise and once cooled, they sunk into bricks of gooey muffins. And I cooked them for almost 10 minutes longer. But no matter what we tried, the toothpick wasn’t coming out clean. Any ides/advice/suggestions for what I might have done wrong? My 5 year old is very picky and we recently found out he also has to be on a gluten-free diet for health reasons. I had another green smoothie muffin recipe he loved, but it used whole wheat flour and subbing GF flour did not work.
The recipe calls for instant oats. Instant oats is already cooked, dehydrated oats and it is steamed for longer and rolled thinner than quick oats, which is why they take less time to cook compared to quick oats. Also, I will definitely make these muffins in a small muffin tins for better result because they are egg free, they won’t set as well in a large muffin pan. Finally, if the muffin deflated, it means you over blend the batter, adding too much air in the batter. This is probably because you used quick oats, it’s larger and takes more time to blend and pulse into a thin flour than instant oats. So I would retry the recipe in small muffin pan using instant oats to decrease blending time (deflation of muffin) and improve baking inside. I hope it helps