These Healthy Zucchini Muffins are made with a blender of oats and zucchini: no flour required! They’re flavored with cinnamon with just the right amount of sweetness.
We have a little problem with the muffins here: It’s usually cupcakes that parade at breakfast! So many muffin recipes are sweet and a bomb of refined flour and sugar. Not that we’re against the occasional waste of this type of food. But as we get older, it becomes more of a practical matter for us. After eating most muffins, we inevitably get a sugar rush and an upset stomach. SO! We’ve created a healthy no-flour oatmeal muffin template! Oats feels like eating a bowl of oatmeal instead of a cupcake. And guess what? They taste fantastic too! Learn the secrets of our healthy zucchini muffins.
How to make healthy zucchini muffins
OK, so how is it possible to make an all-oat muffin with no refined flour? We unknowingly created a gluten-free muffin, and if you follow a gluten-free diet, you know that baked goods almost always call for unique flours. But in this case, muffins only work with oatmeal. Yes, just old oats! The secret? These are mixer muffins. And they’re based on these healthy banana muffins that have become a fan favorite.
Because these muffins are made in the blender, it mixes the oatmeal together into a flour, like the oatmeal you can find at the store. But luckily, with the addition of eggs, some oil, grated zucchini, and some sugar, the batter magically transforms into muffins: no need for weird flours! It’s really like eat a bowl of oatmeal. Well, one with a bit of egg, sugar, and grated zucchini on the side—which would be pretty gross on its own. Luckily, mixing the ingredients together makes a healthy zucchini muffin that the whole family can enjoy!
How to prepare healthy zucchini muffins:
- Mix together eggs, rolled oats, neutral oil, sugar, vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and grated zucchini.
- Add ½ cup additional shredded zucchini and diced apples (optional).
- Fill into muffin cups. Garnish with additional oatmeal.
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 35 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!
Want more oatmeal muffins? Try our Apple Oatmeal Muffins and Banana Oatmeal Muffins
Using zucchini will help reduce oil
Zucchini is often used as an oil substitute in baked goods as it contains far fewer calories than oil and is moisturizing! Because of this, these zucchini muffins are relatively low in oil: just ¼ cup for 10 muffins. That’s just over a teaspoon of oil per muffin. Thank you, zucchini!
Most zucchini are made of water, so they disappear right into cakes, muffins, and breads, leaving the baked goods perfectly hydrated. One of our favorite recipes using shredded zucchini is this gluten-free chocolate cake, which helps keep it moist and “healthy.” We recommend trying it out if you’re looking for a sweet treat!
Just sweet enough
When creating this recipe, Alex and I tried to keep the sugar to a minimum. These are naturally healthy zucchini muffins! At the same time, we balanced the need to create a muffin that tasted like people expect from a zucchini muffin.
As I mentioned above, we based this on our favorite healthy banana muffin recipe. This recipe uses maple syrup as a sweetener and it works great! However, when testing this recipe, we found that the structural properties of sugar were needed to create the right texture. While we love using natural sweeteners like maple, it just didn’t work for this recipe! We went with regular refined sugar, but you can use any type of dry sugar you like: turbinado sugar, coconut sugar, etc.
Serve up these healthy zucchini muffins
These healthy zucchini muffins freeze well, making them perfect for lunches and parties. We recently used them for breakfast when we had guests. And we plan to include them in Larson’s school lunches this fall (we made a lot of these with our banana bread muffins last year). Either way, they’re great when brushed with some peanut butter, cashew butter, or almond butter to add protein to help keep you full.
More zucchini recipes
You like to cook with zucchini? We also. Here are some other zucchini recipes you might like:
- Perfect Sauteed Zucchini How to make the BEST sautéed zucchini that everyone will be talking about! Ten minutes in a hot skillet makes these green veggies truly irresistible.
- Pumpkin Zucchini Casserole A cozy summer side dish topped with crunchy breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese.
- Roasted Zucchini and Squash or Grilled Zucchini and Squash Cook until tender with Italian herbs or grill: perfection!
- The Best Zucchini Bread It has the best flavor: spiced with cinnamon, with just the right amount of sweetness.
- Grilled Zucchini It turns out that zucchini tastes best grilled. Throw thin slices on the grill and it comes out tender and charred, with an irresistible smoky flavor!
- Chocolate Zucchini Cake This Chocolate Zucchini Cake recipe is so rich and chocolatey! It’s a family favorite that happens to be dairy-free and gluten-free.
This healthy zucchini muffin recipe is…
This healthy zucchini muffin recipe is vegetarian, gluten-free, and dairy-free.
The description
These Healthy Zucchini Muffins are made with a blender of oats and zucchini: no flour required! They’re flavored with cinnamon with just the right amount of sweetness.
- 2 Big Eggs
- 2 cups Oatmeal and more for garnish
- ¼ cup neutral oil (sunflower, vegetable or grapeseed oil)
- ½ cup Sugar
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons Cinammon
- 1 teaspoon Ginger
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1½ cups grated zucchini, lightly wrapped, divided (1 large zucchini)
- 1 cup apple cubes (1/2 big or 1 medium apple), optional
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In the bowl of a blender, add eggs, rolled oats, neutral oil, sugar, vanilla extract, baking soda, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and 1 cup grated zucchini. Mix everything together over high heat for a minute or two until a smooth paste forms.
- Add reserved ½ cup shredded zucchini and diced apples (with skin), if using. Beat gently 2-3 times until combined but not broken up.
- Place 10 muffin cups in a muffin tin and divide the batter evenly between the cups. Sprinkle with additional oatmeal and press down lightly.
- Bake until a toothpick comes out clean (ours took 34 minutes), about 30-35 minutes. Remove from the muffin tin and let cool before serving. Store in the fridge for about 1 week or freeze for several months.
- Category: Cooked
- Method: Cooked
- Kitchen: American
Keywords: Healthy Zucchini Muffins, Healthy Muffins
More muffin recipes
We have many more where they come from! Here are our favorite muffins:
