Healthy Banana Spinach Muffins
Posted Feb 25, 2018, Updated Oct 04, 2021
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These blender banana spinach muffins are an easy, healthy, freezer-friendly breakfast recipe full of fruit and veggies! They are gluten-free, dairy-free and have no refined sugar!
You all know I have a thing for hiding vegetables in baked goods. Usually, my veggie of choice is zucchini, but today I’m mixing things up a bit! This recipe for Spinach Banana Muffins is healthy, delicious and easy!
My kids love them because they’re green! We even call them “Hulk muffins,” which my son thinks is the coolest things ever. Because what kid wouldn’t want to eat a muffin named after a super cool super hero?
I love making these for my family because they’re a breakfast I feel great about serving them! These Spinach Banana Muffins are gluten-free, refined-sugar free, dairy-free and vegan-friendly! They taste like a green smoothie but in muffin form!
How to make Spinach Muffins
The best way to make these Spinach Banana Muffins is to use a high-powered blender, like the Vitamix! Using a Vitamix to thoroughly blend the ingredients in these Spinach Banana Muffins results in a final product that has zero traces of spinach, well except for the awesome green color!
- Blend dry ingredients then set aside. To make these muffins…start by putting the oats into your clean, dry Vitamix and turn them into oat flour! Add the rest of the ingredients, blend and set aside.
- Blend wet ingredients. When blending anything in the Vitamix, always add the liquid first! In this recipe, start by adding the liquid ingredients, banana and spinach and blend until smooth before adding the dry mixture!
Serve
Serve warm with a slather of homemade peanut butter or cinnamon honey butter.
Store/freeze
Store these spinach banana muffins in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Spinach muffins: Ingredients & substitutions
These are extremely forgiving muffins and there are many acceptable substitutions (although I always recommend making the recipe exactly as written to achieve the best results)! Even at high altitude (I bake at 5,000 ft. above sea level) they rise beautifully and have a wonderful texture! Some notes about substitutions:
- Ground Flaxseed: You may substitute equal amounts of almond meal or old-fashioned oats (ground into flour) for the flaxseed.
- Coconut Sugar: Use any granulated sugar you’d like.
- Almond milk: non-dairy and regular dairy milk both work well.
- Coconut Oil: You may substitute vegan butter (like Earth Balance), regular butter, or ghee.
- Eggs: For vegan version substitute the 2 eggs with 2 TBS ground chia seeds or ground flaxseed and 5 TBS water.
Recipe FAQs
No, I only recommend using a blender so that all of the spinach gets completely blended until smooth.
I often double this recipe to have enough in the freezer to last us a while.
I created these muffins for that exact purpose – to feed to my young babies/kids. Just make sure to cut them into very small pieces for babies and don’t ever leave a baby unattended while they are eating.
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Spinach Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats
- ¼ cup ground flaxseed
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ cup coconut sugar or your favorite granulated sugar
- ½ cup almond milk
- 2 cups packed spinach leaves
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- 2 extra-ripe large bananas
- 2 eggs**
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease or line a muffin tin.
- Put 2 cups of old-fashioned oats in your blender (Vitamix) and blend until the oats achieve the texture of flour. Transfer to a medium mixing bowl.
- Add the rest of the dry ingredients to the oat flour (ground flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar). Set aside.
- Add almond milk to the blender followed by 2 cups of spinach. Blend together until completely smooth and homogenous.
- Add bananas and coconut oil and blend until smooth.
- Add vanilla and eggs and blend until just combined
- Pour wet ingredients to dry mixture and stir to combine (making sure there are no lumps)!
- Fill each well in your muffin tin with ¼ cup of batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and the top springs back when touched.
Video
Notes
Ingredient Substitutions
- Ground Flaxseed: You may substitute equal amounts of almond meal or old-fashioned oats (ground into flour) for the flaxseed.
- Coconut Sugar: Use any granulated sugar you’d like.
- Almond milk: non-dairy and regular dairy milk both work well.
- Coconut Oil: You may substitute vegan butter (like Earth Balance), regular butter, or ghee.
- Eggs: For vegan version substitute the 2 eggs with 2 TBS ground chia seeds or ground flaxseed and 5 TBS water.
Store/freeze
Store these spinach banana muffins in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Parenting tangent:
I used to stress about feeding my kids veggies. I so desperately wanted them to beg me for giant plates of stir-fry and get excited over skewers full of colorful grilled vegetables. This is why my husband is so wonderful (well, one of the many reasons). He helps me see reality…that even though our kids don’t go gaga over a bowl full of roasted Brussels sprouts, the hard work has paid off and they really are great eaters.
They just know that lunch and dinner always include one fruit and one veggie. I ask them “what veggie do you want” (as opposed to, “do you want a vegetable?”) and they get to choose. It’s usually carrots or cucumbers (and always raw), but I am perfectly fine with that.
My goal is to teach my kids at a young age that healthy eating is important. I think they get the drift, and sometimes they even ask for a snack of carrots and hummus just because that’s what they’re craving! And every day while I cook dinner I put out a plate of raw veggies taht almost always gets devoured!
These Spinach Banana Muffins are another healthy-eating staple in my house. Sometimes I get crazy and add chocolate chips (or cinnamon chips)! Serve them slathered with a healthy amount of almond butter and you have yourself the perfect breakfast!
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- These paleo zucchini banana muffins are one of my favorite breakfast recipes!
- This Paleo Banana Bread is amazing!
- Paleo Blueberry Banana muffins are a reader favorite.
- This peanut butter banana baked oatmeal is SO good!
- These are literally the best banana muffins you will ever make or eat! Seriously the best.
- This banana cake is to die for.
- Spinach banana muffins are healthy and delicious!
- These double chocolate zucchini muffins are so good!
- Try this healthy banana bread! It’s delicious and no one can tell it’s good for you
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I love these! I make a batch and freeze them. Then pull out as needed!
I’m so glad you love them!
OMG!!! I’ve been thinking of making something like these muffins, but have not found any good recipes until now. They are really good and I’m keeping this recipe in a safe place for future use. I definitely recommend, especially if you are on a Keto/AIP diet.
I used my Ninja blender, and it didn’t quite get the oats into flour texture. Would using the blender to mix both the dry and wet ingredients together be okay to make it a little smoother? They were still delicious, especially with some mini chocolate chips!
You could blend all the ingredients in the blender. However the best chance to make the oats smooth/fine is to blend them into a flour-like texture first, then add the rest of the ingredients.
Can we omit sugar from this recipe?
I love everything about these muffins. Very tasty, easy to make, I freeze some and pull out as needed! I have made them many times! ❤️
This is my favorite toddler snack ever, still the favorite after 3 years, thank you!!!!
Just made these. Absolutely the best healthy muffins I’ve made! Cannot wait to share them with my 2 year old granddaughter. I put a bit of sprinkles on top to make it look festive for her🙂, but they’re great just the way the recipe is written. 10 stars!
Made a few times with spinach. Freeze well and are great for quick breakfast or snack. Today I used kale, since we harvested a bunch. Just as delicious!
Can you use frozen spinach?
I don’t recommend frozen!
This is fantastic! So good, enjoyed by me and my almost 2 year old. I didn’t have coconut sugar and didn’t want to use granulated sugar so I added agave (same amount) to the wet ingredients and it still turned out great! Also didn’t have flax but had hemp hearts so when blending the oats I just added the hemp hearts. Thanks for the recipe, I will definitely be making it again!
My whole family loves these. Even my picky greens eater. I am a Functional Nutrition Counselor/PA and recommend this recipe to everyone who has a bit of a sweet tooth. No refined sugar! It’s a win!
Has anyone used applesauce instead of oil? I know oil makes things super yummy but I’m trying to be oil-free right now. Hoping the texture is still fluffy and great!