Banana Spinach Muffins
Posted Feb 25, 2018, Updated May 31, 2024
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These blender banana spinach muffins are an easy, healthy, freezer-friendly breakfast recipe full of fruit and veggies.
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 their favorite 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.
- Granulated Sugar: organic cane sugar and coconut sugar are great substitutes.
- Whole milk: non-dairy and regular dairy milk both work well, especially almond milk.
- Salted Butter You may substitute vegan butter (like Earth Balance), coconut oil, or ghee.
- Eggs: For vegan version substitute the 2 eggs with 2 Tabblespoons ground chia seeds or ground flaxseed and 5 Tabblespoons water.
Spinach Muffins 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 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ cup granulated sugar (or coconut sugar)
- ½ cup whole milk (or almond milk)
- 2 cups spinach leaves (packed)
- ¼ cup salted butter (or coconut oil, melted)
- 2 extra-ripe large bananas
- 2 eggs*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease or line a muffin tin.
- Blend 2 cups of old-fashioned oats in a high-powered blender until they 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 milk, bananas, melted butter, and spinach to the container of a high-powered blender 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). Alternately, you can add the dry ingredients to the blender and blend until combined.
- 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
- Ground Flaxseed: You may substitute equal amounts of almond meal or old-fashioned oats (ground into flour) for the flaxseed.
- Sugar: Use any granulated sugar you’d like.
- Milk: non-dairy and regular dairy milk both work well.
- Salted Butter: You may substitute vegan butter (like Earth Balance), coconut oil, or ghee.
- Eggs: For vegan version substitute the 2 eggs with 2 TBS ground chia seeds or ground flaxseed and 5 TBS water.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
If I use oat flour instead of grinding oats – how much oat flour should I use?
It’s a 1:1 ratio of oat flour : oatmeal. So you use the same amount as the amount of oats called for in the recipe!
These are amazing! Thank you for including vegan substitution options. I call them “Monster Muffins” and throw them in the kids’ Bentgo boxes for a lunch entree. With a smear of peanut butter on them, they make a pretty good meal!
Glad I found this super easy recipe. Made them right before Xmas and called them grinch muffins. Hubby and toddler love them. I made them as regular size muffins and also mini ones. Mini came out a bit darker but still just as tasty. I reduced the sugar to 1/4 of a cup both times and they were sweet enough. Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe.
Just made these in mini muffin form for my 1 year old and they’re great! I made them according to the recipe, except I used probably 1/3 cup of sugar instead of 1/2. They were still a little sweet for my taste, so I’ll probably reduce it to 1/4 cup sugar next time. The bananas already add plenty of sweetness if you make sure they’re ripe enough. 17 min in the oven worked great for batches of 24 mini muffins. Thanks for the yum recipe! I know my little one will love them!
The bananas here seem really small so I put in 4. I also replaced half the coconut sugar with xylitol. I think this made it a fraction too sweet so next time I would leave out the 2 Tbs of coconut sugar! Except for these changes I stuck to the recipe and loved the result! They tasted a bit more like cupcakes than muffins to me! I’m wondering what makes them so fine grained and delicate. I made a banana oat bread recently and it was far coarser. The recipe included no oil or fat so I’m wondering if it’s that that makes the difference. I’m glad to get more spinach into my diet in a different form 😊
One more question – I sifted (with a fine mesh strainer) most of the oat flour after it went through the blender and saw quite a texture – and a colour change! Would this have affected the outcome at all? I didn’t do it with the linseeds I blended and so the flax was pretty course. Does one soft gluten free flours generally?
Thanks for this recipe. My 2 year old is allergic to eggs, dairy and much more and these are a great easy breakfast on the go. They never last long though, between the 3 kiddos and us, they are usually gone in a day or two. ive been doing double batches for a while and everyone loves them!
Yum! Did 2.5 bananas since mine were quite small and replaced coconut oil with applesauce and they worked out so well!! My hubs is gluten free and loved them so much he wondered aloud why he can’t get gluten free muffins this good in local coffee shops! Oh and I used bobs red mill egg replacer for the two eggs. Thanks!
This might be a silly question, I’m not a baker (love these though). How would I change the recipe to make it into a cake? Maybe like a 9×9 or 9” round?
Hey Amy! I have not tried doing that so I cannot advise you on how to go about it! I’m sorry!
I love these and make a double batch once a month for the freezer. How did I run out of bananas? Do you think I could replace the bananas for applesauce? Wanting to make them.in the morning. I might just risk it.
Would frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed) work instead of fresh?
I’m wondering this too! Any advice?
(using frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed vs fresh spinach)
My little man loves these! I added blueberries and traded half the oats for almond flour.