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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New go to muffin recipe. Used canola oil and regular milk.
Love spaniach any way. The recipe is delicious. Everyone loved them
I have made these twice and they are SO good. I haven’t figured out why but they won’t rise like the ones in your pic. Totally flat. But they still taste good!
Mine were flat too! Maybe try folding in the eggs next time as not to overmix but I’m not sure that’s the problem.
Can I replace sugar with pressed dates?
I added dates to the banana/spinach mixture and reduced the amount of sugar (but didn’t leave it out it completely). The muffins were sweet enough but I got a denser texture.
I made them vegan so that might also be why (replaced the eggs with chia). Next time I’ll try to use only dates, along with a trick I learned that blew my mind: add some soda water to the batter! It makes for the fluffiest egg substitute.
I’ll report back here and let you know how it went 🙂
I make this recipe monthly as a double batch and put them in the freezer for a quick and yummy breakfast for the kids. My veggie avoider daughter really likes these, although I always add mini chocolate chips which might help. We love these muffins!
I’ve been making this recipe long enough, exactly as it’s written, I thought it’s finally time to write a rave review!! So… I’ve been making these muffins for a few years. As my picky toddler has gotten pickier, these have been a constant on our breakfast/snack menu. I make them at least once a week. This morning my son informed me that since green was no longer his favorite color, he didn’t want any muffins 🙄. When he said he wanted pink muffins, I knew exactly what to do. I replaced the spinach with a small, roasted beet. With 2 VERY ripe bananas on hand, I knew he’d hardly notice the beets. We ended up with delicious muffins with the slightest pink tinge. Thanks for helping me get some veggies in my picky boys belly!!
Wow these are good. I made them for my one year old so I wanted to avoid sugar. Instead I put 6 dates. I also accidentally blended the oats with the other ingredients.
The muffins came out awesome. This is a legit recipe. Thanks!
I absolutely love this recipe and how flexible it is. I have been making these muffins for the past 2+ years and every time they come out great and my picky eater gobbles them up. This recipe also jump started my attempts at baking vegan – which I never thought would be possible (in that other people would want to eat them). THANK YOU! Every time someone asks about a healthy muffin option I share this recipe.
In case it helps others, I usually make mini muffins (12-14 mins), and have used baby spinach, kale, a split with chopped Brussel sprouts (that was by accident/not looking in fridge first) and I switch between using coconut oil and olive oil. Mostly I use fresh/browning bananas, but I have tried frozen and usually add half of a fresh one to the two frozen since I am usually late in getting them to the freezer and they are pretty darn squishy by then. I always use chia “eggs”. Love them!
Can I sub steel cut oats, and how to convert it into a pan cake instead of muffins.
The çöme otu delicious. I didn’t have flex seed so I replaced it with sesame seeds. I also replaced cinnamon with another cup of vanilla extract. It came out delicious, my kids and husband love them. Thank you for sharing this.