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.
Love these muffins! Second time making them today. The first time I followed the directions and then froze the leftovers. Today I added blueberries and used honey instead of coconut sugar because I was out. Fingers crossed that they turn out! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi! These sound amazing…thank you! Unfortunately I am allergic to oats – do you have any suggestions for any substitutions that might work? Should I try gluten free flour?
Hey Emmy! Gluten-free flour could definitely work, although I haven’t tried it! If you do give it a whirl let me know how it turns out!
Baking these now, already used the hulk technique while my kids helped me bake them . They can’t wait to see how incredible these will make them hehee
The Hulk Muffins are in the oven right now and smell so amazingly delicious!!
I think they also will taste amazing, due to I nibbled the batter before which was great 😉
Thanks for such a healthy and easy recipe!
Sorry for any spelling mistakes…and best regards from Berlin, Germany 🙂
Soooo…, tried and approved!
They didn’t just smell amazing, they also taste anazing. Just a bit to sweet for me 🙂
Next time I’ll try them without sugar, due to the bananas might be sweet enough!
Hey Anni!! I’m so glad you like them! You absolutely can decrease the sugar (or omit entirely)! My kids are sweet monsters so they love the added sweetness! But if your bananas are ripe enough then they impart so much sweetness on their own! Have an amazing day!
oooh I was interested in the honey/maple syrup subs, but NO sweetener with ripe bananas makes me able to feed these to my 9 month old soon too, making these this weekend for sure!!!
Yay Anni!! I’m so glad you’re giving them a go! Isn’t it amazing the power in a name?! If I called them spinach muffins my son wouldn’t touch them with a 3 foot pole! But Hulk muffins…now that’s another story! 😉
What a great muffin, we will love this recipe! Thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday today. Have a great day and come back soon!
Miz Helen
These look great. Can you use honey instead of granulated sugar?
Hey Ali! I haven’t tried it but I think that it would totally work. You might need to decrease the other wet ingredients (like almond milk) but they should turn out great! They are very forgiving muffins! 🙂
Thanks. The honey worked out fine. I used a little less than 1/2 cup and still used 1/2 almond milk. Do they freeze well?
Hey Ali! I’m SO glad the honey worked well for you!! YAY! Yes! I always freeze them!! I just pop them into the microwave for about 30 seconds/muffin to reheat!
Yay I came to comments looking for possible honey/maple syrup substitute so I am glad I saw this, thanks ladies!!! 🙂
Mmmm, I love this idea! So unique and fun with the color, and from knowing you can’t taste it in smoothies, I know it’s probably similar here too! I’ll have to try sometime!
Hey Sarah! You’re totally right! There’s not even a hint of spinach taste in these muffins! 🙂
What a great way to give these muffins a boost! Looks delicious!
I’m always looking for ways to sneak veggies into foods my kids love! 🙂 <3