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.
HI! just made this and they are amazing! should I keep them in the fridge? or I can leave them outside?
They’ll last longer in the fridge or freezer!
Hi there!
Excited to try these today for my little girl (11 mo). But I only have frozen spinach. Do you think this would be ok or should I add more oat flour to compensate?
Thanks!
K
I just made this recipe and it was delicious! I used almost flour instead of oat flour, and half of the amount of sugar (<1/4 cup). They came out great!!
These are baking now and they smell amazing! I made the recipe exactly, except I only had spring mix. I used two cups of that plus added two tablespoons of wheatgrass powder. Whategrass can be really strong and it’s hard to disguise, but the batter was yummy! I can’t wait for my little guy to try the muffins!
Such a big success! Im vegetarian so I added a bit of protein powder to put a bit more protein into my day! I also added some cloves and nutmeg to spice it up! Will definitely be making these regularly!
YAY! I’m so glad you enjoyed them Brooke! Love the idea of adding extra spices!
My family loves these muffins! I’ve been making them at least every couple of months for a few years! I’ve tried several substitute ingredients like swapping milks or sweeteners and they always turn out amazing. I also pack in more than two cups of spinach and they still have the same great taste. They do freeze and thaw amazing! I always double the recipe and freeze half. When we’re ready to eat them I just set the batch in the fridge over night.
Currently I’m making a batch for my son’s first smash ‘cupcake’. Yay for healthy and clean ingredients for little ones!
Thank you SO much for stopping by to let me know you enjoy these muffins! What a great idea to make them into a smash cupcake for your son!!! Here’s to many more batches of sneaky veggie deliciousness! 🙂
Can I substitute almond flour for the oat flour?
Hello Brittany! I haven’t tried substitution almond flour for the oat flour, so I am unsure how the muffins would turn out if that substitution was made!
Has anyone tried making these with frozen spinach? And, do you use your regular vitamix to do this or do you have a dry container? I only have the wet container.
I have only used fresh spinach, but I imagine frozen would work. I use the wet container (the regular container that comes with the Vitamix blender)!
I went ahead and tried replacing the spinach with one cup of apple sauce and they came out great! Love this recipe so much, both with and without spinach!
Can I make these without the spinach? I thought of replacing the spinach with half the amount of applesauce…
I made these few times and I can never get them texture right due to spinach not blending well. I never knew it’s so hard to blend spinach. Hence why I’m in a great need of a vitamix.
Hey Fadia! Yes a Vitamix is pretty key to blending spinach! 🙂
I wonder if you steamed the spinach if that would help…