Vegan Zucchini Muffins
Wholesome vegan zucchini muffins that are moist, fluffy and easy to make! These muffins come together in one bowl using common pantry ingredients.
Why you’ll love these muffins
EASY TO MAKE: Like all my muffin recipes, this is a great beginner recipe that comes together in one bowl! You’ll have this easy snack in no time.
TASTE/TEXTURE: Less dense than banana bread but denser than a typical cake, for example my vegan lemon cake.
The recipe has been adapted from my popular vegan carrot muffins and vegan zucchini bread recipes.
Ingredients you’ll need
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Notes about the ingredients
Grated zucchini. You don’t need to squeeze the zucchini and waste any precious vegetable juice in this recipe! The zucchini’s moisture is balanced with a smaller amount of dairy-free milk in the recipe. I grated my zucchini in a food processor but a box grater will work fine.
Brown sugar for moisture and depth of flavor. Alternatively, you can use granulated sugar, coconut sugar, or a combination of them. But I’m going to keep it simple!
Spices that are similar to those used in carrot muffins and carrot cake. Zucchini muffins are similar to carrot muffins but with a different vegetable :).
Even though these muffins are eggless, they work wonderfully without any special egg replacers (such as a flax egg)!
Making the zucchini muffin batter
The best thing about this recipe is that it can be prepared in one large bowl!
Simply whisk all the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and stir until combined.
The consistency of your muffin batter will depend on how you measured your flour and how you grated your zucchini. If your batter is a little thick, walk away for 5 minutes. Shortly, the sugar will dissolve and the zucchini will seep liquid, and make a looser batter.
Like all my quick bread recipes, my top tip is to avoid overmixing your batter. Some lumps are fine, as long as they aren’t lumps of flour!
Topping suggestions
These muffins are delicious with no toppings. However, I included an optional crumble topping that’s super easy to make!
Alternatively, you can top your muffins with:
- Chopped walnuts or pecans
- Demerara sugar, just like my blueberry muffins or apple muffins
- Vegan chocolate chips
Tips for baking the muffins
These vegan zucchini muffins are straightforward to bake!
For large muffins (pictured), fill each muffin cup to almost the top (pictured). Or to make smaller kid-friendly muffins, fill the muffin cups by two-thirds (you’ll get many more muffins).
For extra-high muffin tops, space the muffins apart in your muffin tin (as pictured). If you have only 1 muffin tin, you’ll need to bake 6 muffins at a time and in 2 lots (it’s worth it, I promise)! Baking the muffins spaced apart encourages more oven heat to circulate each muffin so they rise more.
Expert Tips
My team and I have tested and recommend these muffins with King Arthur’s measure for measure flour! The batter is significantly thicker and it’s best to bake them for around 27-32 minutes.
There are a few ways to customize the recipe:
– Replace all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour or spelt flour. Those flours are more absorbent so I suggest adding an extra dash of milk.
– Replace brown sugar with coconut sugar. I don’t recommend using maple syrup as it’ll be too heavy for these muffins. You can also reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup (150g).
Keep in mind that these substitutions will make your muffins denser and rise less! You can also replace the oil with unsweetened applesauce, mashed banana or nut butter but your muffins will have a chewier texture.
I recommend making my vegan savory muffins instead. You can use just shredded zucchini or combine it with shredded carrot.
Optional add-ins
If you’d like some extra texture or fun, you can also add:
- dairy-free dark chocolate chips
- chopped pecans or walnuts
- dried cranberries or raisins
I recommend adding them at the same time as the wet ingredients.
To make a chocolate version of these muffins, check out my vegan chocolate zucchini muffin recipe. The chocolate muffins are slightly smaller than these ones because the chocolate chips and cocoa powder makes the muffins rise differently.
More vegan muffins
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Vegan Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose plain flour, spoon and leveled (notes 2 & 3)
- 1 ¼ cup (240g) packed brown sugar, granulated sugar or coconut sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon salt, optional
Wet ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) coarsely grated zucchini, (around 1 medium large zucchini)
- 1 cup (250g) dairy-free milk
- ½ cup (125g) neutral flavored oil
- ¾ cup (85g) chopped walnuts, or vegan chocolate chips, optional
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice, optional
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
Crumb Topping
- ½ cup (65g) all-purpose plain flour
- 3 tablespoons (35g) granulated sugar, brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 2 ½ tablespoons (35g) vegan butter, margarine or coconut oil, melted and cooled
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
To make the muffins:
- Add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix until there are no more lumps. Add all the wet ingredients (including the zucchini) and mix until just combined. If you're using nuts or chocolate chips, add them at the same time as the wet ingredients.
- Use an ice cream scoop or a spoon to divide the batter into your muffin pan. The muffin batter should be close to the top of each cup (check the step-by-step images above, note 3).
Make the crumb topping (optional):
- Using the same bowl, add all ingredients for your crumb topping. Mix with a spoon or your fingertips until combined and the mixture is flaky and crumbly.
- Generously sprinkle the crumb topping onto your muffins.
Baking and storing the muffins (note 3 for taller muffin tops):
- Bake the muffins for 23-28 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in a muffin and it comes out clean. These muffins are very moist so a few crumbs on your toothpick are fine.
- Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin pan for 15 minutes (or until they aren't too hot) then place them on a wire rack.
- Enjoy the vegan zucchini muffins warm or at room temperature. They're perfect by themselves or with some vegan butter.
- Store any leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month. If the crumb topping softens over time, you can reheat them in the oven for 10 minutes at 160°C (320°F) or until heated through.
Notes
- For the best results, use the spoon and level method to measure your flour. This is where you fluff up the flour in the bag, use a spoon to add flour to a measuring cup, then level it off with a knife. If you use a measuring cup to scoop flour out of your container, it will pack in too much flour and result in dry and dense muffins. It’s also difficult to measure zucchini accurately using a cup. For the best results, use the grams measurements.
- Gluten-free version: These muffins work well with King Arthur’s gluten-free measure for measure flour! The batter is significantly thicker and it’s best to bake them for around 27-32 minutes. Other gluten-free flour blends may produce different results.
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For the highest muffin tops, I recommend baking 6 muffins at a time in a 12-cup muffin tray. Spacing apart the muffins allows the hot oven air to bake them faster, resulting in higher tops. This means you’ll need to bake the muffins in 2 lots.
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I love the simplicity of the egglessness of this recipe, it lets the zucchini do it magic. The muffins came out of the oven just divine this morning. Kid and grown-up approved!
Hi Emily, I’m so so glad you all loved this recipe! You’ve inspired me to make them again some time soon. Thanks so much for your kind feedback, I appreciate it a lot!
Just came across your website and I will definitely try all of your recipes. They look yummy 😋 delicious.
Hi Joan, I hope you enjoy any recipes that you get to make!
I rarely leave reviews, but I had to for this one! This was my very first recipe from Anthea, and I was a little hesitant, because most vegan desserts I’ve tried have come out dense and bland. Not this one! These muffins are incredible. I couldn’t resist eating two straight off the cooling rack.
The recipe made 16 medium-sized muffins. I made a small tweak by using 1 cup shredded zucchini and 1 cup shredded Pink Lady apple instead of 2 cups zucchini, and I cut the nutmeg in half since my boyfriend and his mom aren’t big fans (though I love it!). I also squeezed out about half the moisture from both the zucchini and apple using a paper towel…. I’m a novice baker, so I wasn’t sure if that was the “right” move, but it worked beautifully.
One small note: it would be helpful if the recipe included shredding tips. I just used a cheese grater with one medium zucchini and one medium apple, and it was perfect.
I’ve already saved this recipe and can’t wait to try more of Anthea’s creations!
Thank you so much for your thoughtful review, we are so glad you enjoyed the muffins! Using apple and cinnamon sounds amazing 😍 Squeezing out the juice works just fine, though it is not strictly necessary in this recipe (though some others may call for it), as the ingredients are balanced to be used as is – it just might make the muffins a little less moist, but still delicious. We are so excited for you to try more recipes! And just for future bakes, we include tips and tricks in the post before the recipe card, which you might find helpful too ☺️