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A healthy summer treat with a serving of zucchini mixed into this sweet and delicious Zucchini Banana Bread! Made gluten-free with oat flour, sweetened with unrefined sugars including banana and maple syrup and a healthy dose of chocolate, this healthy zucchini bread will quickly become a new favorite snack.
The Best Healthy Zucchini Bread Recipe!
If you subscribe to the THM meal plans then you’ll be fully up-to-date on my gardening adventures! Unlike last year’s garden in our very shaded yard in California, our sunny Minnesota garden is absolutely thriving. In fact, it’s kind of out of control! Our zucchinis are especially prolific and I’m at the point where I’m just handing out zucchinis to anyone who shows up at our house. Thankfully I have plenty of zucchini recipes up my sleeve including this zucchini banana bread.
What I love about this healthy loaf recipe is that it’s entirely sweetened with unrefined sugars like maple syrup and the natural sweetness of bananas. It’s also gluten-free (love me some oat flour!) and dairy-free if you choose to grease your loaf pan with coconut oil. I’ve heard this healthy zucchini bread is a real hit with the kiddos. Would love to hear your thoughts!
Ingredients in Zucchini Banana Bread:
- Oat flour – you can buy oat flour or make your own by grinding up rolled oats. This recipe will also work with whole wheat flour if you can tolerate gluten.
- Bananas – Mashed bananas for sweetness and moisture
- Zucchini – Be sure to shred and remove all excess moisture from the zucchini otherwise it will affect the outcome.
- Maple syrup – Honey will also work or any other liquid sweetener.
- Eggs – 2 large eggs. I have not tried this with any egg substitutes, unfortunately!
- Spices – cinnamon and nutmeg add a nice spicy flavor to this healthy zucchini bread.
- Baking powder – for rise.
- Chocolate chips – because what’s zucchini banana bread without chocolate chips? You could replace the chocolate chips with nuts like walnuts or pecans.
- Sea salt – this helps to enhance the sweetness, however feel free to omit if watching sodium levels.
A quick note: This zucchini banana bread is not extremely sweet. Sweetness will depend entirely on the ripeness of your bananas. If you like things a bit sweeter I’d recommend adding 1/4-1/2 cup of brown sugar or coconut palm sugar.
How to Make Healthy Zucchini Banana Bread
STEP 1: COMBINE DRY INGREDIENTS
In a large bowl whisk together oat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and sea salt.
STEP 2: MIX WET INGREDIENTS
In a separate bowl mash up bananas and add in maple syrup and eggs.
STEP 3: COMBINE BATTER
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and fold in zucchini and chocolate chips.
STEP 4: BAKE
Add mixture to loaf pan and bake for 50-60 mins. Loaf is done when top is firm to touch and no batter remains when poked with a toothpick or fork. Let sit in loaf pan for 20 mins before removing and allowing to cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
Baking with Zucchini
The most important thing to know about baking with zucchini is that it holds a lot of water! So it’s important to shred it and squeeze out all water.
Grate zucchini into a separate bowl or onto a clean kitchen towel. Take the kitchen towel or paper towels and squeeze out all of the excess liquid from the zucchini. The end result will be a big ball of shredded zucchini that you’ll add to the batter.
Storage Instructions
This healthy zucchini banana bread will keep up to 2-3 days if left well-wrapped on the countertop or longer in the fridge.
Alternatively, you can store in the freezer wrapped in plastic wrap and aluminum foil for up to 3 months. Remove the night before to thaw on countertop.
Can you Make These as Muffins?
Yes you can! Just be sure to line your muffin pan with paper liners and bake for 20-25 minutes. I’d also recommend trying out these chocolate zucchini muffins if that’s more your style!
More Quick Bread Recipes
- Almond Flour Banana Bread
- Sweet Potato Cornbread
- Gluten-Free + Vegan Banana Bread
- Gluten-Free Lemon Poppyseed Loaf
- Pumpkin Cornbread
Zucchini Banana Bread
A healthy summer treat with a serving of zucchini mixed into this sweet and delicious Zucchini Banana Bread! Made gluten-free with oat flour, sweetened with unrefined sugars including banana and maple syrup and a healthy dose of chocolate, this healthy zucchini bread will quickly become a new favorite snack.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 12 slices 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Bake
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 2 cups oat flour (ground up rolled oats)
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch of ground nutmeg
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of sea salt
- 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 large eggs
- 1 large zucchini, shredded and excess water squeezed out* (roughly 1 cup)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease a loaf pan with coconut oil or butter and set aside.
- In a large bowl combine oat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and sea salt.
- In a separate bowl mash up bananas and add in maple syrup and eggs.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir in zucchini and chocolate chips.
- Add mixture to loaf pan and bake for 50-60 mins.
- Loaf is done when top is firm to touch and no batter remains when poked with a toothpick or fork.
- Let sit in loaf pan for 20 mins before removing and allowing to cool completely on counter.
- Will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container on the counter.
*I use a clean dish towel and place the shredded zucchini inside before squeezing out all of the liquid. Be sure to get everything so it ends up in a large ball that you have to break up into the batter.
Hi there, can it be frozen or stored in the fridge for longer than 3 days?
Loved the texture of this bread! Taste was great- not too sweet. Perfect to top with yogurt or nut butter! Def will make this againz
We made this bread today and my toddlers loved it! It was full of taste, soft and so delicious ! Saving in my recipe book as a family fave!! Thank you for sharing it! Now looking into making the sweet potatoe cornbread:)
Wonderful recipe..made it for my toddlers and they devoured it. Love that it uses oat flour. Mine was very dense and came out quite wet still after baking an hour, so I sliced it up and put back in the oven. Next time I will spread it out into bars rather than a loaf. I also added cocoa powder to make it more chocolatey. Will def be making this one again!
Dear Davida,
How much zucchini was used in this recipe (cups, after squeezed out)? Where I shop, there are many sizes of large zucchinis, I don’t know how large is large. It may help is you can give me an estimate of how many cups of it squeezed, so I can get an idea of how much zucchini to grate 🙂
Thanks in advanced.
One large zucchini will come out to around 1 cup after being squeezed. This isn’t an exact measurement, but it doesn’t need to me!
Would two flax eggs work for this bread? It looks delicious!
I think it should but I haven’t tried it myself!
I can’t wait to make this! Would you be able to tell me how much zucchini I would need in terms of cups? Thank you Davida! Absolutely love your blog!
Hi Kay! It comes out to about 1 cup after being squeezed. This is a rough estimation but the exact amount won’t change the recipe!
I really need to try this one out! It looks absolutely delicious and we have so many zucchinis in our garden at the moment that I run out of ideas what to do with them.
Defenitely trying this one out at the weekend.
xx Julia
https://www.talesofjules.com/
I made this yesterday, it is AMAZING. A delicious healthy comfort food for the cold winter in Sydney.
Absolutely love it, keep up the great work, your recipes are amazing.
So happy to hear that!
It’s in the oven now…. smells good. Will report back w/how it turns out!
It came out quite dense actually and wet (even though I cooked it or 80 minutes). I think for my personal taste, I’d rather eat something a bit sweeter.