These hidden veggie chocolate muffins are as healthy as they are delicious. These rich, chocolaty muffins are made with a blended chocolate batter full of carrots, kale, zucchini, and banana. The best part is that no one will know, so even picky eaters will love it!
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Being vegan doesn’t mean giving up your favorite foods, especially classic comfort food options. Even muffins can be vegan, and they can taste just as delicious as any other muffin! For instance, my vegan raspberry muffins and apple cinnamon muffins are always big hits, even with friends who aren’t vegan.
I’ve recently added chocolate muffins to my rotation, but they’re not just any muffins. These muffins are loaded with fruits and veggies. Not even kids can tell, though, because I blend the batter in the blender to ensure you can’t see any of them. Genius, I know.
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Why You’ll Love These Hidden Veggie Chocolate Muffins
Simple Ingredients: Everything you need for these muffins can be found in your kitchen or your local grocery store.
Easy: All you have to do is blend, pour, and bake. These muffins are done in just 35 minutes!
Healthy: These muffins are made with flax, avocado oil, carrots, spinach, zucchini, and banana, so they’re chock full of vitamins, minerals, and more.
Super Moist: All the carrots, spinach, zucchini, and bananas that add so much health benefits, also add moisture that makes the muffins super moist and tender.
Ingredients and Notes
Flour: All-purpose or white whole wheat flour is the base for the batter.
Cocoa Powder: Cocoa powder gives the muffins their chocolaty flavor.
Cane Sugar: Coconut sugar adds sweetness while limiting the amount of refined sugar in the recipe to just the chocolate chips.
Chocolate Chips: Chocolate chips add another burst of chocolate flavor.
Fruits and Veggies: Carrots, kale, zucchini, and bananas add moisture and health benefits without altering the flavor of the muffins.
Unsweetened Almond Milk: This gives the batter the moisture it needs to bake properly.
Flax Egg: A blend of ground flax and water acts as a thickener and binder, just like regular eggs.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for a full list of ingredients and their exact amounts.
Substitutions and Variations
Gluten-Free: You can use a 1:1 gluten-free baking flour in place of regular flour.
Plant Milk: Any plant milk will work in this recipe. Just be sure it’s unsweetened.
Oil-Free: Any neutral oil will work in this recipe, or you can substitute unsweetened applesauce for oil.
How to Make Hidden Veggie Chocolate Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a muffin tin with paper or silicone liners.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Blend the vegetables and wet ingredients together in a blender until smooth.
- Stir together the wet and dry ingredients until just combined, then fold in the chocolate chips.
- Fill the muffin tins ⅔ full of the batter and top with additional chocolate chips. Then, bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool the baked muffins in the muffin tin for 5 minutes, then remove them and cool completely on a wire rack.
FAQ
A flax egg is an egg substitute made with a blend of ground flax seed and water. The ground flax seed absorbs the water, creating a gelatinous mixture similar to an egg white.
No, you can’t. The strong chocolate flavor of the muffins and blending the veggies down into a liquid with the other wet ingredients mask their flavor.
They’re extremely healthy! All the vegetables and fruit in the muffins mean they’re packed with vitamins and minerals. Outside of the chocolate chips, every ingredient used in this recipe is a healthy one.
Expert Tips
- It’s best to use a high-speed blender if you have one for this recipe.
- If you don’t have a high-speed blender, blend your wet ingredients a couple of times, scraping down the blender between each time to ensure everything is well combined.
- Mix your batter until just combined to avoid tough muffins. The batter will be slightly lumpy. That’s okay!
- To thoroughly squeeze the water out of your shredded zucchini, line a strainer with paper towels. Then, add the zucchini in even later on the bottom and slightly up the sides of the strainer and top it with another layer of paper towels. Press down firmly all over the top of the zucchini until as much water as possible has been removed.
Serving Suggestions
Serve the muffins as a sweet breakfast or afternoon snack with a glass of plant-based milk or a cup of coffee or tea.
You can also make them part of a larger breakfast with savory options like cornmeal porridge with coconut milk, a Just Egg omelet, or a silken tofu scramble with mixed vegetables.
Storage
Room Temperature: Store these muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Freezer: Wrap the muffins in plastic wrap and freeze them for up to 3 months in an air-tight, freezer-safe container or heavy-duty freezer bag.
Defrost: Bring the muffins to room temperature on the counter before serving.
More Vegan Muffin Recipes!
Recipe
Hidden Veggie Chocolate Muffins
Equipment
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Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- ⅓ cup organic cane sugar
- ¼ cup avocado oil
- 1 tablespoon ground flax
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup shredded carrot
- 1 cup fresh kale or spinach
- ½ cup shredded zucchini
- 1 medium banana ripe with brown spots
- ⅓ cup unsweetened almond milk
- ⅓ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips extra to sprinkle on top of the muffins
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with paper or silicone liners.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a blender, add the cane sugar, avocado oil, flax egg, vanilla extract, shredded carrots, kale, shredded zucchini, banana, and almond milk. Blend until smooth.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients, and fold together until combined. It may be a bit lumpy, and that’s okay!
- Fold the chocolate chips into the batter.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin until the are ⅔ of the way full. Top with additional chocolate chips.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes before removing and allowing them to cool completely on a wire rack.
Video
Notes
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- It’s best to use a high-speed blender if you have one for this recipe.
-
- If you don’t have a high-speed blender, blend your wet ingredients a couple of times, scraping down the blender between each time to ensure everything is well combined.
-
- Mix your batter until just combined to avoid tough muffins. The batter will be slightly lumpy. That’s okay!
-
- Thoroughly squeeze the water out of your shredded zucchini.
- Store these muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Freeze in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight.
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