Name: Green Banana Muffins
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 1 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour (Spoon & Leveled) (187.5g ); 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder; 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda; 1/2 Teaspoon Salt; 1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon; 6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, at room temperature (85g ); 2/3 Cup Brown Sugar (135g ); 1 Egg; 3 Large Ripe Bananas (About 1 And 1/2 Cups Mashed, approx 300 grams); 1 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract; 60 Grams Spinach Puree; 40 Grams Grated Zucchini

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Green Banana Muffins are the answer to all picky eaters! Every parent needs that one sweet treat recipe that can effectively sneak in a portion of veggies, for when the little ones are acting fussy! These banana muffins are soft, light and airy and packed with greens that you won’t be able to taste at all. When your kiddo asks for a snack, tell them there’s ‘Hulk’ muffins waiting for them and watch them love every bite!

close up shot of green banana muffin in the baking tin

These green banana “Hulk” muffins are one of those recipes – a tried and tested favorite of mine. When I say tried and tested, I mean on children! I’ve never met a kid who doesn’t like these muffins, they’re a hit amongst Mahi and her friends. (And if I’m being honest, they’re a hit amongst us moms, too!)

Made using sweet overripe bananas and some spinach (pureed!) and zucchini (grated!); these muffins pack nutrition and work great for anything –as a tiffin snack, a healthy breakfast, or dessert!

The batter for these muffins comes together really quickly and they bake in about 15 mins making them the perfect quick fix for those spotty bananas you’ve got sitting on the counter top. These also freeze really well, so you can make a big batch and microwave them when you are ready to serve.

This recipe is quick - Only 15 mins baking time!
It packs in a good serving of fruits and veggies - perfect for kids
It’s a great way to use up overripe bananas
It’s super versatile – you can serve this any time and it’ll always be a treat

Ingredients You'll Need to make Green Banana Muffins

ingredients required for the green banana muffins

Bananas - Use overripe bananas for that natural sweetness that makes these muffins so YUM!
All Purpose Flour (Maida) - Maida is a light flour, we don’t want our muffins to be too dense. If you want you can do a 50:50 all purpose flour to whole wheat flour mix. We’re going for a soft and airy texture here.
Zucchini - Grated and added to the batter. We coat this lightly in the maida so that it is incorporated throughout the muffin and does not sink to the bottom.
Spinach - Blanched, cooled and then pureed. The puree is what gives these “Hulk” muffins their color!
Cinnamon - For flavor, I just love adding spices when I bake – the kitchen smelling good is an added bonus!
Vanilla - You can add extract or fresh vanilla pods - both will work here.
Brown Sugar - I like using brown sugar here, it has a richer flavor than white sugar because it contains molasses that just taste so good when baked.
Butter - We cream together some butter and brown sugar to form the base of the batter - this step is important as it will make the muffins moist and fluffy, with that spongy and springy texture that we love.

How to Make Green Banana Muffins

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Squeeze out all the water from the zucchini and discard it. Add 1-2 spoonfuls of the flour to the zucchini. Mix well until the flour coats the zucchini. Set aside.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Ensure the butter turns paler in colour.

3. Add in the egg and continue beating at high speed. Once combined, add mashed banana and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.

4. Sift together the remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the sifted flours to the bowl and fold with a rubber spatula until combined. Ensure there are no lumps.

5. Now add the zucchini flour mix and cinnamon powder to the bowl and use the spatula to combine. Transfer the batter into greased muffin tins (or with muffin liners) and fill them up upto ¾th capacity.

6. Add the spinach puree and continue to fold until combined.

7. Transfer the tin to the oven and bake for 7 minutes at 200C and then reduce the temperature to 180C. Continue baking for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

8. Remove from the oven once done and allow to cool before demoulding.

Richa’s Top Tricks to Make Green Banana Muffins

Make sure not to over-mix the batter, we just want to incorporate the ingredients together and it’s okay if you see some small chunks of unmixed maida in the batter. Over-mixing and trying to get that perfectly smooth batter will actually result in a denser bake.

Lightly coat the grated zucchini in all-purpose flour first before mixing in the batter. This will prevent the zucchini from sinking to the bottom of the muffins.

Only fill the muffin moulds ¾ths of the way since these muffins rise quite a bit.

More Ideas

You can replace the grated zucchini with grated lauki (bottle gourd)
If you want to try a different variant of this recipe, you can replace spinach puree for:
- Beetroot puree
- Pumpkin puree

Or if you’re feeling creative, you can make a big batch of all three! Just separate your batter into 3 containers and add the purees individually. Colorful muffins, here we come! Green, pink, and orange spiced banana muffins – what a treat. More colors, more veggies, is there anything better?

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. I am vegetarian. Can I make this without egg?

Using eggs helps to hold together all the ingredients well. However, you can replace it and use flax eggs (1 tablespoon flaxmeal + 3tbsp water for 1 flax egg) – this works and is a good vegetarian alternative.

2. I don’t have muffin molds. Can I make this in a cake pan?

Yes, you can still bake this in a cake pan and cut it into bite sized pieces. It’ll still be delicious and an easy snack for the lil ones. If you have individual ramekins, you can bake this in those as well.

3. My batter is looking thick. Should I add milk to thin it out?

This batter is meant to be on the thicker side. It does not need any milk or extra mixing. Just trust the process!

4. Can you taste the vegetables in these muffins?

Not at all! You’ll just taste the sweet bananas and the cinnamon. It’s delicious.

It’s not easy to plan and serve meals for kids. Some days, there’s just so much going on that it becomes difficult to prep something from scratch. Having these muffins on hand is such a life saver for those times. I just make a big batch and freeze them, reheating when needed.

And when your kiddos get those afternoon hunger pangs, you can serve them this and know that they’ll happily eat it and get a serve of veggies in, too.

If you enjoyed this recipe, tune in to my new series on YouTube featuring kid-friendly recipes and detailed tips and tricks to nail them. No kids will be throwing a fuss at meal times around here!

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