The Most Delicious Banana Carrot Muffins EVER!
Do you struggle to get your family to eat their vegetables? These banana carrot muffins are packed with a whole serving of veggies, but taste like dessert! They’ll have no problem eating their veggie-packed muffin, then asking for more! Plus, they can be made in minutes with ingredients you already have on hand.
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Why you’ll love this recipe
- One muffin provides over 100% DV for Vitamin A.
- Low in added sugar. Only ⅓ cup of added sugar is needed for the entire recipe!
- Ready in under 30 minutes, start to finish.
- Perfect for a diabetes-friendly snack with 18g of carbohydrate plus 3g of protein and 3g of fiber per muffin!
What you’ll need
Carrots: You can’t make banana carrot muffins without carrots, right?! The carrots add both nutrition and flavor, while making a moist, delicious muffin. Low in calories and carbohydrates, carrots pack over 100% of your DV of vitamin A from carotenoids (an antioxidant responsible for carrots orange color).
While carrots are the perfect addition to any meal or snack, you can deliver a serving to your kids (and yourself!) with just one muffin!
Banana: Bananas add natural sweetness to these muffins as well as an extra nutrition punch. And there’s no need to worry about adding bananas into the recipe if you are managing blood sugar either. While they are a higher carbohydrate fruit, containing 28g of carbs per banana, most of those carbohydrates are actually resistant starch. The resistant starch in bananas is not broken down in the small intestine like other carbs are, which results in a slower rise in blood sugar.
Oat Flour: If you don’t have oat flour on hand, you can easily make your own! Just add oats to a blender or food processor and blend until you have a fine, flour-like powder. Oat flour is a tasty way to increase the fiber in your baked goods. As an added bonus, rolled oats contain a source of prebiotic fiber that is beneficial in stabilizing blood sugar levels.
Greek Yogurt: Adding greek yogurt to these veggie muffins help with moisture, without needing extra oil. The result? A lower fat, deliciously moist muffin with an extra protein kick.
Dark Chocolate Chips: Chocolate chips are a fun add-in that really helps these muffins taste like dessert, especially for kids! Dark chocolate is higher in cocoa flavanols and lower in sugar than milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips. If you want to reduce the added sugars and carbs further, you can use sugar-free chocolate chips as well.
How to make this recipe
- Ready to whip up a batch of these delicious banana carrot muffins? Let’s get started. If shredding your own carrots: Using the large holes of a box grater or the grating attachment for your food processor, grate approximately 4 carrots to get 2 cups of shredded carrots. Alternatively, you can purchase pre-shredded carrots to use.
- Preheat the oven to 325 ℉. Prepare a muffin tin by adding silicone or paper muffin liners and spraying with cooking spray.
- In the food processor with the blade attachment, add Greek yogurt, vanilla, egg, oil, banana, and carrots. Process until well combined.
Note: If you don’t have a food processor, you can combine the wet ingredients by hand in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir together the Greek yogurt, vanilla, egg, oil, mashed banana, and carrots until well combined. - In a separate medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients: sugar, oat flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, along with the chocolate chips. Stir until just combined and no dry spots remain.
- Using an ice cream scoop, or ⅓ cup measuring cup, scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
FAQs
As a dietitian and a mom, I definitely think so. Each of these muffins has a serving of vegetables, is just over 100 calories, a good source of fiber and potassium, and provides over 100% DV of vitamin A! They might taste like dessert, but you’ll also enjoy the health boost they provide.
Once cooled, place the banana carrot muffins in an air-tight container. Store at room temperature for 1-2 days. If storing longer, place in the refrigerator and store up to 5 days.
These muffins freeze well for up to 4 months. To reheat, thaw in the refrigerator or wrap in a paper towel and microwave for 20 seconds at a time until thawed.
Nutrition benefits
While many muffins are packed with sugar and have very little actual nutrition benefit, this recipe was made to be kid and diabetes-friendly. Since most of the sweetness is from natural sources, each muffin only has 5g of added sugars.
Each banana carrot muffin contains 18g of carbohydrate as well as 3g each of protein, fiber, and fat. This balance in nutrients helps to slow down the release of sugar into your bloodstream.
Many of the carbohydrates in these recipes come from complex carb sources. Complex carbs help to slow down your blood sugar response so you can enjoy a sweet treat without the spike in blood sugar.
More Muffin Recipes
Looking for other delicious and nutritious muffin recipes? Try one of these!
Oat Banana Blueberry Muffins with Walnuts
Ninja Turtle Green Veggie Muffins
Ready to give these banana carrot muffins a try? Grab your veggies and let’s get started. And make sure you tell me what you think by giving it a 5-star rating & sharing it with me on Instagram by tagging me @ErinPalinskiWade
Banana Carrot Muffins
Equipment
- Ice cream scoop or ⅓ cup measuring cup
Ingredients
- 2 cups carrots, shredded
- 1 medium banana, ripe
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1½ cup oat flour
- 1 Tbs cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ⅓ cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- If shredding your own carrots: Using the large holes of a box grater or the grating attachment for your food processor, grate approximately 4 carrots to get 2 cups of shredded carrots. Alternatively, you can purchase pre-shredded carrots to use.
- Preheat the oven to 325 ℉. Prepare a muffin tin by adding silicone or paper muffin liners and spraying with cooking spray.
- In the food processor with the blade attachment, add Greek yogurt, vanilla, egg, oil, banana, and carrots. Process until well combined. Note: If you don’t have a food processor, you can combine the wet ingredients by hand in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir together the Greek yogurt, vanilla, egg, oil, mashed banana, and carrots until well combined.
- In a separate medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients: sugar, oat flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, along with the chocolate chips. Stir until just combined and no dry spots remain.
- Using an ice cream scoop, or ⅓ cup measuring cup, scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Notes
- Two cups of shredded carrots equal approximately 4 medium-sized carrots. To Shred, use the grating attachment on your food processor OR the large holes in a box grater.
- If you do not have oat flour, make your own by blending regular oats (old-fashioned or quick) until the texture is fine like flour.
- To store: Once cooled, place the muffins in an air-tight container. Store at room temperature for 1-2 days. If storing longer, place in the refrigerator and store up to 5 days.
- To Freeze: These muffins freeze well for up to 4 months in an airtight container. To reheat, thaw in the refrigerator or wrap in a paper towel and microwave for 20 seconds at a time until thawed.