I am too excited about this muffin recipe to wait until St. Patrick’s Day! I’ve had great luck in the past using pureed spinach to turn pancakes green, so I knew I could make a green muffin. Not only do I think these turned out fantastic, even Mr. Picky loved them, too. Although I did tell him a little lie and said I used green food coloring and he just lit up, eyes wide, “Really?! You did?! Really, Mom?! Like the unhealthy kind?!” Honestly, I’m a little disappointed that my son actually thinks I would use food coloring in a muffin. And just as disappointed that he would be excited to eat that same muffin. I had to lie again. Actually, buddy, it’s a natural green food coloring which gets its color from spinach. Bummed out face. I know for a minute there he thought I suddenly turned into an exciting mom, one who would take risks and dare to use carcinogens! “Oh. They’re still good, I guess.”
And they are good! These muffins are lightly sweet, moist, simple and BRIGHT GREEN because they are loaded with spinach! St. Patrick’s Day is a HUGE opportunity to get green foods into your kids because they are expecting them. You’re showing your spirit. On any other day, green muffins are you just trying to sneak leafy greens into your kids who are not fooled. But the closer we get to March 17th, green muffins are part of the fun!
This is a very basic muffin recipe. The spinach is undetectable and the banana is very subtle. But if you hate banana, you might be able to sub 1/2 cup of applesauce. I think adding walnuts or chocolate chips would be great, too. One of my daughters suggested cream cheese frosting, although then these become cupcakes which is fine, too. These tasted best the day they were made and the next day, too. They lasted just fine a few days on the countertop in a sealed container, but I would freeze what you don’t think you’ll eat within a couple days. Let me know if you make these and if you get lucky!
Green Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, white whole wheat flour or spelt flour (or use 2 cups of King Arthur Multi-purpose Gluten-free Flour + 1 teaspoon xanthan gum)
- 2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine ground sea salt
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup pure maple syrup, Grade A or Grade B
- ¾ cup dairy or non-dairy milk, such as almond milk
- ¼ cup unrefined coconut oil, melted
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 5- or 6-ounce bag of fresh baby spinach leaves
- 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with unbleached parchment liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a blender add egg, maple syrup, milk, oil, vanilla and spinach. Process until pureed.
- Add spinach mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in the mashed banana.
- Scoop batter into prepared muffin tin, filling cups about ¾ full. I like to do this with a large ice cream scooper. Bake about 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Store at room temperature up to 3 days. These freeze nicely!
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
omg these are sooo good! I used AP flour and blended the banana w the wet ingredients. really soft, fluffy muffins.
Great! Thanks for trying the recipe!
Loved the recipe and the healthy ingredients! Not sure if it’s my liners (I only had plain white) but they were kind of hard to peel without breaking the muffins. Any suggestions? Also, I would love to make mini muffins version. What would be adjustments to time? Thank you!
Glad you liked the muffins! Not sure what to say about the liners. Bummer. I always use unbleached parchment liners or silicone liners and I have never had that issue. You can absolutely make mini muffins, but I have found that there are different sizes for mini muffin pans. It would be hard for me to say exactly what the bake time is but start checking at the 10 minute mark. I am guessing they’ll take 15-18 minutes.
I made them again and they came out perfect! I’m so glad I found this recipe! Unfortunately my daughter is 5 and she is refusing to try them because they are green 🙁 Can I leave out the spinach or would need to add anything instead?
Kids!! Next time, make them on St Patrick’s Day when it’s “acceptable” to make green food LOL. Honestly, I don’t know how they would trun out without the spinach, but if you remove that moisture, they might be done a smidge early. That’s my guess.
Hi, would it be possible to use a sugar alternative such as Monkfruit sugar?
Thank you
I don’t know, honestly. I’ve only tested this recipe with liquid sweeteners.
Also, these are really easy to do in the Thermomix. FIrst add the oil and melt at 50 degrees, then add wet ingredients and blitz at speed 9 for about 20 seconds, then add dry ingredients and mix reverse speed 4 until all mixed in, finally add the mushed bananas and fold by hand. yum.
Thanks for sharing the tips on making these in a Thermomix. 🙂
Have been making these regularly for lunchboxes for years! kids love them. Normally I put 1.5 cups wholemeal flour and 0.5 cups white flour for flufiness. Today I forgot to add the bananas, I only noticed as the muffins were already in the paper cups ready to go in the oven. So I mushed a banana and added a bit to the centre of each raw muffin and pushed it in a bit. It was delicious!
Oh wow! Good to know that works too 🙂
Wow, these turned out great, and I made a GLUTEN-FREE version with 1/2 cup-4-cup GF flour (my own recipe) and the other 1/2 was oat flour. Worked out wonderfully! The texture was moist, but unlike some other GF recipes, these also held their shape very well, while
doming nicely at the top. My whole family enjoyed, even my sometimes-picky husband!
Nice! Using half oat flour and half GF flour blend is a great way to sub for gluten free. Thanks for trying it and reporting back.