Spinach Banana Muffins

5 from 9 votes

These delicious muffins are a beautiful jewel of bright green thanks to a healthy amount of spinach. But any spinach flavor almost disappears thanks to the banana, vanilla, and almond flour. Great to make for kids who sometimes call them Green Monster Muffins. Best eaten the day of baking, refrigerate any leftovers for up to 2 days.

Prep Time5

Cook Time20

Resting time5

Course: Bakery

Cuisine: American

Keyword: english muffins, healthy, spinach, vegetarian,

Servings: muffins

Calories: 130kcal

Author: Sally Humeniuk

Equipment

muffin pan
muffin liners

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup almond flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
⅔ cup sugar, plus extra for topping
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
⅛ tsp cinnamon, More or less, if desired

Wet Ingredients, plus spinach and banana:

¼ cup canola oil
¾ cup milk, Can use nut milk
5 ounces baby spinach, One plastic clam shell is usually 5 ounces
1 medium banana, Very ripe, mashed (no need to measure but approx. ½ cup)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F degrees and line two 12-cup muffin pans with 18 paper liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray. If you only have one muffin tin, that's fine, you can bake one batch then the remainder of the batter afterwards (it's fine for the batter to sit while one set is baking).
Whisk together 1 cup almond flour, 1 cup wheat flour, ⅔ cup sugar, 2 teaspoons powder, ½ teaspoon soda, ½ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon in a large bowl. Set aside.
In a blender, place ¼ cup oil, ¾ cup milk and 5 ounces spinach. Blend on high for about 30 seconds or until completely pureed. Add 1 mashed banana and 2 teaspoons vanilla; blend on low just to mix.
Pour the pureed mixture into the combined dry ingredients and fold together until completely combined.
The batter will be thin, like pancake batter. Let it sit for about 5 minutes to thicken slightly.
Pour batter into muffin cups, filling ⅔ to ¾ full. Using your fingers to pinch a bit of sugar, sprinkle over the tops of the muffins lightly with the sugar to thinly but completely cover the tops. This is optional but will provide a delicate crispness to the tops of the muffins. Don't use brown sugar or anything other than regular granulated sugar for this or the tops of the mufffins could get a bit burnt and won't look shiny and appetizing.
Bake 20 minutes on the middle rack of the oven. Once the tops of the muffins look bright and not too shiny, turn off the oven and open the oven door completely. Slide out the middle rack of the oven with the muffin pan still on the rack, so the pan is still inside the oven but barely. Let the muffins sit like this for 10-15 minutes; this prevents the muffins from sinking but also prevents them from being overcooked and dry.
Remove the pan from the oven and cool completely on a cooling rack. Serve immediately and place any extras in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Notes

5 ounce containers of spinach are easy to find, usually the smaller clear plastic containers are 5 ounces. Bags of spinach usually come in 6 ounce quantity. If you can only find the 6 ounce size, just pull out a loose handful to set aside for another use and you can consider the remainder close enough to 5 ounces.
I don't recommend substituting the flours in this recipe as the almond flour and whole-wheat flour both contribute to the flavor and texture of these muffins.
I've made the muffins using less sugar (1/2 cup) with pretty good success but it's worth noting that the spinach flavor is more pronounced with less sugar and that may or may not matter to you. The lower sugar makes it a little harder to keep the muffins from sinking in the middle a bit after baking. The texture is still perfect, however.

Nutrition