Healthy Zucchini Muffins
These healthy zucchini muffins are naturally sweetened and made with whole wheat flour! They're fluffy, moist and absolutely delicious, too.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
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I thought I had this zucchini muffin recipe in the bag. Make my favorite zucchini bread batter, divide into muffin cups, bake for less time—nope. The increased surface area produced slightly dense and dry muffins, which were fine for “healthy” muffins. However, I wanted fluffy, moist and thoroughly delightful muffins that just-so-happened to be healthier.
So, I cross-referenced the zucchini bread recipe with my all-time favorite blueberry muffins in my cookbook. I adjusted the leavener, upped the amount of milk and switched to buttermilk for a more tender crumb. Success! These zucchini babes will make everyone happy.
Cookbook launch week has been a thrill. I’m overwhelmed, honestly. I’m so excited that you’re excited about the book, flattered by my fellow food bloggers’ kind words, and thankful for friends who took the time to say cheers. All that, and I’m still a little apprehensive about sending my book baby into the world. Is this what it feels like to send a child off on a school bus for the first time?
Thank you for your comments, notes and reviews; they mean so much. I hate to ask for more, but if you’ve had a chance to make recipes from the book already, would you mind leaving a review on Amazon to share your experience soon? That might seal the deal for people who aren’t familiar with my blog already.
If you haven’t gotten the book, I have more details about Love Real Food over here. I’d be glad to answer any questions you might have in the comments. Lastly, I promise I won’t go on and on about the book forever. ♥
What makes these zucchini muffins healthy?
Granted, “healthy” is a subjective term, but here are a few reasons why I consider these muffins to be more nutritionally redeeming than most:
- Unlike standard zucchini muffins made with refined all-purpose flour, these are made with white whole wheat flour. That means they’re made entirely with whole grains, but you can’t taste them because white whole wheat flour has such a mild flavor.
- Coconut oil or olive oil replace butter (olive oil is composed of more monounsaturated fat, and is considered to be more heart-healthy)
- Real maple syrup replaces refined sugar, so these muffins are naturally sweetened.
- Combined, you end up with hearty and delicious zucchini-flecked muffins.
These muffins are easily adapted to vegan and gluten-free diets, too! See my recipe notes for details.
Watch How to Make Zucchini Muffins
More Muffin Recipes to Enjoy
- Healthy Banana Muffins
- Healthy Blueberry Muffins
- Healthy Carrot Muffins
- Lemon Raspberry Muffins
- Strawberry Oat Muffins
Please let me know how these muffins turn out for you in the comments! I love hearing from you.
Healthy Zucchini Muffins
These healthy zucchini muffins are naturally sweetened and made with whole wheat flour! They’re fluffy, moist and absolutely delicious, too. Recipe yields 1 dozen muffins.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup roughly chopped raw walnuts or pecans (optional)
- ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil*
- ½ cup honey or maple syrup
- 2 eggs
- ⅔ cup buttermilk (or ⅔ cup milk of choice mixed with 2 teaspoons vinegar, allow to rest for 5 minutes before using)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 ½ cups grated zucchini (you’ll need 1 small-to-medium zucchini, about 7 ounces—working in handfuls, gently squeeze out excess moisture from the grated zucchini over the sink)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. If necessary, grease all 12 cups on your muffin tin with butter or cooking spray (my pan is non-stick and doesn’t require any grease).
- Toast the nuts (if using): Once the oven has finished preheating, pour the chopped nuts onto a small, rimmed baking sheet. Bake until the nuts are fragrant and toasted, about 4 to 5 minutes, stirring halfway.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the coconut oil and honey. Beat them with a whisk until they are combined. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the buttermilk and vanilla. Whisk to combine, and set the bowl aside. (If your coconut oil solidifies on contact with cold ingredients, simply let the bowl rest in a warm place for a few minutes, like on top of your stove, or warm it for about 30 seconds in the microwave.)
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Using a big spoon, stir to combine.
- Pour the liquid mixture into the dry and stir just until combined (a few lumps are ok!). Add the zucchini (be sure to squeeze excess moisture out of the zucchini first) and toasted nuts, if using. Gently fold the zucchini and nuts into the batter, being careful not to over-stir.
- Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. Bake muffins for 16 to 19 minutes, or until the muffins are golden on top and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
- Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to cool. If you have leftover muffins, store them, covered, at room temperature for two days, or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Freeze leftover muffins for up to 3 months.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my zucchini bread and the blueberry maple muffins in my cookbook, Love Real Food.
*Oil options: I love coconut oil here. I used unrefined coconut oil and can hardly taste it in the final product. Olive oil might lend an herbal note to the muffins, if you’re into that (I tested with California Olive Ranch’s “Everyday” variety and couldn’t even taste it). Vegetable oil has a neutral flavor, but the average vegetable/canola oil is highly processed, so I recommend using cold-pressed sunflower oil or grapeseed oil if possible.
Change it up: Use chocolate chips or small/chopped dried fruit instead of the nuts.
Make it vegan: Use maple syrup instead of honey, replace the eggs with flax eggs and choose non-dairy milk, such as almond milk.
Make it dairy free: Choose non-dairy milk (I used almond milk).
Make it egg free: Replace the eggs with flax eggs.
Make it gluten free: Bob’s Red Mill’s all-purpose gluten-free mix works well.
Make it nut free: Just omit the nuts, and don’t use nut milk.
Make it lower in fat: I would argue that this bread contains a healthy amount of fat, but you can replace the oil with applesauce if you’re following a low-fat diet.
Update 9/23/20: I’ve modified the method slightly, to use two bowls instead of one. The recipe comes together more intuitively this way and bakes up a bit nicer.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This is a wonderful recipe. Mine came out with perfect peaks and tender crumb. Love the inclusion of buttermilk and the light sweetness from maple syrup. A keeper!
This is such a great recipe – perfect balance of moist and fluffy! I think the step of squeezing the liquid out of the grated zucchini is crucial to getting the right texture.
Also, I don’t know if I have crazy tastebuds, but these totally tasted like banana muffins to me, which was a pleasant surprise :)
These are completely delightful. They came together quickly, and my veggie-resistant one-year-old devoured two of them with great enthusiasm. My husband and I were also really into them. Wholesome, light and fluffy as advertised, oh-so-lightly sweetened, and with that hint of zucchini flavor. Thank you, Cookie & Kate!
Kate,
Do you have a recipe for a naturally sweetened beet and chocolate muffin?
Hi Mona, sorry I don’t.
I can’t believe how amazingly these muffins turned out! I used avocado oil and instead of buttermilk I used two table spoons of full fat plain yogurt thinned with milk. My grater also was very fine making the zucchini too watery so I squeezed all the water out before adding it in… I used a regular 12 cupcake pan and batter seemed too much because it filled to the rim and I was sure it was gonna be a disaster in the oven but they rose beautifully and none of it spread over to the tray! Last but not least, they taste AMAZING! Thank you for this great recipe… It will be a staple in our home
I read through some of the reviews for these muffins, but still decided to make these tonight. I’m so glad I did! They are delicious and came out perfect after following the exact recipe, except I didn’t have nuts, but added a few semi-sweet chocolate chips! Even my 10 year old loved them! Will definitely be adding this in my muffin rotation! I’ve made many of your recipes; you never disappoint Kate and Cookie!
These turned out great! I used oat milk + vinegar for the buttermilk substitution, added 1/2 c of chocolate chips – yum – & 3/4 c of pecans. I had just bought fresh cans of baking powder and baking soda and they turned out light and fluffy, just as described.I always cut the sugar in a recipe and used 1/3 c of honey but when I make them again I will used the full 1/2 c as I could have used them a touch sweeter. Thanks so much – these were just what I was looking for.
Can you use regular white flour instead of whole wheat?
Yes, you can! Enjoy.
We love these muffins and have made them many times. We may have improved on them today though: we substituted 1/2 cup of the flour for Dutch processed cocoa powder and added mini dairy free chocolate chips and no nuts. When they cooled we couldn’t stop eating them. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
So good! I went to a farm last week and had a lot of zucchini. This recipe was so good. Good Vw never used ebook in my baked goods before but I enjoyed the earthy flavor it brought.
Yummmmmmm! These were melt in your mouth delicious. I used raw walnuts and got to use up some crystallized honey that had been sitting around for too long. I just placed the honey in the microwave with the coconut oil to melt. Worked marvelously. Bookmarking this one to use it again and again!
That’s great and sound delicious, Andrea! Thank you for your review.
Delicious recipe. I will definitely make them again. I made your recipe as printed but did also add some raisins.
These were amazing! Made them with red whole wheat flour, olive oil, maple syrup, and added lemon zest and walnuts. My husband said best muffin he’s ever had.
Hi Kate, what do you think about adding more zucchini? I have them in the oven now. I had four small Zucchini’s so I decided to give it a try. I am reading the reviews that people are saying they are wet in the middle and take much longer to cook. Did you figure out that glitch. I love this recipe and the ingredients so I’m hoping it works!
Hi Tracy! How did your muffins turn out? If you used extra, it would be a good idea to squeeze out excess moisture over the sink.
Hi! I made two batches. My first batch I used more zucchini then recipe called for and inside of muffin was mushy, however still absolutely delicious. I am crazy about the cinnamon and nutmeg! I made them again and used one medium sized Zucchini. They were light and fluffy. My goal is to try to use more zucchini (I love the flavor and health benefits). What do you think about blending some extra zucchini and adding it to wet ingredients? My first batch I didn’t squeeze out zucchini so I could try that as well. I’m looking forward to my 3rd go with this fantastic recipe. Thank you!!!!!
Hi Tracey, I’m glad you were still able to enjoy the flavor. Baking is very specific and this one took me several tries to get the ratio down just right. As you indicated, zucchini can be quite watery. I wouldn’t recommend adding more as you would need to adjust other ingredients, which I wouldn’t know without trying. Sorry!
I made these tonight and was very impressed. I used olive oil and added chocolate chips. When pouring it into the muffin pan, it did look a little wet to me so I added a tad more flour than called for. They turned out amazing and moist. My 3 year olds loved them and kept asking for more. I will make again!! I always love your recipes Kate
You’re welcome! I’m happy to hear it worked so well for you, Michele.
Could you make a “cocoa” variety of these muffins with cocoa powder? So Cocoa zucchini muffins? Perhaps a new twist on this recipe? :)
Hi Mary! I haven’t tried it, but I believe some other readers have and liked the result.
I made your banana muffins with maple syrup, yumm. Can I mix banana and zucchini in one muffin?
Hi Gerry! That is an idea. I haven’t tried it and wouldn’t know for sure without testing it myself.
Love love love these! My toddlers loved them too! It was literally my first time making muffins (I’ve made your banana, zucchini, and corn breads) and they turned out great! Had to leave them in longer (around 22 minutes) I think because my zucchini was too wet. I used maple syrup and dates as my mix in. Thank you for your great recipes-I am slowly working through them all!
These turned out beautifully! My daughter has a dairy intolerance, so I used oat milk instead of buttermilk. I lightly pressed out the zucchini with paper towel. They smell amazing and taste great. 1.5-year-old approves!
These were the best zucchini muffins my family has ever tasted. They got rave reviews! I made them yesterday and they are almost gone.
I followed the recipe with a few minor alterations… for the sweetener I used half blackstrap molasses and half agave. For the “buttermilk” I used Oat milk with apple cider vinegar. And for the “flour,” I used 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup almond flour, and 1/4 cup ground flaxseed.
Thank you, Kate, for another delicious recipe!
I want to preface this comment by saying that I LOVE your banana muffin recipe and so does my 5 year old, he can’t get enough of them. We had some fresh zucchini out of the garden so I felt that your zucchini muffin recipe would be awesome just like your banana muffins. I squeezed out all the liquid from the zucchini and everything. And I’ve been baking and baking and baking and the muffins are still wet and gummy inside. I think this recipe needs more testing to be more successful for more of your readers. I would recommend readers keep looking for a zucchini muffin recipe and skip this one.
Hi Krysti, I’m sorry to hear that you were disappointed by my recipe! My muffins were nice and fluffy, so something went wrong with your batch. I’m wondering if you perhaps forgot the eggs, or mixed up the amounts or baking powder/baking soda (or they were expired). All three of those elements work together to produce properly leavened (fluffy!) baked goods. Hope you enjoy your next C+K recipe! I really put a lot of effort into developing each of my recipes, with the goal being that they are foolproof.
I actually want to rescind my last comment and rating. I made this recipe with toasted pecans and chocolate chips and the flavor is amazing. I may have zigged when I should have zagged with the zucchini measuring. I squeezed out the moisture and then measured and it took a long time to bake past the gooey stage. I think next time I’ll measure the zucchini and THEN squeeze. It will turn out even better then I think.
I have made this recipe a few times, I love the ingredients of this recipe, but the oven temp is too high. The muffins end up over cooked at the bottom and difficult to get out (even with a non-stick pan and cooking spray). I’ve had more success with baking muffins at 350 or even 325.
Perfectly delicious and fairly guilt free! Baked 18 minutes. I sprinkled some raw sugar on top and ate with peanut butter. Kids liked them too! Very moist with a crisp top.
This was the first time I’ve made one of your recipes, and I’m sold!
I wanted to find a healthy zucchini muffin and landed on this recipe. I was a bit hesitant after reading some of the reviews, but honestly the muffins are just fantastic.
I squeezed out the zucchini and used pecans, a combo of maple syrup & honey, and subbed in a bit of AP flour as I only had whole wheat flour and wanted to balance the taste. No issues with baking at 400 – they were perfectly done at 16 minutes.
This is probably one of the best zucchini bread/muffins I’ve ever tasted. Can’t wait to make more of your recipes!
I have never commented on a recipe but I use cookieandkate a lot so I told myself if this recipe worked out I would comment. The recipe is FINE! I was concerned about some lower rated comments and a little nervous to use ingredients for something that didnt work out for some people. Took the risk and truly, this recipe is GREAT!
Here’s the thing– you have to add that vinegar to your milk so it curdles/thickens. You have to squeeze all that liquid out of your grated zucchini. You have to fold in the zucchini, flour and nuts just till moist.
Tips for EVERY muffin recipe–
1. Let the batter sit 3,4 minutes to get the soda working.
2. I do 99% of muffin recipes at 375°
3. 99% of muffin recipes take 18 min in my oven. Get to know your oven.
4. I always do one less egg than called for. A heartier, brainier texture.
I noticed a lot of mixed reviews on this recipe so I thought I’d add to the positive reviews just in case anyone is on the fence about trying this recipe. Do it! It’s not fussy at all. Super simple. I followed Kate’s instructions, adding a bit more cinnamon and nutmeg (as I do with every recipe), forgot to measure the zucchini and put in extra, half-heartedly squeezed the zucchini, and might have left them in a few minutes extra (wasn’t watching the clock very carefully.) All that to say, I think this recipe has wiggle room because they came out wonderfully. Plenty of flavor and great texture!
Thanks for keeping our belly’s full and happy Kate!
That’s wonderful to hear, Emily! I’m happy to hear it. Thank you for taking the time!
Amazing finished product. These muffins were SO moist, and just the right amount of sweet (I used honey). I used unsweetened almond milk & also ground cloves. I’m so happy to have found this recipe & I really appreciate your efforts to create healthy & amazing food! I would absolutely make this recipe again! Thank you
These were great! Thanks for the recipe! I’ve tried several of your muffin recipes and they’ve all been so wonderful.
I’m glad you loved them, Amy! Thank you so much for your review.
The muffins came out perfect, with no modifications.
I used a small single-serve cup of cinnamon applesauce and 1T of vegetable oil in place of the coconut oil and they came out SO moist and delicious. Thanks, will make these again.
Very good texture!! Especially for a healthier muffin!! I was wishing it was just a little bit sweeter, as I’m not really used to healthy muffins, but that was without any add-ins. I might try a pinch of sugar on top for now, but otherwise was super happy with how they turned out for being healthier! And I actually had everything in hand already, which was nice.
Hello,
I am really loving your recipes these days. For this one I wish I had read the comments prior to baking them.. I reccomend updating the recipe to make squeezing the liquid out of the zucchini a must as I used freshly picked garden zuchini and skipped squeezing it because it seemed optional.. I also suggest updating the recipe to lower the temperature and increase the baking time as many reviewers suggested in the comments, which seem to be key steps that helped them succeed.
At 19 minutes my muffins were raw on the inside and more than golden on the outside. I watched them as they lost their height and muffin tops shriveled. When I cut one in half it was raw on the inside (even though I baked them for the maximum time reccomended in a brand new oven). Thankfully I had a second batch that had gone in shortly after the first so I lowered the temperature and increased the time. I had to take them out once they reached the maximum darkness on the edges.. and they are still raw. It’s really discouraging and a sad waste of fine (costly) ingredients.
If many of the commenters that have had success have done so as a result of reading other’s comments and making adjustments I think it would be really worth while to consider updating the recipe above to prevent future failures for those of us who just trust that it will be wonderful (because so many things on your site are).
Looking forward to trying another recipe soon and hoping for a win.
All the best.
Hi Magda! I’m so sorry that you had poor results with this recipe. I will revisit it soon, as well as the zucchini bread. I believe that the varying moisture content within zucchini is the potential culprit—I tested both recipes fully before publishing, but sometimes others have different results unfortunately. I do appreciate your feedback and would love to hear how your other C+K recipes turn out!
I love all of your recipes, especially the muffin recipes. I eat your muffins pretty much every day of my life and they are fantastic. It makes me sad to say this, but these are the first ones that I just really didn’t enjoy. They turned out and nothing was a disaster, they just didn’t taste good to me. I found them really bland – like they just really needed something extra. Maybe some almond extract? Gosh, I don’t know. I did throw some chocolate chips in, but it wasn’t enough to save them. Don’t get me wrong, they were fine and the texture was decent and I did eat them, but I was glad when they were gone and I could make a batch of your healthy banana muffins to enjoy. Thank you for your recipes!
Hi Sarah, I’m sorry to hear you didn’t love these. Thank you for your feedback.
We have lots of zucchini to use from our garden, so I tried this recipe. I love that the muffins aren’t too sweet. Great texture. I ended up using whole wheat pastry flour for some of the flour because I ran out of whole wheat, and they turned out just fine. I also love the touch of nutmeg flour.
These are such great breakfast muffins! I just made the original recipe without nuts this time, but my 3-yr-old suggested adding raisins next time, so I will try that variation when I have another zucchini.
Wonderful, Casey! Thank you for taking the time to share.
Delicious!! I used olive oil and honey, omitted the nuts, and a mix of gluten free flour and whole wheat flour (totaling the amount in the recipe). Will absolutely be making these again with the bountiful zucchini harvest from my garden. These muffins are light and fluffy, not overly sweet, and a wonderful texture! Thanks for the recipe :)
You’re welcome, Lauren! Thank you for your review.
I’m glad I didn’t read the comments before I made these muffins — they came out perfectly and were absolutely delicious! Perfect for breakfast since they are not overly sweet, and light and fluffy. Can’t wait to make them again!
These came out perfect. Very moist. I used 1 and a quarter cup of whole wheat flour, and 1 half cup of all purpose. Used 1 third cup of honey, and added some raisins. Also I added 1 third cup of milk and stirred in the milk 1 third cup of plain yogurt . Thank you Kate.
Holy moly. These are amazing. Moist and scrumptious.
Turned out amazing… we are moving toward a healthier diet and found these were superior to our go to recipe. I used 1/2 honey and 1/2 syrup
These are great- love having a healthy recipe for all of the zucchini coming from my garden!
I dont normally comment on recipes but this one was amazing! My 1 year old loved them and so did my family. Will be a regular in this household from now on. They are moist, springy and sweet but savoury.
Made these on a whim because we had a zucchini that needed to be used and we are such huge fans of the other muffins on the site. I was nervous after reading mixed reviews, but followed the recipe exactly (left out nuts and used maple syrup) and they turned out perfectly and are so yummy! My toddler loves them.
These were delicious! Everyone in the house was a fan.
I would probably sub half the oil for applesauce next time, just to be a bit healthier.
It made 15 muffins for me, and needed a few more minutes in the oven because the tops were still gooey.
But again, very yummy and healthy!
These are RIDICULOUSLY good! I mixed all the dry ingredients out of habit, so ended up mixing the wets, gently stirred in the flour + other dry ingredients, and then folded in the zucchini and a few chocolate chips. The texture of these muffins is pure perfection – so moist and yummy. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!!
I’m happy to hear they tuned out perfect for you! Thank you for sharing, Tracy.
Delicious! I added chocolate chips to entice my kids. (A little chocolate in exchange for a lot of squash, whole grains and healthy fats! Great trade off!) My 14 year old and 5 of his friends all loved them, and came back for seconds! Thanks for a healthy version of this classic!
That’s great! Thank you for sharing, Lisa.
These are so delicious! Love them & can’t wait to make them again!
This recipe looks great, but I do not have fine sea salt, how much of kosher salt would you recommend?
Hi Kelsey, Yes, that should be fine but use a bit more than specified.
They tasted good on the day of baking, if a bit bitter for my taste, but that’s ok. However, after just over 24 hours in an airtight tin, they started smelling off and I found they had all gone MOULDY inside, and had to throw out over half the batch. This may have been due to my zuchinni being too wet (though I did squeeze out some water before baking), but it was a real shame as I was really enjoying the muffins!