Easy Vegan Banana Bread

I looooove this easy vegan banana bread! It’s a nice little treat for brekkie; slice it, toast it, spread some nut butter on it… YUM!

This recipe is insanely easy and simple! It doesn’t need any fancy ingredients like egg-replacer (or eggs for that matter)! We’ve got our bananas, why would we need that? That’s bananas (haha).

Contents

• Ingredients
• How to make this easy vegan banana bread
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Serving Suggestions
• Storage
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Ingredients

• ripe, soft bananas
• oil
• sugar/maple syrup
• water/plant-based milk
• flour
• baking powder
• cinnamon & salt

That’s it. That’s all you need! It works every. Single. Time! Even when I make some tiny changes! It’s that easy and flexible!

Bananas: choose brown, spotty bananas (similar to those you can see in the pictures). They should be soft enough that you can mash them easily. Often supermarkets sell them in big bags for like a dollar. Or you use up those bananas that you weren’t able to eat in time.

Sugar: I like using a combination of coconut sugar and maple syrup (¼ cup each). If you don’t want to use a liquid sweetener, you need to add a bit more water or milk.

Water/milk: I just take water because I don’t think it makes a big difference. But if you want, surely, use any plant-based milk.

Flour: I’ve made this easy vegan banana bread with several flours and it worked every time. The results were a little bit different each time but they were all delicious!

The banana bread in the pictures is made with spelt flour (I don’t eat wheat). But mostly I make it with just plain buckwheat flour (see other gluten-free options below, “Substitutions”).

Baking Powder: I make my own baking powder (simply mix one part bicarb/baking soda with two parts cream of tartar) and I can highly recommend it. Making your own makes it a bit more active and efficient which means all my baked goods rise like crazy!

If your banana bread isn’t rising enough, try adding ½ teaspoon bicarb soda and 2 teaspoons of Apple Cider Vinegar (or lemon juice will work too) next time you make it. This may help.

How to make this easy vegan banana bread

Step One. Preheat oven to 170°C/350°F. Grease a small loaf tin/pan (I recommend not bigger than 2 lbs, 5” x 9”, 23 x 13cm), or line with baking paper, if you prefer. I usually just grease the tin, the banana bread comes out easily.

Step Two. Peel bananas and place them in a large bowl. Mash bananas together with the oil using a potato masher or simply a fork. Add sugar/maple syrup and water/milk and combine.

Step Three. Add all the dry ingredients. Start with the flour, then pile the others (baking powder, cinnamon and salt) on top. It’s always a good idea to mix the baking powder into the flour first before you combine the dry with the wet ingredients.

Combine well but make sure not to overmix it. The dough should be fluffy, a bit gooey, but not runny or crumbly.

Step Four. Pour the dough into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 50 minutes. Then you check the top of your vegan banana bread. It should be firm to the touch and springy.

I find that it doesn’t matter whether you bake it in a 1 or 2 lbs. loaf tin, or make it gluten-free or regular, my banana breads are always done after 50 minutes.

Substitutions

Oil-free: you can make this vegan banana bread oil-free! I’ll post a recipe for that soon, promised. But for now, you can replace the oil with ½ cup dairy-free yoghurt.

Sugar-free: very easy, simply leave out sugar/maple syrup and add ¼ cup / 60ml more water/milk. Or check out the full recipe here.

Gluten-free: As I already mentioned, I usually make this banana bread with just buckwheat flour (check out the recipe here). But you can use any conventional gluten-free flour blend as well.

I’ve made this banana bread using a blend of tapioca, rice flour, quinoa flour, sorghum and buckwheat flour and it came out beautifully.

Variations

Chocolate: add a good handful of chocolate chips or chop some (vegan) chocolate for dessert-like banana bread. You could also add cacao/cocoa to the dry ingredients to make it even more chocolatey. Here's my vegan double-chocolate banana bread recipe!

Blueberry: You can easily add some blueberries, too! I've got a recipe for a healthy vegan blueberry banana bread here on my blog!

Pumpkin: For the cosy autumn season, how about a vegan pumpkin banana bread that is full of holiday flavour?!

Nuts: I love walnuts and if I feel like it, I sprinkle them on top or mix them in. Hazelnuts, almonds and macadamia nuts are also a great combination.

Oats: you can replace 30g/¼ cup flour with rolled oats (certified gluten-free, if needed) to make “healthier” banana bread.

Coconut: add 25g/¼ cup desiccated/shredded coconut, and use coconut flour! In fact, for the banana bread in the picture, I used 30g/¼ cup coconut flour (what else I used, read below).

Serving Suggestions

Banana bread tastes good on its own and you can simply take it with you to work for a yummy pick-me-up or snack.

But my favourite way to eat it is to just toast it. Spread some nut butter (I love cashew or almond butter with it) on the slices, cut up some fruit for on the side and done!

On some Sundays however, when I make my “special treat brekkie”, I love frying the slices in a pan and top with fresh or frozen berries, coconut whipped cream and maple syrup.

You could also serve it warm, ideally fresh out of the oven, with dairy-free vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce on top, as a delicious dessert!

Storage

Store your banana bread in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week. It’ll dry up a bit after a few days, but when you toast it, it’s fine. You can also freeze it for about 3 months (or even longer).

📖 Recipe