Vegan Buckwheat Banana Bread

This vegan buckwheat banana bread is unbelievably easy to make, doesn’t need any special, fancy ingredients, rises so well, and just tastes soooo good! It’s also low in allergens, naturally!

I’ve been making this healthy buckwheat banana bread recipe for months now and it works every single time. It’s definitely become a regular!

Contents

• Ingredients
• Equipment
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Storage
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

And not only this but also there are some variations you can try, like sugar-free or oil-free! And we only use buckwheat flour. No need for anything else!

Ingredients

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• ripe to overripe bananas
• vegetable oil (such as olive oil or coconut oil)
• water or plant-based milk (like almond milk)
• maple syrup and/or coconut sugar
• buckwheat flour
• baking powder
• cinnamon & salt

Bananas: choose ripe and soft bananas, bananas that need using, that have browned and are spotty.

It doesn’t matter all too much if you don’t use the exact amount that is noted on the recipe card. I’ve made banana bread with a little more and a little less before and it worked perfectly fine.

Buckwheat flour: I’ve made this vegan banana bread with regular, store-bought buckwheat flour and with ground buckwheat groats that I milled myself into flour. By the way, making your own buckwheat flour is ridiculously easy, too!

You only need to grind buckwheat groats in a high-speed blender. Yes, the texture might be slightly coarser than from a store-bought brand but it works well in this (and many other) recipes!

I like milling activated (or sprouted) buckwheat kernels in my high-speed blender to make it even more nutritious.

Activated means that the kernels have been soaked in water to start the sprouting process which “activates” all the nutrients that the seed will, later on, need for growing into a plant. You can also buy sprouted buckwheat flour.

Baking powder: This is not necessary at all, just a small tip... I highly recommend making your own baking powder (like, in general, not only for this recipe) by simply mixing 1 part of bicarb/baking soda with two parts of cream of tartar.

You omit rice flour (or whatever the food industry usually likes to add). Rice flour is not only used to soak up any humidity (which is, of course, a good thing, but often not necessary) but also for bulking it up making your baking powder less active.

Homemade baking powder is generally much more efficient and I think it’s the reason why my vegan buckwheat banana bread is rising so well.

Equipment

For this vegan buckwheat flour banana bread, you'll need a small to medium loaf pan/tin (mine is 22 x 11.5 x 6 cm / 8.8 x 4.5 x 2.4 inches)—a small loaf pan results in shorter but taller banana bread.

In a 2-lb tin, the bread is longer but slightly flatter. The cooking time may differ slightly. In a small loaf tin, it'll be around 45-50 minutes and in a medium, maybe more around the 45-minute mark.

Some people also prefer using a food processor to make the batter for their baked goods, especially when mashed banana is involved. This way, you'll be able to achieve a smoother and more even texture of this tasty banana bread, without any little banana pieces.

Instructions

Step One: Preheat your oven to 175°C/350°F. Line a loaf tin with parchment paper or if it’s non-stick, simply grease it a bit. The banana bread will come out easily.

Step Two: Peel bananas (usually, around 3 large or 4 medium-sized) and place them in a large bowl. I then add the oil to help mash the bananas. For this, I prefer using a potato masher because I think it’s much easier and quicker, but a fork will do too.

Step Three: Add the remaining wet ingredients (water (or vegan milk), maple syrup and/or sugar) and combine until smooth and relatively even. Small banana pieces are definitely okay. Don’t worry about them.

Step Four: Add the dry ingredients (buckwheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt) and mix well. It should be a soft and fluffy dough, almost like muffin batter.

Step Five: Pour into the prepared loaf tin and sprinkle almond flakes on top of the bread, if you like. Bake for about 50 minutes.

When you touch the top of your vegan buckwheat banana bread, it should be firm and slightly springy when it’s completely cooked.

Step Six: Let the freshly baked loaf cool down on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before slicing it. I would wait with that until the bread has cooled completely, though (I know it’s hard because it’s so tempting!).

I often even wait until the next day (and store it in the fridge). It’s much easier to slice it then.

Substitutions

Flour: If you don’t want to make a plain buckwheat flour banana bread, you can substitute some of the amounts with a different, gluten-free flour (maybe not coconut or almond flour though). I sometimes like to substitute ½ cup with tapioca starch.

To make this gluten-free banana bread, you can also use a gluten-free flour blend. However, in this case, I would suggest you add flax eggs (2 tablespoons of flax seed meal combined with 5 tablespoons of water) or a chia egg (1 tablespoon chia seeds combined with 3 tablespoon water) to help with the binding and to add some moisture.

Sweetener: depending on how sweet you like your banana bread to be, sweeten it accordingly. When I first made this recipe, for my "regular" vegan banana bread actually, I used ¼ cup maple syrup and ¼ cup coconut sugar.

You can substitute it with any sugar or liquid sweetener you like. Nowadays, I prefer omitting any sugar because I think bananas make it sweet enough.

Sugar-free: simply leave out the sweeteners. You may need to add a tiny bit more water, but that’s all.

Oil-free: Instead of oil you could use dairy-free yoghurt! This is actually my favourite way to make this vegan buckwheat banana bread at the moment. I promise to post the recipe for this healthy version soon!

Variations

Coconut: When I feel like it, I love adding some desiccated coconut (fine, about ½ cup) and coconut milk instead of water.

Chocolate: you can add a few handfuls of vegan chocolate chips and/or ⅓ – ½ cup cacao powder (here again, recipe’s coming soon!!).

Pancakes: If you love the banana and buckwheat flour combination, I've got something yummy for you: vegan Banana Buckwheat Pancakes! They're super easy to make, with simple ingredients!

Storage

Store your banana bread in an airtight container in the fridge 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