Zucchini banana bread! An easy, low-fat banana bread recipe made with mashed banana, cinnamon, and lots of grated zucchini. It’s the perfect loaf for sneaking an extra vegetable into your day. Including tips and tricks for great zucchini banana bread, plus some healthy sugar substitution ideas.
This zucchini banana bread is super tasty! I’ll be honest, I adore a slice of this with some homemade Nutella spread over the top, it’s pretty good.
Zucchini does its magic disappearing act once again in this simple banana bread. It makes the quick bread itself taste wonderful and fresh, without imparting any strong vegetable flavour. It’s a great way to sneak a few extra nutrients into your morning slice of loaf cake.
Also, while this is already a fairly low-fat banana bread, but I’ve included a few suggestions in the post for how to give this quick loaf more fibre by adding oats or whole wheat. I also include a list of possible sugar substitutions, to eliminate the processed sugar from this recipe. My favourite sugar swap is using date purée, it is so good!
Just as with my double chocolate banana oat loaf, this zucchini banana bread is loosely based on my Grandma Vi’s original banana bread recipe.
If you’re looking for the ultimate classic banana bread, check out her recipe here:
The Secrets of Great Banana Bread
Use Ripe Bananas
This recipe is a great way to use up those spotty bananas sitting on your counter. Ripe bananas are best for this recipe, since they will be sweeter and less starchy than unripe green bananas.
Mash The Bananas Until Smooth
Mashing the banana until very smooth before adding the other recipe ingredients is essential. Very smooth mashed banana ensures your banana bread won’t have any large lumps throughout the loaf.
Finely Grate Your Zucchini
My most important tip for success with this recipe is to finely grate the zucchini.
I usually use the fine shredding side box grater – the smaller version of the common cheese shredding grater. I also don’t recommend using a microplane grater or zester, since you might be standing there grating zucchini forever.
Below is a picture of the grating size you’re looking for with the zucchini, and a photo of the grater style I recommend using. I just chop off both the zucchini ends, then grate the whole zucchini including the peel.
Flour Substitutions
This recipe calls for general all-purpose flour, however you can easily add more fibre to this recipe by replacing 1 cup of the all-purpose flour with 1 cup of whole wheat flour or oat flour. Alternatively you could also replace 1 cup of the flour with a cup of rolled oats.
Sugar Substitutions
Want a quick loaf with less processed sugar? I’ve got you covered. Here are some sugar alternatives to try with this loaf recipe, to replace the 1/2 cup of sugar. The amounts are slightly smaller, since these ingredients contain more moisture than plain sugar does.
- 1/4 cup date purée (dates soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes, then puréed – my favourite option!)
- 1/4 cup more mashed banana (so 1 cup in total for the whole recipe)
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
Zucchini Banana Bread
This easy zucchini banana bread is ready from start to finish in 80 minutes.
This recipe makes 1 standard loaf, which yields about 6-8 servings.
Prep Time: 30 mins
Bake Time: 50 mins
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 250ml | 1 cup finely grated zucchini
- 180ml | ¾ cup mashed banana (2 medium bananas)
- 55g | ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- 50g | ¼ cup cup white sugar
- 112g | 2 large eggs
- 4.5g | 1 tsp vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- 320g | 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 8g | 2 tsp baking powder
- 3g | ¼ tsp baking soda
- 2g | ½ tsp salt
- 4g | 1 tsp cinnamon
Tools
- large mixing bowl
- fine mesh grater / box grater
- fork, for mashing the bananas
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- spatula or mixing spoon
- 8½ x 4½-inch loaf pan
- baking parchment
- oven mitts
- cake tester or toothpick
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350˚F / 180˚C / Gas Mark 4.
- Line an 8½ x 4½-inch loaf pan with baking parchment, then set aside.
- Finely grate the zucchini in a large mixing bowl.
- Mash the bananas until smooth, then add them to the grated zucchini.
- Mix in the sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. Stir well to combine.
- Add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until the batter is fully combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- Bake the loaf at 350˚F for 45-55 minutes, or until a cake tester pulls out clean.
- Remove the loaf from the oven. Let it rest for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove the loaf from the pan to finish cooling. Once the loaf has cooled, slice and enjoy!
Zucchini, The Secret Ingredient
I’m always adding zucchini to my baked goods. Not only does the zucchini add a little extra fibre and some extra nutrients, but I really think that zucchini makes some baked goods taste better – at least they certainly seem to taste more fresh. Plus, I love that it is practically invisible in terms of taste once it’s baked into a recipe.
So, below are some of my other favourite zucchini-based recipes.
Did you try making this zucchini banana bread recipe? Let me know!
Simmering Starfruit 
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