This is a classic vegan zucchini bread recipe that you can make with your choice of white, whole wheat, or gluten-free flours. This may be the most delicious way to eat zucchini! It's moist and delicious with just the right amount of sweetness and spices.
You'll love this easy vegan zucchini bread because it's...
- easy to make.
- free of all major allergens like milk, nuts, and soy, and can easily be made gluten-free.
- full of healthy zucchini.
- great for freezing and eating later!
- tastes amazing warm with some homemade vegan butter!
What you will need to make vegan zucchini bread and why...
Ingredients needed:
- Zucchini - 1 1/2 cups shredded or chopped in a food processor.
- Sugar - to sweeten the bread. You can reduce it to suit your taste.
- Oil - for rich moist bread. Any neutral-flavored oil. (Not virgin olive oil).
- Ground Flax Seeds - mix with water to make a flax egg. (You can also use another vegan egg substitute equal to 2 eggs).
- Vanilla Extract - for flavor.
- Flour - you can use white, whole wheat, spelt flour or a gluten-free flour mix.
- Baking Soda - to help it rise.
- Cinnamon - for flavor.
- Powdered Sugar - for the lemon glaze. (optional)
- Lemon Juice - for the lemon glaze. (optional)
Equipment needed:
- Food processor - to chop up the zucchini or a cheese grater to grate the zucchini.
- Large Mixing Bowl - to mix the ingredients.
- Bread Loaf Pan - to cook your bread in. (You can also make zucchini muffins instead).
How to make zucchini bread without egg or dairy...
For the zucchini bread...
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Mix ground flax seeds with water in a small bowl and set aside to make make a flax egg.
- Shred zucchini or chop it very tiny in a food processor and put it in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
- Add sugar, oil, flax mixture, and vanilla and give it a stir.
- Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and stir it again until it forms a thick batter.
- Pour it into a greased bread loaf and bake it for 50-55 minutes.
For the Lemon Drizzle:
- Mix together 1/2 cup of powdered sugar with 1 tbsp lemon juice and stir until creamy.
- Drizzle over the top of the zucchini bread or muffins. (optional)
Variations of vegan zucchini bread...
- Gluten-Free Vegan Zucchini Bread: This recipe comes out well with most general gluten-free flour mixes. (I don't recommend gluten-free mixes that contain garbanzo beans (because it can have a funny aftertaste) or sorghum flour (because it gives the bread a chewy texture. I usually use the gluten-free flour mix from Trader Joe's and I actually prefer it to regular wheat flour in this recipe.
- Vegan Blueberry Zucchini Bread: Add 1 cup of fresh blueberries to the batter. (It may need about 5 extra minutes of cooking time due to the extra moisture).
- Vegan Lemon Zucchini Bread: Use lemon extract instead of vanilla extract and add the zest of a lemon to the batter. Make sure to drizzle with the lemon glaze too!
- Lower Fat Zucchini Bread: You can reduce the oil to 1/4 cup instead of 1/3 cup but any less than that changes the consistency. I've tried swapping out the oil for apple sauce, but I found the consistency to be very chewy.
- Vegan Zucchini Muffins: Make the batter the same way as you would for the bread, but cook it in oiled muffin tins. Bake at 375° F for about 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of a muffin.
If you liked this recipe, you have to try my healthy vegan muffins with hidden veggies! They are a healthy cross between zucchini bread and carrot cake!
Want another great recipe using zucchini? Try my veggie brownies recipe made with zucchini and beets! The veggies make them moist and delicious and you'll never know that they're there! You may also love my creamy vegan zucchini soup! It's one of my family's favorites!
Be sure to follow me on Instagram for daily vegan inspiration and recipe ideas! Tag me at #thehiddenveggies! I love to see what you made too!
A classic zucchini bread recipe made vegan with the option of gluten-free.
- 2 tbsp ground flax meal
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 1/2 cup zucchini shredded (about 1 medium zucchini)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup oil any neutral-flavored oil of choice.
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cup flour (white, wheat, or gluten-free mix)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
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Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C)°.
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Mix ground flax seeds with water in a small bowl and set aside to make make a flax egg.
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Shred zucchini or chop it very tiny in a food processor and put it in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
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Add sugar, oil, flax mixture, and vanilla and give it a stir.
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Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and stir it again until it forms a thick batter.
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Pour it into a greased bread loaf and bake it for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
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Mix together 1/2 cup of powdered sugar with 1 tbsp lemon juice and stir until creamy.
-
Drizzle over the top of the zucchini bread or muffins. (optional)
Recipe Video
To make zucchini muffins:
Bake the muffins in oiled muffin tins at 375°F (190°C) for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of a muffin.
Delicious! I was happy to find this Vegan version! I added Walnuts and my kids inhaled it!
I'm so happy that you and your kids liked it, Sheena! 🙂
Lovely recipe. My kids gobbled it up. Made it in a 9x9 silicone mould and baked it for 35 mins.
Hi! I made this recipe but I tweaked some things and it turned out like a light, fluffy bread and not dense at all.
It needed more rising agent or it will be too heavy and dense.
I shredded my zucchini by hand, but took some of the seeds out. I used aluminum free baking powder instead of baking soda but not 1/2 tsp, I used one tablespoon.
Turned out perfect!
This will be my go-to for my overflow of zucchini! Thank you!
I'm not sure, but this recipe doesn't say to squeeze out the water from the zucchini before mixing into batter. Every recipe I have used my entire life says to do this. This is the first time I am making zucchini bread vegan, but I'm pretty sure it would apply here. Of course, all zucchini have different water content so maybe that makes a difference for the recipe writer and you. I've also heard that the longer zucchini sits in the store the dryer it becomes. Really fresh zucchini has more water in it. I don't think that you can go wrong by squeezing out the water first before adding to the batter.
I do not squeeze the water out of the zucchini. It is part of what makes the bread very moist. You can if you want, but the bread with be drier.
I have tried this recipe twice now; the first time was a disaster so let’s move on, the second time the zucchini bread tasted great but the texture was pudding-y at the bottom, even with an extra 15 minutes in the oven.
Where am I going wrong? Should I have made more “flax egg” perhaps?
I'm not sure what is going wrong for you. It comes out moist and dense, but never pudding-like for me. What type of flour are you using? Are you making it gluten-free or regular? It shouldn't need more flax egg. That may make it even wetter. I would guess that it is the type of flour you are using or you are using too much zucchini. The zucchini has a lot of moisture in it.
Could this be made with almond flour?
I don't use almond flour since my husband can't have it, so I have never tested it with almond flour. If you try it please let me know.
looks great. You mentioned that you could use less sugar. How low do you think you could go without impact the texture? 1/4 cup? i tend to not like sweet food very much. Thanks.
Hi Jacquie, you can cut the sugar in half without it affecting the texture much. I would try it with about 1/3 of a cup first and see how you like it. Enjoy! 🙂
Hi, I wanted to know if baking powder can be used. Baking soda is used when the recipe contains an acidic ingerdient, right?
I have always used baking powder in this recipe. Many recipes call for baking powder as well, so I'm sure you could add 1/2 tsp of baking powder if you wanted it to rise and be a little more fluffy. This is supposed to be a very moist dense bread. Hope you like it! 🙂