I’m working to keep mornings simple + nutritious, and these vegan muffins are the perfect on-the-go breakfast. They are easy to make and perfect for batch baking, then freezing. Because they’re also super nutritious, I can fuel my whole family.
Whether it is a marathon school day, or I’m packing for a day long adventure, you can be sure I’m taking these strawberry muffins along. This recipe can also be found in my cookbook, Simple Green Meals, along with 100+ whole food recipes.
Tips for Making Baked Goods Vegan
When I first entered the world of healthy baking, I was bombarded with ingredients I couldn’t pronounce, and weird vegan cheeses/creams/butters/sweeteners etc., that were super expensive, plus still loaded with chemicals. While dairy products aren’t the worst for people who can tolerate them, a study by the National Library of Medicine found that 65-70% of the world’s population had some form of lactose intolerance (including me!). So I started searching for a better way to bake. Here are some tips I’ve learned to turn most recipes, including this strawberry muffin recipe, into vegan friendly options.
Vegan Eggs
Depending on the recipe, I’ve got several different vegan, whole food substitutes for eggs. For this vegan muffin recipe, the 2 eggs are replaced with ½ cup unsweetened applesauce.
- Flax egg: To replace 1 egg, mix 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons water. Let sit for 10 minutes before adding to a recipe.
- Chia egg: To replace 1 egg, mix 1 tablespoon chia seeds + 3 tablespoons water in a small bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes before adding to a recipe. Pro tip: chia seeds + water are used in the strawberry jam recipe below to bind the jam together, in place of pectin.
- Applesauce: replace 1 egg with ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce.
- Banana: replace one egg with ½ large banana, mashed.
Vegan Milk
Non-dairy milks are super common in grocery stores. Yet they’re also super easy to make. Using a non dairy milk in this vegan muffin recipe works just as well as a dairy milk would. Here’s my list for great milk substitutes:
- Almond milk: My team did an awesome review on almond milks. If you’re ready to make your own, check out my simple recipe for vegan almond milk.
- Oat milk: If you’re looking for store-bought, check out our latest oat milk review. If homemade is more your jam, I created a delicious recipe that I love to make.
- Coconut milk: We’ve also reviewed both carton and canned coconut milk! Plus, I’ve got a great recipe for homemade, creamy coconut milk.
- Other non-dairy/nut free milks: I’ve got a no-fail recipe to make all kinds of vegan, nut free milks. Grocery stores are also starting to carry versions of flax milk, hemp milk, banana milk, and more. You can totally sub in a nut free milk for these strawberry muffins. Oat milk would be my preference.
Vegan Butter Substitutes
A super easy butter substitute is extra virgin olive oil. For every 1 cup of butter used, I substitute ¾ cup of oil. Avocado oil and coconut oil are also great substitutes. My general rule-of-thumb is: if the dish I’m making is savory, I’ll use olive or avocado oil. If the dish is sweet, I’ll use coconut oil. This strawberry muffin recipe uses coconut oil, yet another oil can be swapped in too.
Vegan Muffin Recipe
There are so many reasons to love this strawberry muffin recipe. It is low in sugar, even with the strawberry chia jam filling! The almond butter ups the fat content, which helps break down the carbohydrates. When a recipe has a good balance of healthy fat, carbs, and protein, you’ll get longer lasting energy.
Everyone wants to avoid that sugar high, then sugar crash feeling, right?! You can swap out the almond butter with a different nut butter, or with a seed butter like sunflower. You can also swap out the strawberry chia jam with a store-bought jam. Just make sure it is all fruit and naturally sweetened.
Replacing 4 tablespoons of the flour with 1 serving of my homemade protein powder can turn this breakfast/snack into a superfood champion. I’ve found it super easy to add this smoothie boost powder to a variety of baked goods, including pancakes and muffins.
Nutritious Snacking
Many people have told me that they can make healthy meals, no problem. Yet, when it comes to snacking, they keep reaching for the salty, sugary, processed foods. I get it! Nutritious snacks take prep work, and aren’t always ready when you need them.
Batch baking has become my lifeline when it comes to healthy snacking, for these vegan muffins and more. Here are a couple of my go-to snacks that are easy to batch bake, taste delicious, and will keep you full because they have balanced, good ingredients meant to fill you up:
- Vegan yogurt: The yogurt can be batch made and frozen in single servings, then thawed the day you’re ready to enjoy.
- Healthy granola: This is such a great snack to bake in bulk then enjoy with milk, on top of yogurt, or just by the handful.
- Chocolate chia pudding: This lovely snack is simple to make and easy to store in the fridge.
- Nut butter: You can put nut butter on pretty much anything… including the muffin recipe below! This is a wonderfully easy recipe to have on hand for fruit/veggie dipping, sandwiches and more.
- Homemade popsicles: One smoothie recipe can make tons of popsicles. Toss these in a lunch box, and they’ll be the perfect consistency to consume by snack time.
- Vegan protein bars: These are easy to freeze as well. I like to warm them up in the toaster oven for a snack, then top with almond butter for even more healthy fat + protein.
- Homemade granola bars: I love to take these along for road trips. They can be wrapped in beeswax paper for easy transport.
- Hummus: Super easy to make this vegan snack, then freeze. All you need to do is add in some fresh veggies when you’re ready to dig in.
I’d love for you to leave a comment and share your fav muffins/breakfast to-go recipes! If you’re ready to overhaul your snack game, check out my Meal Planner. I’ve got dozens of snack recipes ready to share with you, along with weekly options to help meals, smoothies, and even desserts. It’s as easy as sign in, download, and print!
Strawberry Vegan Muffins
Equipment
- oven
- electric mixer
- muffin tin
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup almond butter
- ¼ cup coconut oil at room temperature
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup applesauce
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour unbleached
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp cinnamon ground
- ½ cup almond milk unsweetened
- 6 tbsp strawberry jam
- ¼ cup homemade protein powder optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, and using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the almond butter and oil until creamy. Add the maple syrup and beat until well combined. Add the applesauce and vanilla and continue beating until creamy.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon until well combined.
- Add one-third of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed just until combined. Add half of the almond milk and beat again. Add another third of the flour mixture, followed by the rest of the almond milk, and ending with the remaining flour mixture. Continue mixing just until the batter comes together. Do not over mix.
- Using a small ice cream scoop or spoon, fill the muffin cups one-quarter full. Use the tip of a spoon to push the batter to cover the entire bottom and a little up the sides. Place 1 rounded teaspoon of jam in each muffin cup, trying to center it as much as possible. Top the jam with the remaining batter, making sure it covers the jam.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and spring back when gently pressed. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove and serve.
Video
Notes
- Gluten free: replace flour with 1 1/2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour.
- Fill with the jam of your choice. I love the strawberry + almond butter combo but any jam will work well.
- These freeze well in a freezer-safe container. Just thaw when ready to enjoy.
Nutrition
If you love a good muffin for breakfast but don’t like the guilt that comes along with it, this recipe is for you!
I love your site and can’t wait to try the chia jam recipe. We have to be gluten-free (2 with Celiac’s in our house). Wondering if you’ve heard of anyone trying this with GF flour alternatives? I may try it with a GF baking flour mix and see what happens. But the jam! We’ll use that for all kinds of things!
You can totally rawk this GF Angie! Just replace the flour with 1 1/2 cups of a GF flour blend. Let us know what you think!
Could you recommend a substitute for the almond butter? We have a nut allergy in my house 🙁
If the nut allergy is to tree nuts only, you can swap out almond butter for either a good unsweetened peanut butter or sunbutter.