Healthy Oatmeal Zucchini Banana Bread made with rolled oats, no added sweetener, and no oil! This moist and delicious zucchini banana bread is an amazing snack or breakfast.
Combining two of my favorite recipes – The Best Gluten-Free Banana Bread with The Best Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread – generates an ultra classic loaf that everyone can be excited about!
This healthy zucchini bread recipe is sweetened entirely with banana, requires no oil, and is naturally gluten-free.
Made with rolled oats, this delicious bread is a good source of whole grains and complex carbohydrates, ideal for a pre-workout or post-workout treat to replenish glycogen.
In addition, because weโre using a great deal of banana for both sweetness and moisture, we donโt need to use oil and the banana bread is still moist.
Recipe Highlights:
- Flourless and Gluten-Free
- Oil-Free
- Dairy-Free
- No added sweetener
- Great source of complex carbohydrates
Rolled oats get blended into a flour in your blender, then everything gets mixed together in a mixing bowl.
This healthy zucchini oatmeal banana bread is very lightly sweet, so if you like your breads on the sweeter end, feel free to add anywhere between two tablespoons and half a cup of your favorite granulated sweetener, such as coconut sugar, maple sugar, regular cane sugar, or sugar-free sweetener.
If you’re adding pure maple syrup, I wouldn’t recommend adding more than a couple of tablespoons as other adjustments would need to be made to the recipe to offset the added moisture.
Letโs discuss the simple ingredients for this banana zucchini bread.
Ingredients for Healthy Oatmeal Zucchini Banana Bread:
Rolled Oats: Used in place of flour, we blend up rolled oats to create the base for this banana bread. All you need to do is buzz old fashioned oats up in a high-powered blender until it resembles the consistency of flour.
If you donโt have oats on hand, use 1 โ cups of gluten-free all-purpose flour.
I use gluten-free sprouted rolled oats, which are also glyphosate-free.
Ripe Bananas: Use overripe bananas with plenty of brown spots for the best results. Because weโre using bananas as the majority of the sweetener, we want them to be nice and sweet, so the more ripe, the better.
Zucchini: Grated zucchini brings that unique earthy flavor to the zucchini bread. A perfect use for an abundance of fresh zucchini from the garden.
Eggs: A couple of large eggs helps to fluff up the bread and make it nice and fluffy. I haven’t tested the recipe using an egg substitute like flax egg for a vegan zucchini bread so I’m not sure what other adjustments (if any) would be needed.
Vanilla Extract: While vanilla extract is optional, it adds a nice warm flavor to the bread to help round out the flavor palate.
Baking Soda: Used as the leavening agent, baking soda helps the bread rise and keeps it held together nicely.
Lemon Juice: Lemon juice is added to react with the baking soda. Anything acidic works here, like cider vinegar, rice vinegar, etc.
Cinnamon: Bringing warmth to this inviting quick bread, ground cinnamon is an absolute must in my opinion. It also helps the bread taste sweeter without the need for added sugar.
Sea Salt: Salt enhances all of the individual flavors in the bread and brings out the natural sweetness.
Optional Additions:
For a sweeter banana bread, add anywhere from 2 tablespoons to ยฝ cup of coconut sugar, maple sugar, white sugar, or brown sugar.
In order to make chocolate chip zucchini banana bread, add 1 cup of chocolate chips.
Add โ cup of chopped walnuts or pecans if you like them.
Because this bread is not very sweet, choose your additions based on your sweet tooth.
Now that weโve covered the simple ingredients, letโs bake a loaf!
How to Make Oatmeal Zucchini Banana Bread:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 9โ x 5โ loaf pan with parchment paper.
Transfer the oats to a high-powered blender or food processor and blend on medium to high speed until a flour forms. This only takes about 20 to 30 seconds. It is fine if the flour is a little bit grittyโฆyou just want all of the big chunks of oats to be pulverized.
Use a box grater to grate the zucchini and measure out 1 cup.
Mash the bananas in a separate mixing bowl then whisk in the grated zucchini, eggs, vanilla extract and lemon juice (the wet ingredients).
Note: there’s no need to drain the shredded zucchini of excess moisture, as I have compensated for the moisture with the flour content.
Add the dry ingredients (oat flour, baking soda, sea salt, and cinnamon) into the bowl with the wet ingredients and stir until everything is combined.
Transfer the banana bread batter to the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer.
Bake for 40 minutes, then cover with foil and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until the bread tests clean.
Remove from the oven and allow the bread to cool for at least 30 minutes. Lift up on the parchment paper and place the loaf on a cutting board. Cut thick slices and enjoy!
Leave the leftovers in the loaf pan and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and store it on the counter for up to 3 days. You can also store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
You can also slice the remainder of the loaf into individual slices and store it in freezer bags in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Enjoy this healthy zucchini banana bread recipe! It’s a great recipe for an afternoon snack, especially with melted butter on top of the bread. This moist bread is the perfect way of using up summer zucchini and brown bananas, and it may just be your new favorite banana bread recipe.
If you love classic quick breads, also try out these delicious gluten-free delights!
More Healthy Quick Bread Recipes:
- Paleo Morning Glory Quick Bread
- Keto Cinnamon Swirl Bread
- Grain-Free Hummingbird Bread
- Paleo Pumpkin Banana Bread with Coconut Flour
- Low-Carb Carrot Cake Bread
- Gluten-Free Apple Cinnamon Bread
Enjoy this fresh and tasty loaf!
Healthy Oatmeal Zucchini Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 3 large ripe bananas mashed (about 1.5 cups)
- 1 cup grated zucchini
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract optional
- 1 tsp lemon juice*
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 9โ x 5โ loaf pan with parchment paper.ย
- Transfer the oats to a high-powered blender or food processor and blend on medium to high speed until a flour forms. This only takes about 20 to 30 seconds. It is fine if the flour is a little bit grittyโฆyou just want all of the big chunks of oats to be pulverized.ย
- Use a box grater to grate the zucchini and measure out 1 cup.
- Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl.
- Whisk in the grated zucchini, eggs, vanilla extract and lemon juice (the wet ingredients). Note: there's no need to drain the shredded zucchini of excess moisture, as I have compensated for the moisture with the flour content.
- Add the dry ingredients (oat flour, baking soda, sea salt, and cinnamon) into the bowl with the wet ingredients and stir until everything is combined.
- Transfer the banana bread batter to the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer.
- Bake for 40 minutes, then cover with foil and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until the bread tests clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow the bread to cool for at least 30 minutes. Tug on the edges of the parchment paper to lift the loaf out of the pan and place it on a cutting board. Cut thick slices and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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I have been searching for a zucchini banana loaf that I actually like and this is fantastic. Bonus: oat flour! I love it. I have an over-abundance of zucchini, despite cutting back to 2 plants this year, so my friends are going to enjoy being gifted with this loaf!
I love hearing this, Beverlee! Thank you so much for sharing your feedback and for the sweet words – I’m thrilled you found a recipe you enjoy! xo
Love this. Iโve made it now two weeks in a row for my breakfast before work. Easy to take along in the car. The first time I didnโt add any sugar and that was a mistake so the second time around added 1/2 cup brown sugar and itโs perfect.
I’m so thrilled to hear you enjoy the bread, Bailey! Thanks so much for sharing your experience! xo
Sounds delicious! I’ll be adding dark chocolate chips, chia seeds and walnuts…and vanilla protein powder…
Oooh, what a combination! I love it! I hope you enjoy the bread, Iris! xo
Hello, is it OK to use frozen bananas
Hi Teresa! You can use frozen bananas but just be sure to thaw them completely before using them. ๐ Hope you enjoy the bread! xo
Hi! Am trying thus today, and I’m about 1/4 cup shy of the 1.5 needed of bananas. Was going to add applesauce to make up the difference. Thoughts? Has anyone else used a substitute for lack of the full amount in the recipe? Thanks. Sounds wonderful!
Hi Betsy! Applesauce works great to make up the difference! I used applesauce and bananas interchangeably a lot in baked goods. ๐ Hope you enjoy the bread! xo
Thank you for this recipe. Its so hard to find one that is healthy with out any kind of nuts. My husband is allergic to tree nuts and coconut, its very hard to find healthy that does not use almond flour or coconut or any other nut type in the recipe. Thank you! I am going to look over your other recipies to see if you have more with out nuts.
I’m so happy to hear you like the idea of the recipe and that it will work for your husband! I have quite a few nut-free recipes that don’t contain coconut, so I hope you find some good ones you enjoy. Let me know if there is anything specific you are looking for and I can send some links your way ๐ xoxo
Absolutely love this bread! I did add the dark chocolate chips but there is no sugar besides them! Wanted to add a picture of slice and loaf but did not see how?
Ah yaay! I’m happy you enjoy it, Linda!! I wish WordPress allowed people to add photos to their comments, but to my knowledge this isn’t available yet. I appreciate the thought, though! Some of my Facebook followers like to add photos to their comments on recipes, so that would be an option if you wanted to do the same ๐