5-Ingredient Vegan Banana Bread (Healthy + Easy)

This amazingly wholesome 5-Ingredient Vegan Banana Bread is super quick and easy to make. It’s refined sugar-free and healthier than most regular recipes (no butter involved!). Topped with some Homemade Almond Butter and alongside a cup of Oat Milk Hot Chocolate, it makes the perfect breakfast or healthy sweet treat.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• Similar to our Vegan Pumpkin Banana Bread it's super moist and delicious.
• It’s a super simple 1-bowl recipe!
• It consists of only 5 basic ingredients!
• It’s dairy-free, nut-free and contains no butter.

Ingredients & Substitution Notes

• Flour: I used white all-purpose flour for this recipe. You could also use gluten-free flour instead but this will result in a quite different texture. For best results I would recommend sticking to regular flour.
• Mashed Banana: Bananas not only add taste and texture but also sweetness to this recipe. So I highly recommend using very ripe ones. Look for bananas with lots of brown spots on the skins.
• Maple Syrup: This recipe is refined sugar free and uses maple syrup as a sweetener. You could use any liquid sweetener of your choice (agave syrup, brown rice syrup, date syrup…). Don’t replace it with crystal sweeteners such as brown sugar or coconut sugar.
• Olive Oil: I used olive oil in this recipe because it’s much healthier than coconut oil or even vegan butter. Don’t be afraid, you don’t taste it in this recipe! Technically, you could use any neutral flavoured oil though such as melted coconut oil or sunflower oil.
• Baking Powder: Is your rising agent, don’t omit!

How To Make 5-Ingredient Vegan Banana Bread

Because of its minimal ingredients, this easy banana bread comes together in no time!

Step 1: Mash bananas + mix wet ingredients.

In a medium bowl, mash bananas with a fork. It’s important to really measure the required amount of banana puree using a measuring cup for the recipe to turn out perfect.

Next mix together the mashed bananas, maple syrup and olive oil. I recommend using a whisk.

Step 2: Add dry ingredients.

Then add baking powder and flour and stir until well combined. Stop whisking as soon as you end up with a homogenous batter, don’t overstir or you might end up with a dense texture!

Step 3: Bake.

Transfer your batter to a loaf tin lined with parchment paper. My tin size was 20 x 10cm/ 8x4 inch.

Bake in preheated oven (180°C (350°F)) for 50 – 55 minutes or until a skewer/ toothpick inserted into the centre of the banana bread comes out clean. Bake time might vary slightly depending on your oven.  

Step 4: Let cool.

Take the bread out of the oven. Let it sit in the loaf pan for 5 more minutes before transferring it to a wire rack. Let cool completely before slicing it!

Optional Add-Ins

• Nuts: I love adding some walnuts or pecans to this recipe. They add some additional texture as well as nutrients!
• Seeds: if you would want the recipe to be nut-free, seeds such as sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds would make a great addition.
• Vanilla Extract: Would add some nice subtle vanilla flavour- feel free to add some!
• Chocolate Chips: Who doesn’t like the combination of chocolate and banana? Throw in some chocolate chips for some additional chocolaty flavour.
• Dried Fruits: You could chop up some dates or add raisins, dried cranberries or any dried fruit of choice.
• Cinnamon: Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon to add more festive flavours!

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