Healthy Banana Bread, How to Make it Dairy-free and Gluten-Free

This Healthy Banana Bread will be your go-to when you need to use up all those bananas you overzealously bought with good intentions. It is dairy-free, gluten-free, and refined sugar-free, and instead loaded with heart-healthy, gut-glowing ingredients like oats, flaxseeds and anti-inflammatory spices like cinnamon and ginger, not to mention tons of delicious flavor. Shall we?

Explore More

• What Makes this Banana Bread "Healthy?"
• Ingredients You Need for Healthy Banana Bread
• What Kind of Oats for this Healthy Banana Bread? Rolled Oats vs Oat Flour
• What Kind of Flaxseeds are Best for Baking?
• Instructions How to Make Healthy Banana Bread
• Substitutions and Variations
• Can You Bake Healthy Banana Bread in a Different Pan?
• Advance Prep, Leftovers, and Storage
• What to Serve with Healthy Banana Bread
• FAQ
• Healthy Banana Bread Recipe

What Makes this Banana Bread "Healthy?"

Healthy Banana Bread takes that classic banana bread and tweaks it, making it into a good health-supporting powerhouse. This Healthy Banana Bread recipe as published is:

• 100% plant-based/vegan
• vegetarian
• dairy-free
• gluten-free
• refined sugar-free

This recipe is labeled "dairy-free" and "gluten-free," but that isn't what automatically makes it healthy. This Banana Bread includes health-promoting ingredients that we could all probably use a little more of like fiber-rich oats, omega3-laden flaxseeds, and olive oil.

Oats Provide Fiber. Oats are high in fiber, which we all know promotes good gut health. But it's the type of fiber, a soluble fiber called beta glucan, that's also particularly beneficial to heart health. Beta glucan can reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes by lowering blood glucose and cholesterol levels. In this recipe, blended oats replace plain refined flour. Oat themselves are naturally gluten-free

Flaxseeds. Are a fiber and plant-based omega-3 powerhouse. One tablespoon of ground flaxseeds contains 2.8 grams of fiber, 2 g of omega-3s in the plant-based form alpha-linoleic acid. Like oats, flaxseeds have both soluble and insoluble fiber which contribute to a healthy gut.

Avocado and Olive Oil are the "Good Kind of Fat." Avocado and olive oil are monounstaurated fats, or what we like to call "the good kind of fat." MUFAs, as they are sometimes referred to as, may lower bad cholesterol, raise good cholesterol, and may improve blood sugar levels.

Maple Syrup is a Natural, Unrefined Sweetener. This recipe uses maple syrup, a vegan-suitable natural sweetener, that replaces refined white sugar. Maple syrup has a lower glycemic index (GI) than white sugar, may provide antioxidant benefits from naturally occurring phenols, and because it tastes sweeter than refined white sugar, you can use a little less in certain recipes like this one. (source)

These healthy modifications actually load up the bread with gut friendly fiber, omega 3s, protein, and anti-inflammatory compounds that promote and support your good health.

Ingredients You Need for Healthy Banana Bread

Almost every Banana Bread recipe has the same ingredients, and this one is right there with them. But what makes this Healthy Banana Bread recipe truly stand out are the proportions and the method of combining them.

Fresh/refrigerator ingredients:

• bananas, 3-4, the riper and spottier the better!

Dry/pantry ingredients:

• ground flaxseeds, 2 tablespoons
• old-fashioned oats, 2½ cups blended into a fine flour, or store bought oat flour
• maple syrup, ½ cup
• olive oil, ½ cup
• vanilla, 1 tablespoon
• baking powder, 1 tablepoon
• baking soda, 1 teaspoon
• cinnamon, 1 teaspoon
• ginger, ½ teaspoon
• salt, 1 teaspoon

Optional Healthy! Mix-In Ingredients

This recipe is the perfect place to add healthy mix-ins. After combining the wet and dry ingredients, fold into the batter up to 1½ cups of:

• fresh blueberries, blackberries, raspberries or chopped strawberries
• dark chocolate chips
• dark chocolate chunks
• additional coarsely chopped walnuts or other nuts
• dried fruit like dates or figs, also, only if you must

Fold the mix-ins into the finished batter right before pouring the batter to the pan. Note that the nutritional information per serving of the recipe will change slightly.

How Ripe Should Bananas Be for Banana Bread?

Because bananas serve multiple functions in Banana Bread beyond just flavor—sweetness, structure, moisture—it's best for them to be very ripe. Almost to the point you might question if they're even good to eat.

Bananas with little black dots probably need another day or two. If they have larger dark spots all over, they are ripe and ready. If the banana peels have dark streaks, even better. Completely darkened skins are probably okay, but my question to you here would be what is going on in your life that you'd let bananas get to that point in the first place?

Pro-tip: You can always throw ripe bananas, whole with skins and all, in the freezer to save and use to make Banana Bread later. The freezing and subsequent thawing process actually physically breaks down the bananas and concentrates their flavor when the melted liquid seeps out!

What Kind of Oats for this Healthy Banana Bread? Rolled Oats vs Oat Flour

Use organic rolled oats, which you will process into a fine "flour" in a high-powered blender or food processor. You can use regular or quick cooking rolled oats for this recipe. If you are baking gluten-free, read the packaging to make sure the oats are certified gluten-free. Oats themselves do not contain gluten, but might be processed in facilities that also process grains with gluten.

This brand is always reliable for certified gluten-free oats.

You can also skip a step in the recipe by buying oat flour.

Oats are available in a few different formats. Rolled, steel-cut, whole groat oats, quick-cooking, and instant oats are the most commonly available in grocery stores. This recipe uses rolled oats which are whole oats that have been "rolled" over and flattened, making them easier and faster to cook.

Steel-cut oats are whole oats that have been coarsely "cut" or chopped into smaller pieces for easier cooking. Steel-cut oats have great texture for a bowl of oatmeal, but are not ideal for this recipe, as they are difficult to process into oat flour in your home blender.

Do not use instant oats.

What Kind of Flaxseeds are Best for Baking?

tl;dr. You can use either of the two types of flaxseeds, golden flaxseeds or brown flaxseeds. Just make sure they are ground so they will "gel" better. With respect to taste and nutrition, golden flaxseeds have a slightly lighter flavor. Both golden and brown flaxseeds have nearly identical nutritional profiles, with brown flaxseeds just barely higher in omega-3s, that's not really enough to make a difference.

This Healthy Banana Bread recipe includes flaxseeds for both their fiber and "good fat" contribution to the nutritional profile, as well as their replacing traditional eggs as a binder.

Instructions How to Make Healthy Banana Bread

Start with the usual pre-heating of the oven to 350°F and lining and greasing of loaf pan or muffin pan with parchment paper. After that, follow these instructions for the beast Healthy Banana Bread:

Pro-tip

Because this Healthy Banana Bread is made with oat flour and flaxseeds, both of which won't be totally obvious when you slice the bread, garnishing the top of the bread with whole rolled oats and/or whole flaxseeds is a great way of "labeling" what it is, especially if there are more than one or two people who graze through the kitchen!

Additional Ingredients Notes and Resources

Oil. I usually use this California-grown olive oil. You can also use avocado oil—this brand of avocado oil (not organic) or melted coconut oil. While avocado oil is neutral in flavor, both coconut oil and olive oil have distinctive flavors, so the bread will taste and smell ever so faintly of those oils.

Maple Syrup. I use this organic maple syrup that is amber in color and more robust in flavor than lighter colored maple syrups.

Vanilla Extract. I use this brand of pure vanilla extract. Don't use imitation vanilla flavoring.

Cinnamon. Cinnamon is a common spice for baking, but is unfortunately overlooked as a superfood! Anything labeled "ground cinnamon" is fine for this recipe. If you want something fancy, look for "Ceylon" cinnamon, which has a more delicate, complex flavor.

Ginger. Ground ginger adds warmth, along with anti-inflammatory health benefits, to the Banana Bread. If you cannot find ground ginger, you can substitute up to double the amount of grated fresh ginger. You can also leave the ginger out completely.

Salt. I use this kosher salt for almost every cooking application (as opposed to a finishing/garnishing application). If you only have regular table salt, use half the amount in the recipe.

All other fresh herbs and produce from either the Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Wednesday, or Whole Foods Market when I can't find what I need at the farmers' market.

Substitutions and Variations

When it comes to this Healthy version of Banana Bread, try to stick as closely as possible to the ingredients and ratios as ingredients like oats, flaxseeds, and maple syrup require some degree of consistency. That being said, there are some substitutions you can make:

• Oat Flour. If you want to skip the step of blending oats into your own oat flour, you can buy and use a commercial oat flour. This popular brand is always reliable, and I've recently tried this new, smaller brand which is organic and certified gluten-free.
• Regular Wheat Flour - If you are not gluten-free, you can substitute up to half of the oats to add slightly more texture to the final product. If you want to substitute out all the oat flour, try this Easy Basic Banana Bread recipe, which is designed for regular flour, instead!
• Sweetener—Substitute maple syrup with honey 1 for 1.
• Reduced Sugar—You can absolutely reduce the total amount of sugar in the recipe by a few tablespoons, but any less than that and you will compromise the structural integrity of the bread, as the maple syrup is not just for sweetness, but moisture and texture.
• Other Oil — You can technically use any other oil for this recipe, though the point is to keep the ingredients as nutrient-dense as possible.

Variations with Mix-In Ingredients

As noted above, additional nutrient-dense mix-in ingredients at the end are great for customizing your Healthy Banana Bread. Add up to 1 cup of any of the following into the batter at the end, with the understanding that additions will change the nutritional profile of the final recipe. Just fold into the final batter until well incorporated:

• fresh berries or other chopped fresh fruit
• dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate chunks
• chopped toasted nuts of any kind like almonds, pecans, pistachios, or walnuts
• chopped dried fruit like dried cranberries, dated, dried figs, dried plums or raisins

Fold the mix-ins into the finished batter right before pouring the batter to the pan. Note that the nutritional information per serving of the recipe changes, primarily the calories and fat.

Ok, now look, I know it's controversial, but I'm going to go ahead say it: nuts of any kind do not belong in Banana Bread, or any baked goods for that matter. However, if you are inclined to add nuts, don't, and use them as a topper when you have a slice. Just kidding. You can add up to 1 cup of chopped nuts by folding them into the finished batter at the end.

If you add raisins to Banana Bread, we are no longer friends.

Can You Bake Healthy Banana Bread in a Different Pan?

This Healthy Banana Bread is slightly more delicate than regular quick breads, so using different size and shape pans is not recommended. However, there are a couple of cases where a different pan would work:

• Muffin Pan— Yes! This Healthy Banana Bread recipe fits perfectly in a regular 12-count muffin tin and makes perfect muffins. Grease and flour the muffin tin or line with paper liners. Divide batter evenly among cups. Bake the muffins for 18-22 minutes.
• Different Size Loaf Pan— Though a regular quick bread can make the jump from an 8½x4½-inch loaf pan up to a 9x5-inch pan, this healthy Banana Bread will be too small in volume for the larger loaf pan. You can size down to two much smaller mini loaf pans.
• 9-inch Round Pan— Yes! A 9-inch round pan has similar capacity to a 8½x4½-inch loaf pan. The batter will spread out more, so you will need to decrease the baking time. Start checking the Banana Bread for done-ness at 30 minutes.
• 8-inch Round Cake Pan— No. This Healthy Banana Bread will not fit in an 8-inch round cake pan.

Tools and Equipment

As I always say, you don't need any special equipment to make almost any recipe. However, that's not to say there are a couple of gadgets and tools that might make it a LOT easier to get Healthy Banana Bread from your pantry to plate.

• 9x5-inch Loaf Pan
• 8x4-inch Loaf Pan
• Angled Measuring Cups.
• Parchment Paper.
• Mini ¼-cup liquid measuring cup
• Glass mixing bowls.
• Sturdy Whisk.
• Mini whisk
• Glass storage container with airtight lids, perfect size for storing leftover Healthy Banana Bread and Muffins!

Advance Prep, Leftovers, and Storage

Banana Bread, like all quick breads and muffins, are perfect for making ahead and eating over the next few days or freezing and re-heating. In fact, it's worthwhile to make two loaves at once if the oven's going to be turned on anyway. You can eat one loaf now and freeze one for later. To store this Healthy Banana Bread, cool bread completely. Like completely. At least one hour, maybe two. Then to store:

1-2 Days. Store banana bread, as a loaf or sliced into individual servings, at room temperature in an air-tight container on the countertop for up to one day, maybe two days as long as it's not too hot and humid in the house.

Up to 5 Days. Store banana bread, as a loaf or sliced into individual servings, for up to 5 days in the refrigerator in an air-tight container.

Up to 3 Months. Slice bread into individual servings. Wrap each slice in a piece of parchment paper to protect from freezer burn and to keep slices from sticking together. Place slices in an air-tight zipper-top bag and remove as much as air as possible. Remove individual slices from freezer, unwrap parchment paper, and re-heat in a toaster oven (best option). You can also microwave the frozen banana bread, but the texture will be slightly sticky.

What to Serve with Healthy Banana Bread

A generous slice of Healthy Flaxseed and Oat Banana Bread by itself is a perfect light breakfast or snack! If you like to make it a little more of an occasion, here are some great suggestions for what and how else to serve with this Banana Bread:

• Slather a slice, toasted or not, with nut butter, drizzle with honey, and top with sliced fresh bananas and toasted walnuts for a healthy indulgence loaded with protein, health plant-based fats, and fiber!
• Dollop with whipped cream cheese; the whipped version is key as banana bread is tender so you want something that spread onto it gently
• Drizzle the entire loaf with cream cheese icing or vanilla icing
• Top the entire loaf with this Cream Cheese Frosting to transform your Healthy Banana into a dessert

Best Banana Bread Recipes

Here for Easy Quick Breads? These are my favorites:

• Internet Famous for decades, Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
• Ultimate Banana Bread Recipe from Cook's Illustrated
• Easiest, no fuss Basic Banana Bread

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