This easy vegan banana bread is the best ever! It’s moist on the inside, crispy on the outside, and simply fabulous served warm from the oven and spread with vegan butter.
What’s that AMAZING aroma wafting through the house?
Cinnamon and banana and caramelized sugar all mixed in with the smell of baking bread. Mmmmm! That’ll be banana bread.
There’s nothing quite like a slice of banana bread served hot from the oven with melting vegan butter spread generously on top. And then there’s nothing quite like it served cold and slathered with vegan butter either.
For me the vegan butter spread on top is a non-negotiable, though Jaye loves it plain.
The best way to use up ripe bananas!
Next time you have some ripe bananas on hand hopefully this will be the first thing to come to mind because it is so easy to throw together.
It’s sweet enough to be eaten as a dessert but savory enough to have for breakfast! It’s a win/win situation. Just go ahead and eat it anytime, anywhere, anyhow!
How to make vegan banana bread
Full instructions and measurements can always be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is just a summary of the process.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Prepare a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan by spraying it with non-stick spray and lining the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Sift all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and then add white and brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
- Prepare a flax egg by mixing 1 Tbsp of ground flaxseed with 3 Tbsp of hot water from the kettle and leaving it to sit for a minute to get gloopy.
- Add some peeled bananas, soy milk and coconut oil to the blender jug and blend. Then pour the blended mix over your dry ingredients. Add in the flax egg and mix into a thick batter. Transfer the batter to a prepared loaf pan and smooth down with the back of a spoon.
- Place into the oven and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the banana bread comes out clean.
Recipe Tips
Ripe spotty bananas: It’s very important to use ripe and spotty bananas because these are the sweetest bananas with the highest sugar content vs starch content and you want your banana bread to have all that lovely sweet banana flavor.
Green bananas are more starch than sugar, so they won’t do the job nearly so well. Ripe and spotty is the way forward. If your bananas aren’t ready, then wait a day or two, it will be worth the wait.
This recipe is super moist yet uses very little oil and this is due to the bananas, which provide so much moisture to the recipe.
Coconut Oil: We used coconut oil in this recipe but you can switch for a different oil if you prefer. I imagine vegan butter would work as well, though I haven’t tried it yet.
Soy Milk: We used soy milk in this recipe but any non-dairy milk would work fine here.
Mash or Blend?
Most banana bread recipes mash up the banana, but I thought why not blend it up with the soy milk and coconut oil? So I did! And it worked fabulously well.
If you prefer not to get your blender involved, you can mash your banana and then mash in the coconut oil and add it to the batter along with the soy milk. Blending isn’t a crucial step here, it’s optional but it does result in a very smooth batter and even distribution of that banana flavor so I’m a big fan of blending in this recipe.
Optional Add-In’s
This recipe is really your blank canvas, it’s totally delicious as it is, but you can absolutely add in some extras to bring the deliciousness up a level!
Walnuts: If you want to add some nuts, walnuts are a great flavor blend! Add a cup of chopped walnuts to the batter right before baking. Pecans also work wonderfully for this.
Vegan chocolate chips: This is another great addition, also check out our vegan chocolate chip banana bread!
Raisins or dried cranberries also work great.
Recipe Q&A
Can I make this gluten-free? With some small adjustments this works great for gluten-free, check out our vegan gluten free banana bread recipe.
Can I make this into muffins? Yes! We’re mad about the muffins! Check out our recipes for vegan banana muffins and vegan chocolate chip banana muffins!
How long does it keep? If you keep it covered at room temperature it will stay good for a few (3-4) days. If you want it to last longer, then keep it covered in the fridge where it will last for up to a week.
Can I freeze it? Yes you can. When you’re ready for it, let it thaw overnight in the fridge.
More vegan banana recipes
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Banana Pancakes
- Vegan Banana Ice Cream
- Vegan Banana Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Banana Cookies
- Vegan Banana Cream Pie
Vegan Banana Bread
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 70 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
- Yield: 10
Description
This easy vegan banana bread is the best ever! It’s moist on the inside, crispy on the outside, and simply fabulous served warm from the oven and spread with vegan butter.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) All-Purpose Flour*
- 1/2 cup (100g) White Granulated Sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) Light Brown Sugar
- 3 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 3 Medium Ripe Bananas (1 and 1/3 cups mashed / 10.5oz/300g peeled weight)*
- 1/2 cup (120ml) Soy Milk*
- 3 Tbsp (45g) Coconut Oil*
- 1 Flax Egg (1 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed Meal + 3 Tbsp Hot Water)*
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan with non-stick spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Sift your flour into a mixing bowl and add the white and brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnaon and mix together.
- Prepare your flax egg by mixing 1 Tbsp Flaxseed Meal with 3 Tbsp Hot Water and allowing to sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Measure the correct amount of banana and add it to your blender along with the soy milk and coconut oil and blend until smooth.
- Pour the blended mix over your dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and mix it into a smooth batter. Add the flax egg and mix it in.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared loaf pan and place into the oven to bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the banana bread comes out clean.
- Let it cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
Notes
*Weigh your flour on a food scale for the most accurate measurement or make sure you use the spoon and level method for measuring flour which is the most accurate way to measure flour if using only cups.
*Either weigh your peeled bananas or mash them and measure using the cup method. It should be 1 and 1/3 cups of mashed banana.
*You can also use almond milk or another non-dairy option instead of soy milk if you prefer.
*You can use a different oil other than coconut oil if you prefer. Vegan butter may also work but we haven’t tested it.
*I really like the addition of a flax egg to this recipe and it works really well, but if you need a substitution for it, you can use extra mashed banana (3 Tbsp extra mashed banana) to replace the flax egg.
*Nutrition information is an estimate based on 1 slice of 10 without any added vegan butter.
*This recipe was first published in September 2015 and has now been updated with improved photos and text.
- Category: Breakfast, Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice (of 10)
- Calories: 239
- Sugar: 24g
- Sodium: 156mg
- Fat: 5g
- Saturated Fat: 4g
- Carbohydrates: 47g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 3g
Keywords: vegan banana bread
Alison,
I followed your gluten free version of this banana bread and made it in muffins following your baking time and temp for the banana muffins and they’re delicious! You can’t even tell that is vegan and gluten-free! I changed the flex egg for vegan butter as you suggested, left out nutmeg, half of the sugars (50g for each) and walnuts and the texture and everything it’s perfection!
Also, made your vegan corn bread and used Bob Red Mills gluten 1 to 1 and perfect too! I’m your biggest fan. thanks to you my allergic toddler it’s experiencing things he saw on tv or books and he could not eat them. My next step is to try your pumpkin cookies or banana cookies and try to make them gluten-free. Any advice will be appreciated 🙂 THANK YOU again and thank you for this website!
Awesome Sylvia! So happy to hear it was a success! And the cornbread too! Yay! In my experience most cookies work great with a simple swap of the flour for a gluten free blend and no other changes! All the best! 🙂
I have made similar banana breads and figured this looks super good. The only thing I changed was I added a few walnuts and a few chocolate chips. The bread turned out gooey??
I am so puzzled. Not sure why this happened
Hi Mary, the most common reason for this would be using too much banana.
Can we substitute refined coconut oil instead of unrefined? I am making this soon! So excited!
Sure! Either/or will do great. 🙂
Hi Alison!
Thank you for all you wonderful recipes. I tried this bread today and it came up chewy/gummy like pudding instead of like bread. I changed flour for gluten free 1 to 1, oil for vegan butter and I added the 3 Tbsp extra mashed banana instead of flex egg. Also, used silicon pan instead. Trying to perfect a gluten/vegan bread for my allergic toddler (allergic to dairy,wheat,peanuts, and eggs).Any advice would be truly appreciated!
PS did your vegan banana pancakes for him and they came out perfect!
Hi Sylvia, we did a recipe for gluten-free banana bread and noted there that not all recipes will work for gluten free with a straight swap of flours as you have noted with this one. So please use that recipe instead. 🙂 So glad the pancakes worked out great!
Thanks Alison! I’ll try the vegan-gluten free version then. Consistency should be like bread? Not gummy/chewy— pudding like? Also, what do you think about silicon pan? That could affect? Thanks again for your time and help!
Yes definitely! It shouldn’t be gummy at all. I am not sure of the impact a silicon dish may have, I have never used one.
This is the perfect banana bread recipe. I use canola oil and pea milk instead of coconut oil and soy milk. Thanks for sharing your recipes with us!
★★★★★
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing Stephanie!
Yet another one of your recipes that comes out perfect EVERY TIME!! Seriously, you are so amazing. I used to be so daunted by vegan baking until I found your recipes. I used half whole wheat flour and half all purpose (125g each) and it turned out perfect. Might try 100% whole wheat flour next time – would you suggest making any changes to accommodate whole wheat flour?
For anyone curious – I highly recommend weighing the dry ingredients and blending the wet ingredients as written in the recipe. It’s completely foolproof. Take it from me who used to have failure after failure with vegan baking.
Seriously Alison… you rule and I come back to your recipes time and time again. Thank you!!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Jordan! That is the best compliment! I think you can use all whole wheat flour the only impact will be that the texture may be more ‘coarse’ than with the all purpose. Thanks for the awesome review! 🙂
The first time I made this I added almond butter after I mixed and poured the batter and half raisins and half White chocolate chips (due to my family’s preference) I also reduced the baking soda to barely 1 tsp. It was super moist and delicious!
It doesn’t look like the picture but it was delicious.
The second time I decided to follow the recipe and add the 3 tsp of baking soda and had to throw it away due to the overwhelming taste of baking soda.
Hi Erick, baking soda and baking powder are different and they are not interchangeable. This recipe uses baking powder and not baking soda (which is much stronger).
I’m really glad for this recipe cause I’m pregnant and I can’t stand the smell or taste of eggs right now. Anyhow I love this recipe it’s so amazing and perfect.. I made 1 last night and it was gone in 1hr had to make 2 this morning😕ahh should I say that’s there’s only half of one left😂😂my husband dont even know it’s vegan…🙊🙊🙊don’t tell him..
Two things I change was I used oat milk cause that’s all I had and I also used less sugar the second time. I also didn’t have any cinnamon but it was great anyway…
So glad you love the recipe Neeshi! Thanks so much for posting! xo
Hello Alison! Even though I very rarely write comments, I am doing it this time to tell you that I absolutely love your recipes. I am sorry to say but most vegan recipes from blogs are failures for me for some reason, but your recipes work very nicely. I am a skilled vegan cook and baker but often I like to try good looking recipes from the Internet. However, pictures are often nice but the results of the recipes are so disappointing. I was never disappointed when trying your recipes. Your banana bread is awesome! You are very talented and we love “your style” of preparing vegan food. Your recipes are exceptional! Thank you so much!
★★★★★
Thank you so much Daniela! That is so kind of you to say and we really appreciate it! xo
We dont have all purpose flour in Namibia. We only have self raising flour, cake flour, bread flour and a whole wheat flour (not fine). Whi h could I use? Thanks
Do you have ‘cake wheat flour’ in Namibia? Because that is the same thing as all purpose flour.
Well our house smells amazing. It was hard to wait until it cooled down enough to eat. Dave chopped up some pecans and I added the chocolate chips (vegan of course.) We only had a sad looking banana and a half so halved all the ingredients.Nice and moist and very tasty. Love the touch of cinnamon flavor.
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for the great review!
Excellent! My family didn’t know it was vegan. 🙂 I’m new to vegan baking. This bread seems a little on the dense side. Is there a trick to get it fluffier? Or is that how vegan baking goes? Thanks! 🙂
★★★★★
Hi Laura! So glad you enjoyed it! It shouldn’t be dense, though vegan baking can be a little trickier than non-vegan in the sense that mixing the batter even a little too long can cause it to become dense. So make sure you only mix it until just mixed. And then also just make sure you either weigh out the flour on a food scale or use the spoon and level method to measure it so you don’t accidentally use too much. All the best!
I have to agree, I weighed my flour etc. Very tasty!
To make it a bit lighter, next time, I’ll be adding add a touch more raising agent.
Thank you for the recipe. Can I make it sugar free? Just take out all sweeteners?
Hi Nataliia! You can reduce the sugar, I’m not sure about omitting it altogether, though it might also work fine! Let us know how it goes! 🙂