This easy vegan banana bread is the best ever! It’s moist, packed with flavor and comes out perfectly every time. Made with simple, easy to find ingredients, this is truly the only banana bread recipe you’ll ever need.
This vegan banana bread is our classic, tried and tested recipe and it truly comes out perfectly every time.
Something that I truly love about baking banana bread is how good the house smells! Cinnamon and banana and caramelized sugar all mixed in with the smell of baking bread. Mmmmm!
And there’s nothing quite like a slice of banana bread served freshly baked and warm from the oven.
And if you love baking quick breads then also check out our recipes for vegan pumpkin bread and vegan zucchini bread.
What You Need To Make It:
Ingredient Notes
- Ripe spotty bananas: Ripe and spotty bananas are crucial because they are packed with natural sugars.
- Coconut Oil: This can be swapped for vegan butter (in the same quantity) or you can use applesauce instead for an oil-free version.
- Soy Milk: You can use soy milk as we did, or swap it for any other non-dairy milk.
- Walnuts: These are entirely optional. You can omit them or swap them out for a different nut such as pecans. Or replace them with chocolate chips.
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 add white and brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix together.
- Measure the correct amount of banana and add it to your blender along with 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 chopped walnuts (optional) and fold in.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared 9×5 loaf pan and smooth down. Add a few more chopped walnuts on top and place into the oven to bake.
- Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan and placing it onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Recipe Tips
Mash or blend. We love blending up the banana, coconut oil and non-dairy milk in this recipe as it results in a very smooth batter and even distribution of that banana flavor. However, if you prefer not to get your blender involved, you can simply melt the coconut oil, mash it in with your banana and add to the mixing bowl along with the non-dairy milk.
Measure the banana correctly. If you have a food scale, then you can just weigh the peeled banana to get the correct amount. If you don’t have a scale then the best way to measure would be to mash the banana and measure it out in cups. This recipe uses 1 and ½ cups mashed banana or 337g.
Spoon and level the flour. The correct way to measure flour is to use the spoon and level method, which is to spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup. Alternatively, weigh it on a food scale.
Don’t overmix the batter. Once you add the wet ingredients in with the dry you just want to mix it until just mixed. Don’t over-mix the batter or the texture and/or rise of your loaf may be impacted.
Recipe Q&A
With some small adjustments this works great for gluten-free, check out our vegan gluten free banana bread recipe.
Yes you can. Simply replace the coconut oil with applesauce (in the same quantity) for an oil-free version.
Yes! We’re mad about the muffins. Check out our recipes for vegan banana muffins and vegan chocolate chip banana muffins.
Store it covered at room temperature where 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.
Yes you can. It’s freezer friendly for up to 2 months. When you’re ready for it, let it thaw overnight in the fridge.
More Vegan Banana Recipes
- Vegan Banana Pancakes
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Banana Cookies
- Vegan Banana Ice Cream
- Vegan Banoffee Pie
- Vegan Banana Cream Pie
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour (250g)
- ½ cup White Granulated Sugar (100g)
- ½ cup Light Brown Sugar (100g)
- 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 ½ cups Mashed Ripe Banana (or 337g peeled weight)*
- ½ cup Soy Milk (120ml) or other non-dairy milk
- ¼ cup Coconut Oil (55g) or Vegan Butter*
- 1 cup Walnuts (100g) Chopped, plus more to place on top before baking)*
Instructions
- 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 add white and brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix together.
- Measure the correct amount of banana and add it to your blender jug along with the soy milk and coconut oil (or vegan butter) and blend until smooth.
- Pour the blended mix over your dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and mix it into a smooth batter.
- Add chopped walnuts (optional) and fold in.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared 9×5 loaf pan and smooth down. Add a few more chopped walnuts on top and place into the oven to bake.
- Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan and placing it onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Spoon and level the flour. The correct way to measure flour is to use the spoon and level method, which is to spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup. Alternatively, weigh it on a food scale.
- Measure the banana correctly. If you have a food scale, then you can just weigh the peeled banana to get the correct amount. If you don’t have a scale then the best way to measure would be to mash the banana and measure it out in cups. This recipe uses 1 and ½ cups mashed banana or 337g.
- Mash or blend. We love blending up the banana, coconut oil and non-dairy milk in this recipe as it results in a very smooth batter and even distribution of that banana flavor. However, if you prefer not to get your blender involved, you can simply melt the coconut oil, mash it in with your banana and add to the mixing bowl along with the non-dairy milk.
- Don’t overmix the batter. Once you add the wet ingredients in with the dry you just want to mix it until just mixed. Don’t over-mix the batter or the texture and/or rise of your loaf may be impacted.
- Make it oil-free: If you’d like this banana bread to be oil-free then you can replace the coconut oil with applesauce in the same quantity (¼ cup).
- Make it gluten-free: For a gluten-free version of this recipe, please see our recipe for gluten-free banana bread.
- Storing and Freezing: Store it covered at room temperature where 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. It’s freezer friendly for up to 2 months. When you’re ready for it, let it thaw overnight in the fridge.
- This recipe was first published in September 2015. It has been updated with new photos and lots more tips. The recipe itself has also been very slightly updated. The original recipe used a flax egg, we have updated the recipe to use more banana so a flax egg is not required.
Daniela Nyvltova says
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!
Alison Andrews says
Thank you so much Daniela! That is so kind of you to say and we really appreciate it! xo
Isabella says
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
Alison Andrews says
Do you have ‘cake wheat flour’ in Namibia? Because that is the same thing as all purpose flour.
Tracy & Dave says
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.
Alison Andrews says
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for the great review!
Laura Zimmerman says
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! 🙂
Alison Andrews says
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!
Lex says
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.
Nataliia says
Thank you for the recipe. Can I make it sugar free? Just take out all sweeteners?
Alison Andrews says
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! 🙂
Debbie Mactavish says
Lovely recipe. I made the mixture into muffins rather than a loaf. Slightly altered the recipe by reducing the sugar from 200g down to 60g of soft brown sugar, and adding 150g of chopped dates for the added sweetness. They have turned out beautifully. Definitely will be using this recipe again.
Alison Andrews says
So happy to hear that! Thanks so much for sharing Debbie!
Yvonne says
Another winner recipe…thank you! The first time I made the recipe exactly as written and it was a big hit (50 minutes bake time exactly). Today I made another double batch; Debbie’s idea of using chopped dates to replace some of the sugar intrigued me, so I tried it and really liked the outcome. The date pieces give it a delicious caramel-y flavor, which was also enhanced when I threw in about a 1/3 cup of strong leftover coffee. Banoffee for the win! Still was just about 50 minutes bake time. Alison, you are now my go-to website when I am looking for recipes for delicious vegan baked goods.
Alison Andrews says
Thanks so much Yvonne!
Jamuna says
Oh and what I forgot to add is what I like best about the recipe: it tastes of banana without the banana being overpowering (as is the case in many recipes I had tried in the past).
Alison Andrews says
Oh awesome! Thanks Jamuna!
Jamuna says
Dear Alison,
I tried out your recipe and it was so easy to make and tastes great. Gave my hubby, who is not even a vegetarian, a slice with vegan butter on it and he asked if he could have another!
I was afraid that the amount of sugar in the recipe could be too much for my taste, so I cut it down to 160g, using half organic light brown sugar and half coconut sugar.
The top of the loaf became sticky the next day, so I’m wondering how I can prevent that.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Jamuna! So glad you enjoyed it! I think the getting a little sticky on the top is a normal thing for quick breads and is caused from the sugar. However, it shouldn’t be wet or gummy. Make sure it’s totally cool before it gets placed into an airtight container otherwise there can tend to be too much moisture inside the container that can cause it to become too wet.
Lesley says
Hi Alison,
Made your banana bread today as I am trying to expand my Vegan recipe repertoire to accommodate my vegan grand-daughter and also feed others without having to duplicate menus/dishes. Fed it to non vegans and, as expected, it was wolfed down!! Did vegan dishes over Christmas with a house full, and nobody was any the wiser!! This amused me immensely as people seem to expect ‘strange’ food because it’s vegan.
My cooking time was only 50 minutes but that may be different altitudes at play. Next time I’ll add a teaspoon of vanilla essence to balance the baking powder which I could taste (slightly) but nobody else had a problem. I used regular milk today because the recipe was a test case – when she’s here I’ll do 100% vegan.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Lesley! Thanks so much for sharing and the wonderful review. So happy to hear it was a success. xo
Gail says
I just love all your recipes. I Haven’t found one that I didn’t like, especially the desserts. I’ve made at least 15 of the recipes. Thank you sooooo much.
Alison Andrews says
So happy to hear that! Thanks so much Gail.
A. says
I just put my loaf in the oven- can’t wait to see how it turns out. I omitted oil completely- my bananas were massive… fingers crossed!
Alison Andrews says
Hope it turned out well! 🙂
Cam A. says
I made this recipe because my daughter and her boyfriend are eating vegan. I used canola oil instead of coconut oil and almond milk. It turned out great! So delicious. I will make this again for sure.
Alison Andrews says
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing Cam! 🙂
A. says
On behalf of vegans: thanks for supporting your daughter and her bf in being vegan!
Mila says
BEST VEGAN BANANA BREAD! Thank you so much for this amazing recipe.
Hands down, this is the best banana bread I have ever made.
I only had frozen bananas on hand, reduced sweetener to 1/2 cup of coconut sugar, used chia because I ran out of flax and added in some dark chocolate pieces. Even with all these tweaks, the banana bread turned out perfect! Needless to say, I will follow this recipe over and over again. 🙂
Alison Andrews says
So happy to hear that Mila! Thank you so much for the wonderful review. 🙂
Carla says
Gonna try this!! Can i sub the coconut oil for something else?
Alison Andrews says
Sure, you can use a different oil if you prefer.
Crystal says
Best banana bread ever. I have only found a couple i ever liked and lost those with family members of unknown location ????
Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
Yay! So happy you loved it Crystal! 🙂