5-Ingredient Vegan Banana Bread Recipe

By Charlotte Lindsay15/05/2020

WHAT IS BANANA BREAD?

Banana bread is a simple, soft and scrumptious snack that is based around mashed, ripened bananas and enhanced with your favourite extra ingredients. Don’t be expecting a bread-like loaf, as the texture of banana bread is somewhere between cake and a bread - how sticky or dense you make it determines where it sits on the scale!

WHY IS BANANA BREAD SO POPULAR?

As soon as you google ‘banana bread’ you will be overwhelmed by a wealth of recipe options. But why? Here are some of the reasons why it tops our home baking hit list:

Versatile

The variety of ingredients that you can use and substitute within your mixture is extensive, making it easy to adapt for vegan, dairy-free or gluten-free requirements.

Low fuss

Unlike many other baked goods, banana bread requires minimal ingredients, so you can often work with what you’ve already got in the kitchen. It is a great way to use up existing ingredients - especially overly ripe bananas!

Easy to make

It is also rather straightforward to make. From mashing bananas to folding in raisins, you don’t need to be a skilled baker to make this delicious treat.

Inexpensive

As you don’t need many ingredients and the key ingredients are rather basic, banana bread is typically cheaper to make than your normal cake.

Relaxing

Like all baking and cooking, making banana bread involves an element of mindfulness - switching off from your computer or phone screen and focusing on the task in hand. It allows you to escape reality and relax. And best of all, you get to have a break with a slice of banana bread afterwards!

Delicious

Moist, sweet and wholesome. This rewarding dish is simply delicious. It’s no wonder then that banana bread has become the go-to COVID-19 lockdown bake.

But don’t just take our word for it, scroll down for some amazing recipes to try yourself!

IS BANANA BREAD HEALTHY?

As always, ‘a little bit of what you fancy does you good’.

And fortunately with banana bread you can have even more of what you fancy, as it is often a healthier option than your regular fluffy sponge cakes.

For all you active gym lovers, park runners and Pilates goers, banana bread can be a fantastic source of energy, thanks to its slow release of carbs and protein.

Due to the versatile nature of the key ingredients, you can also make many healthy additions and switches to upgrade your banana bread ingredients. Try adding the following:

Blended oats instead of flour
Goji berries
Brazil nuts
Summer fruits
Superfood powder

If you love the idea of pimping up your banana bread healthily, read on for our delicious recipe with a tropical twist.

vegan banana bread recipe

5-INGREDIENT VEGAN BANANA BREAD RECIPE

This flourless banana bread recipe requires only 5 basic ingredients and is a breeze to make!

Add our suggested fruity extras for a more tropical twist.

Ingredients:

Bread:

3 large ripe bananas

2 cups of oat flour (blended oats)

1/2 cup brown sugar or ¼ - ½ cup natural sweetener i.e agave

1/2 cup oat milk

1 tbsp baking powder

Exotic add ins:

3 tsp maca powder

1/2 cup chopped pistachios

1/4 cup goji berry

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Decoration:

1 large ripe banana

2 teaspoon brown sugar

1 tbsp sunflower seeds

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees (Fan) and prepare a loaf tin with baking paper.
In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork.
Add in the oat flour, brown sugar, oat milk, agave syrup, maca powder, pistachios, goji berries and sunflower seeds, mix together thoroughly. Don’t worry if the mixture appears a little lumpy, that's normal!
Carefully pour the mixture into your prepared tin.
Slice the remaining banana in half, lengthways, and place on top of your mixture.
Sprinkle the sunflower seeds over the mixture and bananas, then sprinkle sugar over the bananas, this will help them to caramelise slightly.
Now, bake the banana bread for 50-55 minutes, and try to wait patiently whilst inhaling the delicious sweet smell that slowly pours out of the oven
Once baked through, remove from the oven and let it cool. Enjoy!

tropical banana bread

PIMP YOUR BANANA BREAD

Try swapping out our ‘exotic add ins’ and replacing them with some of your favourite flavours, from chocolate to berry, and fudge to maple pecan. As they say in Mean Girls, “the limit does not exist!”

Here are some of our favourite tried-and-tested combinations: