Healthy Zucchini Bread
This amazing zucchini bread recipe is made healthy with whole grains, honey (or maple syrup) and coconut oil instead of butter. Easily vegan/gluten free.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
My dog, Cookie, is wild for zucchini. Also cauliflower, broccoli, kale, and cabbage. You could say that my pup has a healthy appetite. This morning, I left a slice of zucchini bread on my desk where I thought she couldn’t reach. Then I heard some scuffling, followed by some gobbling. She swiped that slice of bread and ate half before I could grab it.
This dog is my soulmate, I tell you. That was all to say that this zucchini bread recipe is Cookie and Kate approved. It’s fluffy and moist, lightly spiced, and full of confetti-like green flecks of zucchini.
If you’ve enjoyed zucchini bread before, let me point out a few differences between my recipe and standard recipes. Here are five reasons to love this healthier zucchini bread:
- I used one-half cup honey (or maple syrup) instead a full cup of white sugar. It’s not overtly sweet, but you could add another drizzle of honey or maple sweetener to individual slices, if desired.
- I also used white whole wheat flour instead of refined flour, so this bread is made with 100 percent whole grains.
- I used coconut oil instead of butter, which means this bread is easily made without any dairy at all.
- Most zucchini bread recipes call for one cup of grated zucchini, but I liked mine better with one-and-a-half cups. Even then, I can’t say there’s a pronounced zucchini flavor to it, because zucchini doesn’t have a ton of flavor in itself.
- It’s easily made vegan and/or gluten-free, too—just check my recipe notes.
Please let me know how this recipe turns out for you in the comments! Your feedback is so important to me.
If you love this zucchini bread, you’ll also enjoy my banana bread, apple muffins, carrot muffins or banana muffins, you’re going to love this one. Don’t miss the maple-sweetened blueberry muffins in my cookbook!
Watch How to Make Zucchini Bread
Healthy Zucchini Bread
This fluffy zucchini bread recipe is made healthier with whole grains, honey (or maple syrup) and coconut oil instead of butter. It is easily made vegan and/or gluten free (see notes). Recipe yields 1 loaf.
Ingredients
- Optional: ¾ cup roughly chopped raw walnuts or pecans
- ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil*
- ½ cup honey or maple syrup
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup milk of choice or water
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon + more to swirl on top
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 ½ cups grated zucchini (you’ll need 1 small-to-medium zucchini, about 7 ounces—gently squeeze out excess moisture over the sink before stirring it into the batter)
- 1 ¾ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9” x 5” loaf pan to prevent the bread from sticking. If you’ll be toasting the nuts, line a small, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup.
- Toast the nuts: Once the oven has finished preheating, pour the chopped nuts onto your prepared baking sheet. Bake until the nuts are fragrant and toasted, about 5 minutes, stirring halfway.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the coconut oil and honey. Beat them with a whisk until they are combined. Add the eggs and beat well. (If your coconut oil solidifies on contact with cold ingredients, simply let the bowl rest in a warm place for a few minutes, like on top of your stove, or warm it for about 20 seconds in the microwave.)
- Add the milk, baking soda, cinnamon, vanilla, salt and nutmeg, and whisk to blend. Switch to a big spoon and stir in the zucchini (be sure to squeeze excess moisture out of the zucchini first). Add the flour and stir just until combined. Some lumps are ok! Gently fold in the toasted nuts now, if using.
- Pour the batter into your greased loaf pan and sprinkle lightly with additional cinnamon. If you’d like a pretty swirled effect, run the tip of a knife across the batter in a zig-zag pattern.
- Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the center of the loaf springs back to the touch. Let the bread cool in the pan on a wire rack. Use a serrated knife to cut individual slices.
- This bread is moist, so it will keep for just 2 to 3 days at room temperature. Store it in the refrigerator for 5 to 7 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months or so. I like to slice the bread before freezing and defrost individual slices, either by lightly toasting them or defrosting them in the microwave.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my banana bread and carrot muffins, with references to Once Upon a Chef and All Recipes.
*A note on oils: I love coconut oil here. I used unrefined coconut oil and can hardly taste it in the final product. Olive oil will lend an herbal note to the bread, if you’re into that. Vegetable oil has a neutral flavor, but the average vegetable/canola oil is highly processed, so I recommend using cold-pressed sunflower oil or grapeseed oil if possible.
Change it up: Use chocolate chips or small/chopped dried fruit instead of the nuts.
Make muffins: Follow this recipe!
Make it vegan: Use maple syrup instead of honey, replace the eggs with flax eggs and choose non-dairy milk (I used almond milk) or water.
Make it dairy free: Choose non-dairy milk (I used almond milk) or water.
Make it egg free: Replace the eggs with flax eggs.
Make it gluten free: I haven’t tried myself, but I have heard from a reader that Bob’s Red Mill’s all-purpose gluten-free mix worked well here.
Make it nut free: Just omit the nuts, and don’t use nut milk.
Make it lower in fat: I would argue that this bread contains a healthy amount of fat, but you can replace the oil with applesauce if you’re following a low-fat diet.
Recommended equipment: I am totally in love with my Fiesta Loaf Pan in turquoise (affiliate link).
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This is a great bread! really light for what ingredients are in it, and a wonderful taste. My batter turned out a little drier than what the picture shows, but I just baked for a little less time-more around 45 mins
Made this in to muffins last night. We didn’t have nuts, but substituted craisins. Delicious!! My kids loved these “Crazy” muffins! They were gone in less than a day and I have another batch in the oven now! Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you, C! Glad to hear it!
Omg, I really can’t wait to make this once I’m done with my juice cleanse!
Hope you love it!
I saw you had 99 comments and I just had to make it an even 100. I found your blog recently and am enjoying it. This bread looks beautiful. I will have to check out other posts.
Well, thank you! :)
Love love love this recipe! We had a giant zucchini that needed to be used up, and I tripped this recipe. I made 1 loaf, and 2 dozen muffins. I added chocolate chips to the muffins, and they are super yummy!
Thank you, Ellie! Your chocolate chip version sounds delicious!
Thanks for this recipie. I like that it is just one loaf! I followed the recipie, as written but wanted it gluten free. I used 1cuo of Bobs Red Mill 1to1 baking flour plus 3/4 cup of 100% Buckwheat flour. The only other alteration was the addition raisins. I am very happy with results and will make it again.
Thank you, Toni! I’m glad it turned out well for you.
I made this zucchini bread yesterday and I love it! I’ve made your healthy banana bread before and that was really good, so I thought I’d give this one a try. A lot of healthy bread recipes just don’t taste that great, but yours do. Thanks a lot!
P.s. I also added some apple chunks to the bread, which was very tasty.
Thank you, Meike! I’m so glad to hear it .
Fantastic recipe. I’ve made it three times exactly as written (except no nuts), and it’s SO GOOD. Moist and not too sweet.
Hooray! Thanks, Melissa!
I made this last night with our garden zucchini and it was *amazing*. I used pumpkin seeds + almonds for the nuts because it’s what I had at hand, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. It is the perfect zucchini bread. Just the right amount of sweetness and fabulous texture. Thank you!
Yay, thanks Eleni!
Wonderful bread!! I’ve made it twice in the past week with mini chocolate chips. My kids love it warm out of the oven and my 5yr old son asks for a piece everyday – multiple times (love your banana bread too!). I definitely need to make a few loaves with all the fresh zucchini and freeze them.
Thank you, Dawn! I love that your kids love this bread so much. :)
I just made this and doubled the recipe. Used 1/3 c coconut oil and 1/3 c unsweetened applesauce and 1/2 c lite maple syrup and 1/2 cup honey. I did not bake walnuts ahead I just added them in the batter untoasted with some chopped almonds as well. The consistency and texture of bread is perfect. One loaf had to bake 65 min. It’s definitely not real sweet and kind of bland but also good but probably would have been better with chocolate chips or as she mentioned some drizzled honey. Would definitely try again with chocolate chips!
Thanks, Haley!
Made this without the nuts and with GF flour with really tasty results! Thanks much
I’m glad! Thanks, Brittany.
This bread is delicious! I love that it isn’t too sweet. I added shaved coconut along with the walnuts (and sliced almonds) and the texture of the bread is wonderful. Even though I doubled the recipe I used one 9×5 pan and one 8×4 and the amount of batter was perfect for the sizes.
Keeper : )
Thank you, Nett! Your version sounds delicious.
Hi! I can’t wait to make this today but I don’t have whole wheat flour :(
Could I use all purpose flour? Or would I need to modify the amount? Thanks so much!!
Yep, that should work.
If I’m baking 3 to 4 loaves at a time, what’s the difference in baking time?
I’m not sure the baking time would be different. I’d check at the time specified, and bake longer if necessary.
Hi Kate, thanks for the great recipe. Mine turned out a little dense and didn’t rise as much as the one in your picture. I used 100% Whole Wheat Flour though. Could that be the reason?
Hey Nicole, I wonder if it has more to do with how you measured your flour. I use the spoon and swoop method—fluff the flour with a big spoon, then spoon it into measuring cups and level the top with a knife. If you scoop the cups into the flour, you can end up with significantly more flour, which could explain dense bread. Could that be it?
Delicious! I was worried because the batter seemed so thin but it turned out terrific. First time using coconut oil in baking! Used 1/4 c extra honey given the comments in the recipe. Tastes good and I feel good about sharing with kids and friends, too.
Thanks, Shannon! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I bet your batter was runnier than mine given the extra honey.
good day,
i have a question about the vanilla – would you double it if you doubled the recipe? 2 tea already seems a lot and 4 seems way a lot.
thanks,
~ p
Yeah, I’d double everything.
okee doke, thanks. the first loaf is delicious!
(i used walnut oil, the maple syrup option, and added 1/4 c more ww flour {it looked like it needed it; been humid here}).
Glad it turned out well!
Wow love this recipe. I have add it on my lifesum. Thank you, the loaft still fresh and moist day after cooked it.
Oh my LORD is this delicious. Finally got around to making it last night, more than half the loaf is already gone. Definitely making it into muffins next time. YUM!!
Thank you, Liz! :)
This is super! Very light and moist and also healthy!
Thank you, Kim!
I’ve made this twice in 2 weeks and love it! I tried first with EVOO and this time with coconut oil. Loved it both ways but I think I liked the olive oil more (and so did my budget!) Also tried once with maple syrup and once with honey. Can’t tell the difference really, but I thik I liked the maple syrup more. Thanks for a stellar recipe.
Thank you, Jelli! So glad you’ve enjoyed both variations on this one. :)
Love your healthy recipes Kate!!
I made this recipe as muffins and used coconut oil, honey, and 1/4 c unsalted toasted sunflower seeds and 1/4 c toasted unsalted pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts or pecans. They turned out great!!
I look forward to many more great recipes from you!
Skip
Thank you very much, Skip! I appreciate your note!
I just made the zucchini bread and it was delicious. Next time I am going to try it with flax eggs. Thanks
Thank you, Diane! Glad to hear it. Flax eggs should work well.
This is such a great recipe! I was so shocked to see some other zucchini bread recipes with 2 cups or more of sugar in them! I love using coconut oil and maple syrup in this recipe. I made the loaf first and it turned out well. A little harder on the outside and softer on the inside than I care for, but still delicious and my kids loved it too. Then yesterday I made the muffins – which I prefer as I feel they get cooked more thoroughly than the loaf. Both are excellent! We can’t keep a batch of these around for more than a day or two:)
Thanks, Amy! I’m glad you found my recipe!
I’ve never made zucchini bread before and stumbled upon this recipe in my Google search for one. It turned out beautifully and is as equally yummy. Very excited to thumb through your creations and try more for myself. Thank you for sharing these with the world.
Thank you, Suzanne! Very glad to hear that you found my site and enjoyed the zucchini bread. :)
Tripled this recipe and made two loaves plus some muffins. It is delicious! Definitely a keeper.
Hooray, thanks Jessica!
I just made 20 mini zucchini breads for gifts. My taster thought it could be sweeter though
Thanks for the great recipe! It was delicious. I highlighted it on my blog.
Delicious recipe, turned out great. Thanks for posting it! Full disclosure: I added some chocolate chips ;)
Thanks, Danielle! Two thumbs’ up for chocolate chips!
I doubled the recipe using the zuccini, apple, and carrot pulp left over from making my husband’s juice and I added dark chocolate chips. This was my second time using this recipe and it is tops! So many compliments on it. We ate it right out of the oven at church today, warm and soft, yum, yum, yum.
What a great idea for pulp like that! Thanks for sharing, Clara.
I made this this zucchini bread it was delicious.
Thank you, Debbie! I’m glad. :)
I made this lovely bread today. I made it vegan, but used 1/2 c unsweetened applesauce in place of the 2 eggs. I also reduced the maple syrup to 1/3 cup. Thank you Cookie and Kate.
Gina
Thank you, Gina! I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
I just made this yesterday. It is the best zucchini bread I’ve ever had! Huge compliments from everyone who ate it. I substituted all of the “regular” flour for spelt flour, and it came out with a super delicious, nutty flavor. Not too sweet, and perfectly moist. My zucchinis happened to be pretty dry, but would recommend draining excess liquid from zucchinis if yours are particularly watery. (You can do this by putting a towel in a mesh strainer and squeezing a little)
Thank you so much for this recipe!! Love the substitution options.
Thank you, Emma! I’m so glad you loved it.
Is there a way to make the healthy zucchini bread completely sugar-fre with stevia or adding a naturally sweet fruit or veggie? Looking for sugar-free dessert recipes for a restricted diet to prevent cancer recurrence in my father. I’d appreciate any sugar-free recipes you may have. Thanks!
Hi Maria, I’m sorry, I wish I had more completely sugar-free recipes. I don’t use stevia. You might be able to replace the honey with applesauce here, although the bread will then taste a little like apples. You could probably make my banana bread by replacing the honey with more mashed bananas. I also have this chia pudding, which is sweetened with dates. It’s blended and tastes great to me!
I love your banana bread recipe and decided to finally try making zucchini bread. I followed the recipe. But batter turned out completely runny! What did I do wrong? Could it be that the eggs are too big? Or too much zucchini (I measured roughly 1.5 cup)? I’m really baffled.
Oh no! That shouldn’t have happened. Did you go ahead and bake the bread? Are you sure you didn’t forget the baking soda, or didn’t use quite the amount of flour specified? Otherwise, my only guess would be that maybe your zucchini was really watery. It might help to squeeze out excess moisture, but I tried doing that with my zucchini and it was so dry already that it didn’t have any effect. Sorry you had trouble here!
I’m stuffing my face with this right now and it is fantastic. So glad you came up on google search results for zucchini bread recipes! I used almond milk since that’s what I had on hand, and I subbed half the honey for brown sugar since I ran out. I also used whole wheat four and olive oil. I was worried about not having coconut oil and having the olive oil make it too herby, but I think the whole wheat flour disguises the herby taste. It just tastes like delicious zucchini bread that’s the perfect amount of sweet!
This is the first healthy recipe that actually worked! And it tastes amazing.
I used coconut milk and probably 2 – 2.5 cups of grated zucchini. The end result is a yummie moist and amazing bread that tastes delicious! Even my husband loves it (and he’s not a fan of zucchinis).
His request is to do it with pistachio nuts next time…
This turned out SO AMAZING! And, it turned out perfectly even though it was my first time baking at high altitude here in Colorado. I made a couple substitutions…
I used unsweetened almond milk, only half the amount of walnuts, added about 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips, and used half maple syrup half white sugar just to give it added sweetness.
So moist and delicious and healthy. Thanks for the recipe!
I just made this zucchini bread today and it’s delicious!! I love the use of honey instead of sugar. Thanks for the yummy healthy recipe :)
Kara
This was good! But it didn’t really rise! I made it to the recipe and added water… what do you think I did wrong?
Made the Zucchini Muffins today. Amazing!! Can’t believe there’s no refined sugar, perfect sweetness as is.Thank you!
What a wonderful recipe. I made it for the first time tonight, and both my picky son and husband loved it. Plus, with those ingredients, I feel good about making it for them. I’ll be baking and freezing a bunch for a quick, healthy treat.
hi kate
I love your recipes..when I make your banana & zucchini breads, they always turn out just right…thank you so much !!
Liz
I just made this zucchini bread and it was VERY GOOD. I made it with Bob’s Red Mills all purpose gluten-free flour and it came out great. I love it, not overly sweet. Great with a cup of coffee in the morning.
I’m not sorry, but I’m a cat person. Cats eat 99% meat, so I don’t understand why premium cat foods boast about containing vegetables. They like to chew on grass, but that’s about it. Anyway, to make this recipe even healthier (for me), I substituted rolled oats for part of the flour. I used whole wheat flour. I also lightly sauteed the walnuts in coconut oil. I also added a splash of olive oil. I have a difficult time following recipes and couldn’t find my teaspoon measure, so I used a regular teaspoon. I also accidentally put in too much nutmeg. I’ll send you the results with a photo. It’s in the oven at the moment.
My grandma’s zucchini bread recipe is my favorite–but it calls for like a cup of oil and a cup+ of sugar. I made this tonight and was AMAZED at how similar it tastes to her recipe. I think I may even like it better!
I made this exactly by the recipe (with olive oil, honey, and cow milk), and it turned out nicely. It’s very moist and has a wonderful texture. For how healthy it is, it tastes great.
I was worried going in because the last recipe I tried that used honey instead of sugar (not from this blog) turned out rubbery.
My kids and I made this today and it was absolutely delicious. They asked for seconds. I used avocado oil because that’s what I had on hand it worked just fine. Thanks for this healthy recipe!
Hello! Your recipe looks delicious and I have never tried zucchini bread before! I would love to try it and I love how you have vegan options! But instead of flax eggs do you think that chia eggs would work?
I use chia eggs in a lot of my baking….should work fine. In fact I want to make it for my daughters bestie and she’s allergic to eggs…I’ll give it a whirl again w chia too..I’m sure it will be just as fantastic!
Hi Michelle, I think those two are generally interchangeable, but I haven’t tried with this recipe specifically to be sure! Please let me know if you do.