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Healthy Coconut Kale Green Muffins {vegan} + Recipe Video

48 Comments Breakfast, Dairy Free, Kid Friendly, Refined Sugar Free, Vegan, Vegetarian

I hope you guys are as excited about these green muffins as I am!  I feel like I need to start by saying that these are not gluten free.  I’m sure they can easily be made gluten free, but I used whole wheat flour in mine.  I’ve been gluten free for health reasons for quite a few years (and since I started this blog), but those health issues have gotten to be almost non-existent since I gave birth, even with the re-introduction of gluten.

I still feel a little strange eating gluten since I avoided it for so many years, but so far I haven’t really been having issues with it.  If you are a gluten free reader, don’t worry, I still eat a lot of gluten free foods and will continue to post lots of gluten free recipes!

When I was pregnant people would ask me if I was going to start posting kid recipes on the blog and I always said no.  These days, Eli eats most of what we eat, he especially loves these breakfast cookies 🙂  But, the one area he’s probably lacking is veggies.  I eat a lot of salads and I’m not sure if he’s quite ready, or would even touch, a big salad so I’ve been getting sneaky with veggies!

I would call these hidden veggie muffins, but I think the color might give them away 🙂  Fortunately, Eli isn’t old enough to even know what kale is and decide whether he has an opinion on it.  I’ve packed 3 big cups of kale into these muffins, along with lots of coconut.

There’s coconut milk, coconut oil and shredded coconut.  They have such a great flavor and it’s not bitter at all.  Eli has been gobbling them up and my husband and I have been loving them too.  They do have 1/2 cup of maple syrup in them, so there is some sweetener, but it’s all un-refined sugar so I like to say it’s on the healthier side.

I hope you and your kids enjoy these Healthy Coconut Kale Green Muffins as much as we do 🙂

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Healthy Coconut Kale Green Muffins {vegan}

★★★★★ 4.9 from 7 reviews
  • Author: She Likes Food
  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 20 mins
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 12 Muffins 1x
  • Category: Breakfast, Vegan
Print Recipe

Description

A healthy muffin that’s packed with nutritious kale!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 large banana
  • 3/4 cup coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 flax egg, or one regular egg (1 tbsp ground flax mixed with 2 1/2 tbsp water, let sit 5 mins)*
  • 3 cups packed kale leaves
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, plus about 2 tablespoons for topping

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a muffin pan with liners.  If using paper lines it helps to spray them with a little cooking spray so the muffin doesn’t stick to the paper.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients.
  3. Add all the remaining ingredients, except for the shredded coconut to a blender and blend until smooth.
  4. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Stir in the the shredded coconut.
  5. Scoop the muffin batter into the muffin tin.  I like to use a 1/4 cup scoop to make them all equal sized.  Top each muffin with a little sprinkle of shredded coconut.
  6. Bake muffins until cooked through, 20-25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool on a cooling wrack for 15 minutes.

Notes

*I’ve made this recipe both with a real egg and a flax egg, the flax egg does make it a little gummier than the real egg, but they’re still good!

To store: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.  Muffins can also be frozen: freeze in an airtight freezer friendly container for up to 3 months.  Place in the refrigerate or on the counter for a few hours to thaw.

Recipe adapted from Super Healthy Kids Sweet Spinach Muffins

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 Muffin
  • Calories: 248
  • Sugar: 10 g
  • Sodium: 126 mg
  • Fat: 14 g
  • Saturated Fat: 11 g
  • Carbohydrates: 30 g
  • Fiber: 5 g
  • Protein: 4 g
  • Cholesterol: 0 mg

 

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Comments

  1. The shot with Eli’s little hand is adorable! I love the idea to sneak kale into muffins. That certainly makes me want to eat my veggies. 😉

    I’m also glad to hear you’re not having any symptoms related to gluten anymore! It’s funny how much the body can change after giving birth. Plus I feel like the majority of people are eating gluten from really bad sources like refined GMO grains. I feel like crap when I eat that stuff too but when it’s from whole grains that are organic and in some cases sprouted then I feel great. I think a lot it just depends on the source.

    Reply

    • Thanks, Sarah! I’m enjoying that I’m able to eat it again too! Although it still feels kinda strange since I avoided it for so long haha. There were times when I thought I’d just have a stomach ache for the rest of my life, so it’s very relieving that I’m not struggling with that much anymore!

      Reply

    • I love this muffin recipe! Just to give a protein boost I used 1 1/2 cups chickpea flour and 1/2 cup coconut flour and substituted the shredded coconut for hemp seeds. I also used 2 bananas, 1 1/2 flax eggs, substituted 3 Tbsp powdered Xylitol for the maple syrup. (I avoid even sugars like maple syrup, honey, agave, etc because that’s what I had to do to clear up my horrible eczema and it has worked wonders to keep it away.) These muffins are DELICIOUS and so nutritious; it’s like having dessert for main course! Thank you for sharing this recipe.

      Reply

      • Yah! So glad you like it, Esther! I’ve been making so many batches lately and they’re so great to have around! Thanks 🙂

        Reply

      • Did you use these flours instead of whole.wheat flour or in addition to? I was about to.ask.how to.use coconut flour intead of wheat. Thanks!

        Reply

  3. This recipe sounds great! Do you think it would work with baby spinach instead of kale? Kale is crazy expensive in my country and hard to find!

    Reply

  4. In recipes when you say coconut milk do you mean like a can of coconut milk (including the cream?) or like the coconut milk that’s in the milk section at a grocery store?

    Reply

  5. I am going to attempt to make these this weekend. I wanted to ask, if I use coconut flour, would I use the same amount as listed with your whole wheat flour? And, I think I only have almond milk, assuming that substitutes well? Thank you!!

    Reply

    • Hi Monica! Yes, almond milk will work great! I don’t have experience baking with coconut flour but from what I understand it absorbs a lot more liquid than other flours so it doesn’t work well as a 1:1 replacement. I would try using half as much and then adding more if needed. I hope that helps!

      Reply

  6. Add all the remaining ingredients, except for the shredded coconut to a blender and blend until smooth.
    Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in the the shredded coconut.

    Not really sure what this means. Aren’t all the dry and wet ingredients already combined in the blinder??

    Reply

    • Hi Michael, the dry ingredients are combined in a bowl and the wet ingredient are combined in the blender. You then add the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix them together. I hope that clears it up 🙂

      Reply

  7. Just made these ans they are so delish! Can’t wait for my daughter to try one tomorrow when she gets home from college. Will def keep these in my rotation. Thanks so much ????‍????????

    Reply

  8. These look good, but we try to do no-oil or low-oil. Do you think they would work if I used applesauce in place of at least part of the oil, or maybe used two bananas instead of one and 1/4 cup of applesauce, and left out the oil? Do you have any other ideas for eliminating the oil? Also, what about using aquafaba instead of the flax egg? Thank you.

    Reply

    • Hi Nancy! I think you could definitely sub applesauce or another banana for the oil. I’ve never used aquafaba in baking before so I can’t say for sure that it would work in place of a flax egg, but you could always try it out!

      Reply

    • Hi Nancy did you have any luck not suing as much oil? Wondering what ratios worked for you?
      Mahalo
      Michelle

      Reply

  9. I made these yesterday and they are delicious!! I really want to see what my 5 yr old grandson thinks. I think I took ‘packed’ kale too seriously and had a difficult time getting the wet ingredients mixed; it looked like tabbouleh and I ended up adding more coconut milk to help. I also got 6 more muffins, though smaller, but still generous. I probably will substitute applesauce for some of the oil next time; I love coconut oil, but this is a lot! Oh, for the person asking to substitute coconut flour- learned from experience that you cannot swap 1: 1 or you will be adding lots more liquid; thought it would be cool to use for pancakes a while back and it was not pretty! Oh, I only gave it 4 stars because it was rather time consuming to prepare the kale and clean up numerous pieces of equipment, but that won’t stop me from making again. Oh, one last thought, I didn’t do anything to my paper cups in the muffin tins and was able to re-use 6 of them for the second batch because the whole batch removed cleanly.

    ★★★★

    Reply

    • Hi Dorothy, thanks so much for your kind words and sharing your experience making them! My son eats these all the time so I bet your grandson would love them 🙂

      Reply

    • Hi Rocio, I haven’t personally made it without the banana, but you could try using about 1/2 cup of applesauce instead 🙂

      Reply

    • Hi Vicki, you could try using an all purpose GF flour but I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t say for certain if it would work or not 🙂

      Reply

  12. Just made this recipe…Use rice flour instead of the whole wheat…sub the coconut milk for Hemp milk…
    This recipe is easy to make…Loved the muffins!!
    My hubby couldn’t hear of this Kale stuff in muffins…Yet he ate 2 already…????????????
    Thank you for sharing this recipe

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  13. These are so nice. Had to substitute the flour to self raising flour so didn’t have to add in the bicarb or baking powder. No maple syrup so used molasses. Only used half the quantity of this as well as the oil. I wilted the kale in a saucepan with a little bit of water before adding it to the mix (without the water in the pan of course). Also, added a dash of ginger powder. The only thing I found was they didn’t smooth out in the baking process. basically they stayed the same shape as when I spooned them into the muffin tray – no biggy as they look very rustic 😉 but were still very light. I have so much kale growing in my garden at present that I’m running out of ideas on how to use it differently. I will definitely be making these again.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  14. These sound delicious! Do you think it would work to substitute coconut sugar for the maple syrup?
    Thanks for sharing! 🙂

    Reply

  15. Just made these. So so good! I did try using Almond flour 1:1 instead of WW flour they were a little wet but still amazing! Need to just figure out the right amount of Almond flour. Thank you!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  16. Thank you for this recipe ! I made a video baking these and everyone is dying to try it. Especially because I was eating one live and really enjoy f it. I love the vibrance of the kale once it’s in the mixer with coconut milk. I even tried it before putting it in the dry mix and it could work as a simple drink.
    Hello Kale !!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  17. These look so yummy and I’m planning on making them tomorrow, but I was just wondering if instead of the coconut milk you could use just regular milk or almond milk, as they don’t really sell coconut milk around where I’m from. Thanks !

    Reply

  18. My son, husband, colleagues, neighbours… everyone loved these!!! I wanted to do banana and choc chip for a naughty option. Could I just leave the kale and add extra banana? And add choc chips after mixing wet and dry? Big thank you for this recipe!!

    Reply

  19. Thank you for this! At first I thought 3 cups of kale would be too strong but you don’t taste it at all. Everything about this recipe is perfect. I did sub most of the coconut oil for applesauce and used honey/brown sugar to sweeten since I didn’t have maple syrup. I also added a brown sugar mixture on top before they baked which added an amazing texture and flavor too. Will be adding this to my favorites!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  20. Hello,
    I’m looking for varied & delicious ways to add more calcium into my diet (for helping w/ bone density) and these look promising with all that kale! To add even more to the calcium content, I’m thinking about substituting molasses for at least part of the sugar. What measurements of sugar / molasses would you recommend in that case, and would that affect any of the given amounts for the other ingredients?

    Thanks so much!

    Reply

    • Hmm, I think if you just added a few tablespoons of molasses it wouldn’t change the consistency too much. Maybe try swapping the maple syrup for molasses since they are pretty similar in consistency 🙂

      Reply

  21. I made these gluten free using various flours (have made 2 times)-no almond or coconut flours though. This recipe is quite flexible. I use 1/3c maple and don’t use an overly ripe banana. I add a bit of hemp flour and some coconut yogurt (bit less oil). I added 1/4 tsp extra bp and 1/4 tsp bs. Will see how that goes this time. Thank you!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

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