Carrot Banana Bread – Moist, tender and full of flavor, vegan carrot banana bread makes a delicious snack or light breakfast!
Today I have for you the BEST healthy vegan carrot banana bread recipe!
It’s moist with a nice texture, flavor, and density. The batter can also handle the addition of walnuts and other dried fruits, but for the sake of my daughter I’ve left those out and put them on top instead.
Recipe is adapted from my ‘tried and true’ Vegan Banana Bread. I have plenty of notes in this recipe so you can vary it up and change it around when the mood strikes.
Usually, I eat this plain but it’s made even more tasty with a smidge of this Cashew Sweet Cream.
I hope you’ll love this carrot banana bread as much as I do. It’s a keeper and a great way to add in extra vegetables!
Vegan Carrot Banana Bread Ingredients
- 2 cups (280 g) spelt flour
- 1/3 cup (75 g) organic pure cane or coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- generous pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup (113 ml) vanilla or unsweetened almond milk
- 1/4 cup (56 ml) light flavored olive oil or warmed coconut oil (see notes)
- 3 medium bananas
- 3 carrots
- 3/4 cup (86 g) chopped walnuts
Optional Toppings
- sprinkle of raw sugar
- 1/4 cup (29 g) chopped walnuts
Variations and Suggestions
- The riper the bananas, the less sugar you’ll need.
- Replace the oil with unsweetened applesauce for oil-free bread. Bread may be a little denser.
- Make gluten-free by using a GF flour blend.
- Fold in 1/3 – 1/2 cup dried fruit of choice. Raisins, currants, cranberries or chopped apricots or dates would work nicely.
- Recipe calls for cinnamon, but the addition of nutmeg will add another layer of flavor.
How To Make Carrot Banana Bread
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grate your carrots, mash your bananas.
In a medium mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, mix to combine. In 2 cup measuring cup, combine the milk, oil and sugar, mix to combine.
To the dry ingredients, add the oil/sugar mixture and bananas, mix well, but don’t over mix. Lastly, fold in carrots.
Pour the batter into a 9 x 5 loaf pan, sprinkle with optional walnuts and bake for 50 – 55 minutes, until golden brown and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Pull from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack. Slice and enjoy often!
I hope you LOVE this easy carrot banana bread as much as we do! It’s:
- Full of flavor
- Super easy to make
- Customizable
- Healthy
- Nutritious
- & So delicious!
This bread is great for snacking or a healthy way to start the day. Pack a slice for on the go or make a whole loaf to share with family, friends and co-workers.
And don’t forget a smear of this vanilla Sweet Cashew Cream, it’s sweetened with dates and is delicious!
More Banana Bread Inspiration
If you love banana breads as much as I do, be sure to take a look at these other fabulous quick breads made with bananas!
- Vegan Banana Bread
- Healthy Blueberry Banana Oat Bread
- Buckwheat Banana Bread (Gluten Free)
- Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
If you try this easy quick bread recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment and rate it below. I love to hear what you think, or any changes you make.
PrintCARROT BANANA BREAD
Spice up your traditional banana bread with some added carrot and cinnamon!
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 55 min
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: Makes 8 - 10 slices 1x
- Category: Quick Bread
- Cuisine: Vegan
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280 g) spelt flour (or flour of choice)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- generous pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup (75 g) organic pure cane or coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup (113 ml) vanilla or unsweetened almond milk
- 1/4 cup (56 ml) light flavored olive oil or warmed coconut oil (see notes)
- 3 medium bananas, mashed (about 1 1/2 cup (338 g))
- 3 carrots, grated (about 1 1/4 cup (125 g))
- 3/4 cup (86 g) chopped walnuts, optional
Optional Toppings
- sprinkle of raw sugar (pictured, my daughters favorite topping)
- 1/4 cup (29 g) chopped walnuts
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan lightly with oil.
Mix: In a large mixing bowl, add flour, cinnamon, baking powder & soda and salt, mix well with large slotted spoon or fork. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, milk and oil, mix well to help the sugar dissolve. Mash the bananas. Add the wet mixture and bananas to the dry ingredients, mix until just combined. Fold in the carrots.
Bake: Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 50 – 55 minutes on the middle rack, rotate pan halfway through.
Let cool for 10 minutes, remove from pan and let cool completely.
Serve warmed or at room temperature. Slices pair nicely with a slather of this Cashew Sweet Cream.
Store covered on the counter for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator up to 1 week. Keep in the freezer for up to 3 months – place completely cooled loaves in freezer containers or bags. Thaw the wrapped loaves overnight in the refrigerator.
Serves 9
NOTES:
The riper the bananas, the less sugar you’ll need. If your bananas are not very ripe, you may like to add a tablespoon or so more.
If you don’t have baking soda on hand, use 1 tablespoon (3 teaspoons) baking powder instead of 2 teaspoons.
If using coconut oil, be sure your milk is at room temperature or warmer. If adding straight from the refrigerator, the coldness will harden the coconut oil.
Replace the oil with applesauce for oil-free bread. Bread may be a little denser.
Make gluten-free by using a GF flour blend.
Feel free to leave your carrots unpeeled. I felt mine needed it this time but usually skip this step whenever I can.
Fold in 1/3 – 1/2 cup dried fruit of choice. Raisins, currants, cranberries or chopped apricots or dates would work nicely.
Add in 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg for another layer of flavor and variation.
sierra says
Is there any substitution for the almond milk?
Julie | The Simple Veganista says
Use your favorite plant milk or water. Let us know how you liked the recipe, enjoy!
URSULA Madine says
Made the banana and blueberry bread it was so delicious and easy thank you.
maria says
Didnt have bananas so used 1 cup of applesauce instead, tasted amazing but unfortunately the bread didnt rise at all :/ Should I have used less applesauce? or maybe lowered the milk to 1/3 cup? Not sure what happened
kiran says
I’ve made this twice now – always works out well. Second time around i added walnuts on top, but they burned! Not sure why mine did and yours didn’t? Had to scrape them off, the rest of the bread was delicious. Any tips on how to stop the walnuts burning?
★★★★
Julie | The Simple Veganista says
Glad the loaf is working well for you! I would suggest covering the top halfway through baking to keep the walnuts from burning. Not sure why mine didn’t burn, but ovens do vary. Hope that helps!
Tabita says
Perfect texture and taste amazing. I used apple sauce and dates to substitute oil and sugar and it turned out great. I also added 50gr of chopped dates in the batter and I topped with walnuts. Baby approved too ,thanks for the great recipe
★★★★★
Shiri says
Hi :)
Is it possible to make it a carrot bread only only?
Thank you!
Julie | The Simple Veganista says
Hi Shiri, great question! I’ve never made it without the bananas, replacing with another ingredient, so I can’t say for sure. You could try using applesauce in place of bananas, but I can’t guarantee that it will turn out the same. It may be a bit denser. Please let us know if you try and what changes you made. Hope that helps, and good luck! :)
Shiri says
Hi Julie :) Thank you so much for your quick and helpful reply! I discovered your blog only yesterday. I feel that I owe it to your amazing posts to first try the recipe as it is. But if I do try to make it only with carrots I’ll surely comment here with an update!
I usually wait to try things from a blog before recommending it to friends, but yours was an exception and I’ve already shared it with others :) So many simple and varied things to make! Can’t wait to start using your recipes! Thank you so much for your hard work!! :D
Cassie says
I was a little skeptical while mixing this batter, but I was so pleasantly surprised because not only are these delicious but the consistency is perfect! I used way less than 1/3 cup of sugar (probably less than 1/4) but they turned out perfectly (I guess the carrots/bananas are already so sweet!) I will definitely be making these again :D I did 35 minutes in the oven as muffins.
Vyara Marinova says
I love this recipe!
Thank you for sharing :)
★★★★★
Maria says
I love this recipe. I’m watching my sugar intake so I decreased the sugar to 4 tsp. I think it’s plenty, especially if you use very ripe bananas. I add pecans and shredded unsweetened coconut, 1/4 tsp nutmeg and some vanilla extract
Sarah says
Recommended cooking time if I made as muffins?
Julie | The Simple Veganista says
Hi Sarah, great question… I suggest about 20 – 25 minutes. This will be great as muffins, fantastic idea! Enjoy :)
Liv says
Hello, Jut wondering whether this recipe works if I omit the sugar for maple syrup and use oat flour instead of spelt flour?
Julie | The Simple Veganista says
Hi Liv, sorry about the delayed response. Maple syrup and oat flour will work just as well. I might suggest reducing the milk to 1/4 – 1/3 cup at first, adding more as needed if the batter seems a little too dry. Would love to know how it goes! Cheers :)
Ava says
replacing all the flour with half oats, half grounded oats and some protein powder and without any sugar – works perfectly as base for sandwiches or snack and keeps me going a long time and I dont feel guilty at all :D
Aiva says
It freezes really well. Sliced it before freezing and seperated each slice with wax paper. Took out the portions I needed the night before and defrosted.
Would be interested to know how much protein powder you used in your modified version Ava and if it was placoirwd or unflavoured?
Aiva says
HI, I made this today with wholemeal spelt flour and added a few chopped dried apricots. I was short some banana so added a little apple puree I had left over. It turned out amazingly well. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Have you tried slicing and then freezing this? does it defrost well. Not that we didn’t demolish the entire thing, I just thought I could make two loaves at a time and freeze one.
Julie | The Simple Veganista says
Your version sounds wonderful! I’ve never tried freezing it, but I’m guessing it will be just fine. Just let thaw on the counter or in the refrigerator. I would love to know how it goes if you decide to freeze a loaf. Thank you so much for sharing! Cheers :)
Amneris Gamez says
Could I sub the spelt flor for coconut flour? I cant wait to make it and its the only one I have in hand
julie@thesimpleveganista says
No, I don't recommend using coconut flour on its own in this recipe. The bread will not turn out properly. I recommend waiting until you have regular bread/baking flour, gluten-free or not.
Tim O'Reilly says
Is it kind of like a less sweet carrot cake flavor? I love carrot cake (and carrots in general) and really want to give this a shot, but don't want to go in blindly. Thanks!
julie@thesimpleveganista says
Hmm, I'd say it's def not as sweet but could be a bit similar to carrot cake. I love carrot cake too but haven't got around to creating a vegan recipe yet! You can try adding a little more sugar, a dash of nutmeg and some nuts if you like. Would love to know what you think if you make it! Cheers :)
Judith Offermanns says
Made this today with wholewheat instead of spelt flour, soy milk instead of vanilla or almond milk, homemade organic applesauce and I aded raisins. Pretty sure it's going to be an all time favorite. Thanks for the great recipes. It's making the transition to a vegan lifestyle a whole lot easier!
julie@thesimpleveganista says
Sounds amazing! So glad your finding your transition a little easier! :)
Kat says
I made this bread today for a potluck, and it was delicious! Thanks so much for sharing. I'm eager to try your recipes for banana tea bread and banana chocolate chip muffins now!
Rachel Page says
A delicious variation on traditional banana bread.
Elisa says
Banans and Carrots in a bread…oh yum. I'm gonna have that with a bit of sugar beet syrup!
julie@thesimpleveganista says
Sounds delicious! xo
Susanna says
Hi Julie, thanks for the great recipe, I made the bread with buckwheat flour yesterday, it turned out perfectly!
Greetings from Finland :)
julie@thesimpleveganista says
I must try with buckwheat flour! So glad it worked out, thank you for the inspiration. Cheers :)
Kimberly/TheLittlePlantation says
The recipe looks lovely and the pictures shout: YUMMY!
Thanks for sharing :)
julie@thesimpleveganista says
Thank you! ♥
Sarah UK says
What a great recipe – it was so easy to make, and the result was absolutely delicious! My 5 year old helped with the mixing and is now devouring the cake :-) I had no walnuts, but added in raisins, cranberries and nutmeg. I particularly like the minimal amount of sugar, this bread is certainly a great healthy alternative for kids, thanks so much!
julie@thesimpleveganista says
What a great project for you and your little one to do together! So glad this recipe worked well! XO :)
Sam @ PancakeWarriors says
This bread is gorgeous! Love that you made so many notes, I never would have thought about the cold milk and coconut oil! I think this would be perfect with raisins and walnuts mixed in. Will definitely have to try this, I've never made a quick bread without eggs and it look so fluffy! Thanks for sharing!
julie@thesimpleveganista says
Thank you! I can't wait to make a loaf with walnuts and dried fruit. Enjoy your loaf however you make it. Cheers :)