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
- ⅓ cup (75 g) organic pure cane or coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- generous pinch of salt
- ½ cup (113 ml) vanilla or unsweetened almond milk
- ¼ cup (56 ml) light flavored olive oil or warmed coconut oil (see notes)
- 3 medium bananas
- 3 carrots
- ¾ cup (86 g) chopped walnuts
Optional Toppings
- sprinkle of raw sugar
- ¼ 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 such as Bob Red Mills 1-1 GF Flour (affiliate link).
- Fold in ⅓ – ½ 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.
- Place in the oven 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.
Now you’re ready to 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 Recipes
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
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280 g) spelt flour (or all-purpose, white whole wheat, or 1–1 GF flour blend)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- generous pinch of salt
- ⅓ cup (75 g) organic pure cane or coconut sugar
- ½ cup (113 ml) vanilla or unsweetened almond milk
- ¼ cup (56 ml) light flavored olive oil or warmed coconut oil (see notes)
- 3 medium bananas, mashed (about 1 ½ cup (338 g))
- 3 carrots, grated (about 1 ¼ cup (125 g))
- ¾ cup (86 g) chopped walnuts, optional
Optional Toppings
- sprinkle of raw sugar (pictured, my daughters favorite topping)
- ¼ 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 ⅓ – ½ cup dried fruit of choice. Raisins, currants, cranberries or chopped apricots or dates would work nicely.
Add in ½ teaspoon nutmeg for another layer of flavor and variation.
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Terry says
Made these for the first time and it was a hit!! I also added a touch of cinnamon. So good!
★★★★★
Ally says
Super delicious and so easy to make! A definite keeper!
★★★★★
Michelle says
Pretty dang yummy! However, it seems too wet after baking 55 minutes, even though my toothpick was clean.
I used a 1/4 cup of coconut sugar instead of 1/3, 1 tbsp of coconut oil and 3 tbsp of applesauce, instead of the full 1/4 cup of oil. I added 3 Tbsp of reduced-fat, shredded coconut, 1 tbsp of flax meal, 1/3 cup total of raisins and chopped dates + 1/2 cup of pecans and walnuts. Added nutmeg & ground ginger, too!
Could it be that using applesauce and dried fruits are adding in too much moisture?
I made some of that sweet cashew cream to slather on top & that was just heavenly!
★★★★
Amy says
Wonderful recipe! Omitted the sugar but it turned out less sweet than I wanted, should have added it. Took 55mins exactly to bake. End result was moist, fluffy and yummy!
★★★★★
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!
Joe says
I’m making this as we speak. Oven preheated everything mixed up but, it looks super dry. It’s not a batter. It’s really dry. I used coconut flour and brown sugar. Help lmao
tabita Iordache says
Add more liquid, is coconut flours fault , it does require a lot more liquid
Julie | The Simple Veganista says
As Tabita mentioned, it’s the coconut flour. It’s a tricky flour to work with in vegan baking. I don’t recommend using it as a sub unless it’s mentioned specifically. Hopefully the loaf will not be too bad, and at least edible. If you try again with a different gluten free flour, I recommend using blend that can be used 1 – 1 for regular flour.
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
★★★★★
Brianna says
Needed to use up some bananas and thought I’d give this a try with the carrots. Needless to say it’s wonderful! Thanks for this 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