Is there anyone who is NOT drowning in zucchini this time of year?? My zucchini is doing terribly at the moment {in fact my entire garden is pretty sad this year}, but thanks to my friend Stesha, there’s been no zucchini shortage around here! I’ve been grating it up and throwing it into soups, sauces, veggie ground for tacos, and wherever else I can get away with it and there’s still more! We LOVE our super cakey {and also vegan, naturally sweetened, and whole wheat} chocolate zucchini muffins, but sometimes a girl just needs some lemon in her life, am I right? {I freaking. love. all. things. lemon.} After completely winging a batch of lemon zucchini muffins and having them turn out flavourful but too wet and zucchini-y, I came to a brilliant conclusion… Why would I not just adapt my chocolate zucchini recipe?? It’s crazy delicious and nearly fail-proof, which would make for a good jumping off point, right?
RIGHT.
I’m so stoked on how these turned out. They’re super lemony, tender, and I hate myself for saying it, but MOIST. (Gag! Grossest word in existence.) The only thing I may experiment with next time around is using a combination of traditional whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour as they’re almost too tender and flaky if that’s possible. {If you try it, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!}
The other thing I’ll say about these {and most of the muffins I make} is that because the veggie content is so high, I usually keep what we’re going to eat in the coming few days in an air-tight container in the fridge and then freeze the rest to pull out one at a time when needed. They freeze well and this ensures that they don’t turn to mush as healthy muffins sometimes do.
Aren’t they pretty too? I was surprised to see that they’d turned a yellow-y hue when I pulled them out of the oven. I guess that’s what happens when you make muffins loaded to the brim with lemon zest and juice, hey? {Hah!}
Here’s how to make them…
Vegan Naturally Sweetened Whole Wheat Lemon Zucchini Muffins
- 2 tablespoons of ground flax or chia seed
- 6 tablespoons of warm water
- 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
- zest of 4 large lemons
- 1/2 cup of good olive oil
- 1/2 cup of pure maple syrup
- juice of 2 large lemons
- 1 teaspoon of good vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups of finely grated zucchini, deseeded if necessary
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, measure out the ground flax or chia seed and warm water. Stir to combine and set aside to thicken. {This mixture is two flax / chia ‘eggs’.}
In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Whisk until thoroughly combined and sprinkle lemon zest on top.
In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the olive oil, pure maple syrup, lemon juice, and vanilla.
Add the liquid mixture and the flax eggs into the dry mixture and gently mix with a spatula until almost combined. Add the finely grated zucchini and give the mixture a few more gentle stirs. {A word on the zucchini… If you pre-grate your zucchini like we usually do, by the time you go to use it, there will most likely be some liquid that has drained off. No need to include this. Simply pick up the zucchini by the handful, allow it to drip over the bowl for a few seconds, and then add it to your mixture, tossing out any liquid that’s left in the bowl afterwards. Do not squeeze your grated zucchini dry before adding it… The moisture from the zucchini is what makes these muffins so dang good.}
Line your muffin tin with silicone muffin liners and distribute the batter evenly amongst the cups. Bake for approximately 20 – 24 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. I sometimes like to turn my oven to broil for the last minute or two of the baking time in order to get the muffin tops nice and golden and just a touch crispy, but be sure to watch your muffins closely if you choose to do this… Broil is no joke.
Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to sit for several minutes before removing them from the pan and placing them on a cooling rack.
Once completely cool, store in an air-tight container on the counter or in the fridge for a few days or freeze the muffins and pull them out as needed.
Enjoy!
Are you following us on social media?
Find us on: Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter
We’d love to have you!
{this post contains affiliate links}
The other night, I had the absolute pleasure of joining several other Vancouver mom bloggers at 
Here’s our lineup of ingredients…. Pecans, dates {soaked in water}, coconut, raisins, sea salt, cinnamon, coconut oil, and vanilla. Now, I have to say that the original recipe includes coconut manna (also known as coconut butter) and not coconut oil… In fact, our healthy eating specialist explained that coconut oil is just the fat squeezed out of the coconut meat, while coconut manna is the coconut meat and fat combined, making it much more nutrient-rich. The trouble is, our local grocery store doesn’t carry coconut manna, so we had to improvise. While maybe not as healthy, the recipe still turned out great!
Anyways, onto actually making the cookie dough boys! First up, we drained {almost all of} the water our dates had been soaking in and blended them in our food processor. (Word to the wise, be sure your dates don’t still have the pits in them before blending. Oy.)
We processed them until nearly smooth, but not perfectly pureed. Because it was such a small batch, it did take several rounds of stopping the machine, scraping down the sides, and then doing it again, but that just meant more jobs for my little helper, which she of course loved.
With the date paste saved in a separate bowl for later, Miss G added our coconut and pecans to the food processor. Call us lazy, but we didn’t even wash out the processor bowl in between as it seemed like sort of an unnecessary step.
Then we pureed the coconut and pecans until they were meal-like.
Next up, Grae dumped all of the other ingredients (save the raisins) into the food processor with the coconut/pecan mixture.
Then we processed it all until it started to come together in a mass.
Here’s what it looked like when done.
The last step was to mix the raisins in by hand.
With our dough complete, we rolled it into balls using about a tablespoon of the mixture at a time.
And because Miss G is no longer a huge fan of raisins, before mixing them in, we set aside a part of the mixture. To set Grae’s balls apart from the other, she rolled them in coconut, which was a lovely addition.
The verdict? Delicious! They’re sweet and satisfying just like a good dessert, but come sans all of the sugar and fat regular desserts have. A definite success!