Wholesome Oatmeal Banana Carrot Bread

This banana bread is delicious, easy to make, and loaded with veggies! Banana Carrot bread is made with good-for-you oatmeal and naturally sweetened with ripe bananas and a little maple syrup or honey. Add in grated carrots, bake up, and it is the perfect breakfast or snack.

A few weeks ago, a dear friend texted me out of the blue.

“Hold on! You don’t have a banana bread recipe on your blog yet?? Get on that. And throw some veggies in there, too! I’ll be waiting”

Well then. No need to read between the lines there. I have many veggie muffin recipes (including Banana Carrot Muffins)on the blog, but clearly I had dropped the ball in veggie-loading banana bread! Luckily my friends and family take their jobs as being unofficial spokespeople for the TNN community quite seriously and let me know when I need to step it up. And now, I have you covered!

This Banana Carrot Bread is the perfect thing to make during meal prep for a veggie-loaded addition to breakfast or as a tasty little snack. It is delightfully moist from grated carrots, mashed ripe bananas and super filling thanks ground rolled oats. Mix it up in just 10 minutes, pop it into the oven for 45, and enjoy the amazing aromas that will fill your home. Eat it warm from the oven or let it cool and store it in your fridge or freezer for the future. It is naturally gluten free when you use GF oats and can easily be made egg-free and dairy-free. And since carrots and bananas are both something many people can find in their grocery store year round, so this bread can be loved on all. year. long….so be sure to save this recipe. It will be a frequent flyer in your kitchen!

Can I make this banana bread egg-free?

You sure can. I find that flax eggs work great in this banana carrot bread in place of chicken eggs.
To make a “flax egg”, I use the ratio of 1 tablespoon ground flax meal + 2.5 tablespoons water = 1 egg.

So, for this recipe, I use 2 tablespoons of ground flax meal + 5 tablespoons water to replace the eggs. Be sure to let the flax/water mixture sit for about 5 minutes to allow it to “gel” before adding it to the batter.

How do you grate the carrots for this banana bread?

I use the large holes of a box grater and it works perfectly. You can also use pre-grated carrots to make this carrot banana breads even easier! I often find them in the refrigeration portion of the produce section in a bag. The bagged grated tends to be a bit thicker than home grated, so consider pulsing them in a blender with the wet ingredients if you are serving this bread to carrot-iffy eaters.

Tips and tricks

• Let banana carrot bread cool for at least 15 minutes. Loaves (and all baked goods) continue to bake even after they are removed from the oven and will firm up as they sit. Let this sweet bread sit in the pan for 15 minutes before transferring them to the cooling rack. And then let it cool there for another 10 minutes before enjoying. TIP: If you are not using parchment paper when baking your bread, let it cool the full 25-20 minutes in the pan….otherwise it might stick or fall apart.
• Use parchment paper. It makes it super easy to lift this banana carrot bread out of the loaf pan without losing a crumb. Or you can use a little oil in the loaf pan to prevent sticking.
• Make sure your bananas are ripe. For best results in baked goods, bananas should be brown and spotty. As bananas ripen they get sweeter and softer. Ripe banana also add moisture to is carrot bread. Using bananas that are green or just barely ripe in this recipe may lead to dry, less sweet loaf.
• Don’t over mix your batter! Oat based baked goods can be dense and heavy when over mixed. So mix your batter until JUST combined. That is the key to fluffy banana bread!

Wondering how to store your carrots so they stay fresh as long as possible? Check out my post on How to Keep Cut Carrots Fresh and get the most out of your produce buck!

How to store this carrot banana bread

This sweet bread can be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to to 2 days. After that, I suggest storing it in the fridge or freezer to prevent molding and keep it as fresh as possible for days to come.

To freeze, slice it and transfer to a freezer safe container. Store in your freezer for up to a month and let the slices thaw on your counter overnight to enjoy the next day.

Suggested adaptations

• Bake it as muffins. Portion the batter out between 12 lined muffin tins and bake at the same temperature for 20 minutes. Let cool before enjoying.
• Skip the sweetener! If you are looking for a little less sugar in your life, either reduce the amount of maple syrup/honey you use or let the banana do all the sweetening and leave the honey/syrup all together! I do this often!
• Sub the carrots with grated zucchini. Just like with the grated carrot, make sure to squeeze out as much of the moisture as you can before adding it to the batter.
• Mix it all in your blender! Really want to simplify baking? Throw everything into your blender and blend batter until smooth before pouring it into the prepared loaf pan. This works best if you have a high-speed blender like a Vitamix, otherwise your blender might find the batter too taxing and leave the oats chunky.

Other veggie-loaded banana baked goods you are going to love.

• Oatmeal Green Smoothie Muffins
• Banana-Spinach Pancake Pizza
• Healthy Lunch Box Muffins
• Cinnamon Zucchini Banana Muffins
• Sweet Potato Banana Bread

Did you try this banana carrot bread and now you’re hungry for more? 

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