These carrot apple vegan muffins are kid-friendly, easy and as yummy as they are healthy! Made from oats, naturally sweetened and veggie-loaded, they are mixed entirely in your blender and are gluten free, dairy-free and egg free!
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Carrot Apple Vegan Muffins
Muffins. I love ’em. You guys love ’em. We all love ’em….so I keep baking them. With veggies (and this time fruit!)…because that’s how I roll.
We are heavy in a carrot phase over here. Yes, I said that. Carrot phase.
See, my daughter is a bit obsessed with Easter at the moment. I get it. Cute fluffy bunnies. Pretty pastel eggs. Lovely flowers. It’s basically the holiday where every little girl’s favorite things are splattered everywhere she looks. And the plethora of carrots everywhere has had a very positive effect on her orange veggie intake.
I’m not asking questions, just simply handing my daughter all the carrot things she could want and basking in the moment.
Carrots are one of those veggies that isn’t weird to put in baked goods (not that the fear of being weird has ever stopped me, hence Oatmeal Green Smoothie Muffins) and you can get pretty much any kid (or strong-willed adult) to eat. But, I decided to sweeten the muffin deal (literally) by adding apple into the mix.
Have you guys ever tried apple and carrots together?
Heaven! I love making a simple salad for my daughter (or myself) of shredded apples and carrots. The flavors just get each other and make a good muffin better.
These Carrot Apple vegan Muffins are everything. Super soft, super wonderful and they pretty much melt in your mouth. Full of flavor and yum….but also nutrient dense goodness. Oats, apples, carrots flax and all the good stuff you probably already have kicking around in your kitchen. So you can totally go make these right now….and every day…for the rest of your life.
Go for it! Seriously. I’ll wait here.
Other veggie-packed muffins you are going to want to make, like NOW!
- Chocolate Chip Carrot vegan Muffins (with lentils)
- Kid-Friendly Vegan Spinach Muffins
- Dairy-free Sweet Potato Peanut Butter Muffins
- Dairy-free Chocolate Butternut Squash Muffins
Carrot Apple Vegan Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp ground flax meal
- 9 tbsp water
- 1 cup grated carrot
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup maple syrup or date syrup sub honey if vegan isn't needed
- 2 cups uncooked rolled oats (if baking gluten free, make sure oats are also certified gluten free)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 medium apple roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and line a 12-hole muffin tin with liners.
- In a blender, combine flax meal and water. Pulse a few times to combine and then let sit in the blender for 5 minutes to “gel” into a “flax egg”
- After the flax + water has had some alone time in the blender, add the vanilla, maple syrup, baking soda, salt, vinegar, cinnamon, apple, oats, coconut oil, and almond milk. Blend until batter has a smooth consistency. You may need to scrape down the sides of the blender a few times and then keep on blending until everything is incorporated.
- Finally, add the grated carrots. Pulse a few times to incorporate them into the batter, but not enough to puree them…unless you don’t want your family to see carrot pieces. Then by all means, puree your little heart out!
- Portion out the batter between the 12 lined muffin holes.
- Bake at 25 minutes or until a a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Allow to cool completely (the middle may be a bit moist fresh out of the oven) and enjoy or store in fridge for up to a week!
Do you add the oats along with the other ingredients (apple, sweetner, almond milk, etc) ?
Yes!
Is there a way to substitute egg for the flax meal? I have flax seeds but not flax meal, and I’m cool with eggs. 🙂 Would love to try these!
Totally! They work great with 3 eggs instead of the flax eggs
Yay! So take out both the flax meal and the warm water?
And shoot, sorry for another question, lol — does this need to be done in a blender, or will a hand mixer do?
(Done, I swear.) 🙂
Definitely needs to be in a blender or food processor so that all of the ingredients gets finely chopped up!
yes, both!
Have you tried this without the oats? We have a sensitivity to even gluten free oats. What gluten free flour ratio would you recommend? Thanks!
Any update on this? I also can’t do oats even gluten free oats!
Hi!
I have never tried making this recipe with a gf flour blend, but I do have an apple cinnamon almond butter muffin that works well with carrots added. Unfortunately it is not egg-free if that is import (working on adding more paleo & egg-free recipes to the blog)
https://www.thenaturalnurturer.com/blog/apple-cinnamon-almond-butter-muffins-paleo
I’ll attempt to make this with a coconut flour and let you know how it turns out! lol
If you were to use unsweetened applesauce instead of the medium size apple, how much would you use?? Thanks 😉
Can I sub zucchini for the various? Looking for a zucchini muffin recipe for all this summer goodness!
I honestly haven’t tried and it sounds like such a good idea! You might need to squeeze some of the water out of the zucchini but i think it could work!
If I take out the honey/maple syrup entirely, do I need to sub some liquid? I’m making these for my 10-month old so I can’t use honey and I’d love to avoid the syrup. (I made these last night without the sweetener but added a little extra almond milk and they never fully baked. I think I added too much liquid. But I’d like to try again!) Thanks!!
I don’t think so. The apples and carrots should add enough liquid to make up for the moisture!
Taesha the zucchinni works great as a sub for the carrots! I grated them and let them drain a bit. I also added some extra spices like nutmeg. You could add raisens and nuts too at the end if you so desire. They were wonderful and warmly spiced! Almost as good as grandma’s!
Hello! What can I use as a substitute for the almond milk? One son is allergic to milk and the other to nuts! Thank you
Coconut milk should work just fine! I hope your son enjoys them!
Sounds delicious. Can I use oat milk instead of almond? My daughter has a nut allergy.
Hi! The first time I made these my 2 year old asked for them all day long… the were light and moist. The second time they turned out really dense and he said “no like muffin”, lol. I don’t think I did anything differently… any thoughts on what went wrong to make it change? (I used 3 eggs instead of flax/water both times.)
Interesting. It’s hard to know what went wrong without being in the kitchen with you! Did you make any other changes? Use less of something or more of something? Not blend as long?
I find that when I don’t blend these kinds of recipes until REALLY smooth, they come out denser. So perhaps that?
Ah, maybe the blending. I think I was assuming the opposite – that blending too long would lead to a denser result. I’ll try it again and blend longer. I actually had the same result with your chocolate avocado bread yesterday, super dense. I’ll blend longer…
Actually, with the chocolate avocado bread, I found that over blending is the issue with dense bread. I stop once everything is combined and then bake!
My rule of thumb is:
oat based recipe, bend until super smooth
nut based recipe, the less blending the better.
Hey there! I just made these for the first time today (I saw you posted the recipe in your IG stories over the weekend). Mine turned out more like a baked oatmeal, but they are DELICIOUS! I’ll be making them again, for sure, and can’t wait to try more of your veggie loaded muffin recipes!
can i use oat flour ?
Yes!
If you were going to make these in mini muffin size, how would you adjust the oven temp/time?
I would do same temp for 10-13 minutes.
Just made these for the first time because I was trying to use up some carrots and apples. So easy and good! Definitely going into the regular rotation.
I am so glad!
I love all your muffin recipes! I’m wanting to double this recipe because 12 muffins are gone so fast! 🙂 But I don’t think my blender can’t handle double the amount. Would it work to blend just the dry ingredients and then mix everything together in a bowl? I’ve seen those instructions on other recipes like the Banana Carrot Bread. Thank you so much!
I haven’t tried it but I can’t think of a reason it wouldn’t work!
Hiya. I’m not concerned with these being vegan but I don’t have coconut oil or almond milk. What could/should I sub in?
You can use olive oil or any oil you use for baking on the regular. And any milk you prefer to use in place of the almond milk.
Like!!
We love your muffin recipes, this one is a favorite in our house. The little ones love them!
Yay! I am so glad!