This delicious dairy-free zucchini bread recipe has a soft, moist inside and a crunchy, sweet crust. It's egg-free, vegan, and is super easy to make using classic baking ingredients!
Zucchini bread is a staple at my family's house. It's the definition of a soft and moist quick bread, and it's the perfect addition to dinner.
Zucchini bread traditionally contains eggs and often also dairy, but this vegan version is both egg and dairy-free!
Even though this zucchini bread contains an entire cup of shredded zucchini, you would never know that it's made with vegetables (just like these carrot cake muffins!). Make the zucchini bread into muffins as a good way to sneak veggies to kids (or yourself!).
The best part? Like my popular vegan gingerbread loaf and vegan strawberry cake, we only use traditional pantry ingredients to make this recipe.
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Why this recipe works
- Texture: Soft, moist, and filled with warming spices. You wouldn't even know that this is an egg-free and dairy-free zucchini bread!
- Quick & easy: Made with traditional baking ingredients and requires just 10 minutes to make. Unlike many vegan zucchini bread recipes, this one is made without tofu, applesauce, or specialty flours!
- Dietary features: Vegan, egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free, soy-free optional, and can be made gluten-free or with whole wheat flour.
- Versatile: The zucchini bread batter can be made into zucchini muffins instead of a loaf.
Ingredients
- Zucchini: One medium zucchini makes about one heaping cup of grated zucchini.
- Vinegar, baking soda, and baking powder act as the main leaveners in place of eggs.
- Non-dairy milk: I use unsweetened soy milk because it has the most neutral flavor. Almond, oat, or other non-dairy milks work.
- White and brown sugar: Choose organic sugars to ensure that they are vegan.
- Cinnamon and nutmeg provide the warming flavors traditional to zucchini bread.
Step-by-step instructions
Dairy-free zucchini bread is made like other quick breads: add dry ingredients, then wet ingredients, mix and bake.
- Mix together all dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. With a fork, mix until just combined into a thick batter.
- Using a spatula, fold the grated zucchini into the batter.
- Spoon the zucchini bread batter into a well-greased, 8" x 4" (or similarly sized) loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50-60 minutes.
Customization and substitutions
- Gluten-free vegan zucchini bread: Make this recipe gluten-free by using an equal amount of 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose flour blend. I recommend something like Bob's Red Mill 1:1 blend.
- Whole wheat flour: You can use 100% whole wheat flour or half whole wheat flour in place of regular all-purpose flour. The zucchini bread will turn out slightly denser.
- Add-ins: Fold in any add-ins like chocolate chips, nuts or dry fruit with the grated zucchini.
- Chocolate zucchini bread: Try using chocolate non-dairy milk in place of regular milk for a chocolatey twist.
- Serving ideas: I like to serve it with three bean vegetarian chili or butter bean soup. The best way to eat zucchini bread is to warm it up and spread it with a light coat of vegan butter.
Cassidy's tips
- To grate zucchini, I use my trusty box grater to grate to hashbrown or matchstick carrots consistency. You can use leftover shredded zucchini in zucchini corn fritters.
- Spoon and level flour into the measuring cup for best results. To do this, use a spoon to scoop flour into your measuring cup until overflowing. Use the back of a knife to wipe off excess flour.
- Wait to slice the zucchini bread until it is completely cooled. I know, it's so hard to wait. But you won't get perfect slices if you slice the bread immediately after removing it from the oven.
Recipe FAQ
I haven't tested this myself but others have had success with using equal amounts of applesauce in place of oil. You can also try half oil and half applesauce. The loaf will end up denser but the flavor will be the same.
You can make muffins instead of a loaf. Line a 12-count muffin tin with liners or lightly grease with cooking spray. Spoon batter into the muffin tins until almost at the top. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Check out my vegan zucchini banana muffins or vegan pumpkin muffins for more ideas.
No, you don't need to peel the zucchini before grating it. The zucchini cooks down so much in the bread that you will barely notice it's there.
There are a few reasons why this might happen. First, this usually means the zucchini bread did not bake long enough. Stick a knife or toothpick into the center of the zucchini bread. If any crumbs cling to it, it needs to bake longer.
Another possibility is that the oven is too hot. This causes the outside of the bread to cook more quickly than the inside, resulting in an unbaked center. Use an oven thermometer to confirm the oven temperature.
Fix an undercooked loaf of vegan zucchini bread by returning it to the oven for a few minutes.
Storage tips
Storage: You do not need to refrigerate zucchini bread, but it will last longer in the fridge than at room temperature. Keep zucchini bread in an air-tight container at room temperature for 1-2 days, or refrigerated in an airtight container for 3-5 days.
Because it a very moist bread, refrigeration will not dry it out as much as it would with regular bread
Freezing: You can freeze a whole loaf or slice the bread before freezing. Wrap in foil and place in an air-tight container for best quality. Let the loaf thaw overnight in the fridge. Individual slices will thaw quickly at room temp.
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Dairy-Free Zucchini Bread
Equipment
- 8" x 4" loaf pan
Ingredients
- 1 large zucchini see note #1
- 1 and ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 and ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon allspice optional
- ⅛ teaspoon table salt
- ½ cup organic granulated sugar
- ½ cup organic light brown sugar
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- ½ cup non-dairy milk see note #2
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Using the large holes on a box grater, grate the zucchini. Measure out 1 heaping cup of grated zucchini.
- In a small bowl, mix together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt.
- In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients: granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, non-dairy milk, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Fold in the grated zucchini.
- Lightly grease an 8" x 4" loaf pan. Scoop the zucchini mixture into the bread pan, smoothing as needed.
- Bake the bread for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. The top should be lightly browned and slightly sticky, but not wet.
- Remove the zucchini bread from the oven and let rest for ten minutes. After 10 minutes, turn out onto a cooling rack.
- Wait to slice until fully cooled. Keep leftovers refrigerated for up to 4-5 days.
Video
Notes
- Zucchini: Choose a medium to large zucchini to yield one heaping cup of grated zucchini.
- Milk: You can substitute soy milk with almond, oat, pea protein milk, etc. Most non-dairy milk options will work, but I do not recommend using canned coconut milk.
- I recommend using an oven thermometer. Oven temperatures can vary widely and the only way to know if your oven is the temperature it says it is is to use an oven thermometer.
- Add-ins: Fold in any add-ins like chocolate chips, nuts, or dry fruit with the grated zucchini.
- To make muffins: You can make muffins instead of a loaf. Line a 12-count muffin tin with liners or lightly grease with cooking spray. Spoon batter into the muffin tins until almost at the top. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Karen says
I made this recipe for my daughter and son-in-law who are vegan and dairy free! Easy to make and it tasted amazing!
Thank you for the recipe.
Cassidy Reeser says
I'm so happy to hear it was a hit! Thanks for leaving a review!
Mars Oswin says
Okay, so, I tend to find recipes online and tweak them after ttrying the initial recipe... I ALWAYS have to tweak them.
This is the first time I have EVER been 100% satisfied with the original recipe without changing a single thing.
10/10 and 5 whole feckin stars.
Super easy, quick, crunchy is just the right way on the outside, tender and soft on the inside, and packed with spices. I opted for adding in the allspice and love the boldness, but without it, I am confident it'd be just as good although a little less intense in flavor.
Thank you so, so much for sharing this recipe!! <3 It's gonna be a regular in my little loaf rotation. (:
Cassidy Reeser says
I'm glad to see someone loving this recipe as much as I do!! Thanks so much for the review!
Paula Rix says
Can I use olive oil instead? This recipe sounds delicious.
Cassidy Reeser says
Yes, you can! If it's a richly flavored olive oil you might notice the flavor coming through the zucchini bread.
Cierra says
I’ve never had or made zucchini bread before. My papa left some extra zucchini at my house from a pasta dish that he made and I had to find something to do with them. This recipe came out so good! My whole family loves it. It’s so flavorful and the texture was great. I ended up baking for 65 minutes as that’s when a toothpick came out clean for me. Definitely going to make this again. I feel like it has a fall vibe to it as well.
Cassidy Reeser says
Ooh so happy to hear that this was your first time trying zucchini bread! It's one of my favorite family recipes. So glad you loved it! Agree that it has fall vibes too, so it works well through the seasons.
Josie says
Baking generally scares me, but I made this a couple of weeks ago and it was absolutely incredible. I'm planning to make it again this week, but I have to wait because I'm out of milk *eyeroll*. Has anyone tried prepping/mixing the ingredients ahead of time and had good results? It would be ideal if I could mix all the wet ingredients together and store them until I can get non-dairy milk tomorrow, but I don't pretend to know what would happen if I left the sugar and oil and vinegar together for that long without baking. (For context, I'm hoping to store the dry ingredients mixed up overnight, the wet ingredients without the milk, and then grate the zucchini right before putting it in tomorrow)
Cassidy Reeser says
I'm late to reply, so I'm guessing you've already gone ahead and got the milk, but I think it would work to mix together all dry ingredients separately and all wet ingredients separately. Instead of adding sugar to the wet ingredients I would add it to the dry, just to be safe. Anyway, I'm curious to hear what you ended up doing and if it worked! Thank you for the review! 🙂
Angela Schott says
Delicious!! I tried the muffin version suggested in note 6 and my husband and I both loved them! I omitted the all-spice just because I did not have any. I was a little slow to figure out how to best grate the zucchini, eventually finding that the biggest holes on my box grater were best (the smaller ones were turning it into a mushy liquid). But one heaping cup of large shreds made the muffins perfectly moist on the inside with a good bit of crust on the outside! Delicious!!
Cassidy Reeser says
That's a good point, the biggest holes are definitely best for grating zucchini. So glad you liked the recipe, thanks for the review! 🙂
Hayley says
I followed the recipe to a T, but I baked mine for an hour and a half and it was still wet inside. I’m wondering if maybe the zucchini I used was too large? The end pieces were delicious! Any ideas on why it wouldn’t have cooked all the way through?
Cassidy Reeser says
Did you measure out 1 heaping cup of zucchini or use the entire zucchini? That could be the problem if you just used an entire zucchini. Otherwise, I wonder if your oven temp is off? I use an oven thermometer to check that my oven is actually the temp it says it is (because I've had ovens in the past that are actually way off and had to be recalibrated!)
Hayley says
That was the only thing I didn’t do was measure the zucchini - I just shredded one and put all of it in, but I’m making another loaf tonight, so I’ll try that!
Thank you! 🙂
Cassidy Reeser says
Fingers crossed it bakes more quickly this time! 🙂
Patricia Tackaberry says
Can you make this bread in an oven style air fryer? It is so hot i hate to heat the house up with the regular oven. Thanks.
Cassidy Reeser says
I haven’t tried using my toast oven/air fryer for bread but I’ve found when converting other baking recipes (like cookies) that it requires some testing. So I’m not confident that it would turn out right as-is! It is probably best to stick to an oven for this recipe.
Tina says
Can you use almond or coconut flour in this recipe?
Cassidy Reeser says
I don’t think those will work since they can’t be used as a direct substitute for flour. If you want to make it GF I would use a gluten free all-purpose flour mix.
Wendy G says
This recipe rocked my zucchini world! I cooked the batter in a wider lower glass dish in less time and the results were beyond my expectations. The cake was raved over by all who tried it and they are quite picky. ;o) I don't want to mess with perfection, but I would like to make it with honey next time. i could also imagine adding dark chocolate chips and walnuts to this in the future to round the nutritional value!
Cassidy Reeser says
So glad you all liked it and yep, chocolate chips just make it even better! 🙂 Honey might be a tricky substitution because it’s a liquid sweetener, but I’m curious to hear if you give it a try.
Dani says
This is so far and above the best zucchini bread recipe. Ever. If you haven't made it - do yourself a favour and make it right now.