This delicious vegan zucchini bread recipe has a soft, moist inside and a crunchy, sweet crust. It's egg-free, dairy-free, and is super easy to make and uses classic baking ingredients!
Zucchini bread is a staple at my family's house. Just taking a bite of a warm slice of zucchini bread slathered with a layer of butter transports me back to my favorite summer dinners.
Even though this vegan 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!).
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Why this recipe works
- Texture: Soft, moist, and filled with warming spices.
- Quick & easy: Made with traditional baking ingredients (no tofu, applesauce, etc.) and requires just 10 minutes to make.
- Dietary-features: Vegan, egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free, soy-free optional and can be made gluten-free or with whole wheat flour.
- Can be made into zucchini muffins instead of a loaf.
📋Ingredients
It's easy to take a classic loaf of zucchini bread and make it vegan.
Like my popular vegan gingerbread loaf and vegan strawberry cake, we only use traditional pantry ingredients to make this recipe.
- 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 egg.
- Non-dairy milk: I use unsweetened soy milk because it has the most neutral flavor. Almond, oat, or other non-dairy milk work.
- White and brown sugar: Choose organic sugars to ensure that they are vegan.
🔪Instructions
This recipe is made like most other classic quick bread: 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 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 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 chocolate-y twist.
- Serving ideas: I like to serve it with three bean vegetarian chili or vegetable soup. The best way to eat zucchini bread is warmed up on its own and spread with a light coat of vegan butter.
Tips to make the best zucchini bread
- 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 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
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.
Yes! 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.
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 by returning it to the oven for a few minutes.
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📖 Recipe
Classic Vegan Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 heaping cup grated zucchini (from one medium 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 light brown sugar
- ½ cup organic white 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 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 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: white sugar, brown sugar, oil, non-dairy milk, apple cider vinegar, 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 cool rack to cool completely.
- Slices best when fully cooled. Store bread covered in the fridge for several days.
Video
Notes
- To grate zucchini, I use my trusty box grater to grate to hashbrown or matchstick carrots consistency.
- Milk: You can substitute soy milk with almond, oat, hemp milk etc. Most non-dairy milk options will work.
- I use this bread loaf pan to bake zucchini bread and most other quick breads.
- 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 Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Angela Schott
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
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
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
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
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
Fingers crossed it bakes more quickly this time! 🙂
Patricia Tackaberry
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
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
Can you use almond or coconut flour in this recipe?
Cassidy Reeser
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
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
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
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.