Vegan Berry Banana Bread

Soft, sweet banana bread full of fresh, juicy berries! This vegan berry banana bread is easy to make, healthy, gluten free and totally naturally sweetened.

This will be our last weekend in the apartment before we move into the house. Eeeep!! That’s about all I can say at this point, so let’s just get right to vegan berry banana bread.

Typically I associate banana bread with cool weather, as it’s so warm, gooey, and comforting. But I wanted to make a banana bread that would be great for spring and summertime. I figured that with all the fresh berries coming into season, they’d be the perfect thing to brighten up a loaf of banana bread, and they definitely get the job done here.

Ingredients for vegan berry banana bread

• Rolled oats: you’ll blend the oats to flour consistency, which will hold the banana bread together. Because it’s the only grain in the recipe, the oat flour will give the bread quite a dense, rich texture – it’s not light like a cake, but hearty and satisfying.
• Banana: as always with banana baked goods, make sure your bananas are super ripe and spotty. They’re the only sweetener in this recipe, so they need to be really ripe for optimal banana flavor and sweetness.
• Ground flaxseed: you’ll make flax eggs by putting the ground flax in a bowl with water in the fridge for 20 minutes, until it gels up a bit. This helps hold the banana bread together and provides some great nutrition, too.
• Nondairy milk: a bit of milk brings the batter together. I use unsweetened almond milk for neutral flavor, but any nondairy milk should work.
• Fresh berries: berries add great pops of sweet, fruity flavor throughout the banana bread.

Tips for making vegan berry banana bread

• Measure the rolled oats before blending into flour. I always list the amount of oats used BEFORE they’re blended for flour. So in this case, you’ll measure out 2 cups of whole, rolled oats, then put those 2 cups into your blender to make flour.
• Don’t mix the berries into the batter. To avoid the berries bursting by mixing them directly into the batter, I spoon some of the batter into the pan, drop on about half of the berries, then the remaining batter, then the rest of the berries. If you want to you can definitely stir the berries right into the batter, but be super careful stirring and know that they may pop and bleed their color and turn your batter a strange shade of blue/purple! It’ll definitely still be delicious, so no worries either way.
• Make sure to use a nonstick or parchment-lined pan. Use a nonstick or parchment-lined pan so that the bread doesn’t stick after baking.
• Let it cool completely. Let the banana bread cool for at least 20 minutes before flipping it out of the pan, then let it sit and cool completely before slicing. It is pretty soft and gooey as is, but will firm up during the cooling process, and if you slice it too early, it may be a gooey mess.
• Add some fun toppings. This banana bread is great on its own, but even better with whatever toppings you love! My favorites are almond butter or vegan yogurt.

This vegan berry banana bread is soft, sweet, and my new favorite banana bread variety for spring and summertime! The berries really give a great sweet, tart, brightness that you may not think of with banana bread. The texture is perfectly browned on the outside but so soft and gooey in the center. Made with just a few healthy ingredients, this will become a new favorite for warm weather breakfasts!

Xo,

Sara