Healthy Zucchini Bread
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This Healthy Zucchini Bread Recipe is an easy, delicious treat. Low calorie, low sugar, gluten free & so delicious – everyone will love it! This post is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill but all opinions are my own.
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Click here to read my policy and more about affiliate links. This post was originally shared in 2017 but has been updated since
Healthy Zucchini Bread is one of my favorite veggie loaded treats! It’s light, fresh, and the perfect way for using up loads of summer zucchini—though honestly, it’s delicious any time of year.
Zucchini may seem like a bland veggie, but when done right, it creates the most perfectly moist, fluffy bread.
Most zucchini bread recipes are loaded with sugar to compensate for the subtle flavor of zucchini, but I decided that a few chocolate chips + honey would be a better choice. Instead of using butter or canola oil, this recipe uses just a little bit of olive oil and almond milk to keep it moist. You could also add some chopped walnuts for added healthy fats!
Using whole grain oat flour gives the bread a light, fluffy texture with a slight nutty flavor while also adding fiber and protein. And let’s not forget—this bread has a full cup of zucchini baked right in, adding a sneaky veggie boost without anyone noticing.
Liz’s tips for zucchini bread
- Grate your zucchini with a standard box grater. Place your box grater over a bowl to catch the zucchini shreads.
- You do not need to peel the zucchini for zucchini bread! It will soften in the bread and add extra fiber and nutrients.
- Make sure to squeeze water out of the zucchini for bread. Once you’ve grated zucchini, take a paper towel or clean dish towel and squeeze out as much excess moisture as possible. Otherwise, you’ll wind up with soggy zucchini bread.
If you’re looking for other healthy zucchini recipes – check out these Healthy Zucchini Recipes!
Ingredients
SUBSTITUTIONS
To make gluten free: replace regular oat flour with Bob’s Red Mill Certified Gluten Free Oat Flour. You can also try this Gluten Free Zucchini Bread!
To make vegan: replace 1 egg white with 1 flax egg. Sub honey with maple syrup
To make nut free: Sub almond milk for oat milk or dairy milk
To make lower in sugar: omit the chocolate
Flour: You can replace oat flour with whole wheat flour or white flour but your bread might be a little more dense. I would not recommend almond flour or coconut flour. If you don’t have oat flour on hand, blend or process old fashioned oats or quick cook oats until they are a flour like consistency.
Milk: Any milk will work – almond, oat, regular dairy milk, soy, coconut, etc.
Spices: You can omit the ground ginger and nutmeg if you don’t have any. Add a little bit more cinnamon to compensate!
Vanilla Extract – You can omit vanilla extract from the recipe and it will still turn out fine.
Nuts: You can add in chopped pecans or walnuts. Raisins would also be a nice add in!
Healthy Zucchini Muffins: Pour the batter into greased or lined muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the muffin. You can also check out our Healthy Zucchini Bread Muffins
Mini Loaves – I haven’t tried making this recipe into mini loaves, but I think it would work! Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the loaf pan.
Chocolate Zucchini Bread: This Gluten-Free Chocolate Zucchini Bread is a delicious variation!
Zucchini Banana Bread: Try our Zucchini Banana Bread.
How to make Healthy Zucchini Bread:
- Before doing anything, grate your zucchini. Squeeze out as much water as you can from the zucchini. I typically use a paper towel and wring it out over the sink.
- Gather all ingredients
- Mix together your wet ingredients.
- Stir in your dry ingredients.
- Add in chocolate chips (optional but highly recommended!)
- Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake. After 40-45 minutes you’ll have perfectly cooked zucchini bread.
I love to make this on Sunday to enjoy for breakfast/snacks during the week. It’s great with a big cup of coffee in the morning, or as a snack with PB on top in the afternoon.
Storage
Storing Zucchini Bread: You can store this bread covered on your counter for a few days, but I recommend keeping it in the refrigerator for maximum freshness!
It will last up to a week in the refrigerator – but will lose its freshness after about 3 days on the counter.
How to freeze Zucchini Bread: You can slice this bread and individually wrap it or freeze it whole. To defrost a whole loaf, take it out the night before you’d like to enjoy it and set it in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to serve, pop it in the microwave.
If you’re defrosting a single slice, you can put it directly in the microwave or toaster oven until it is warm.
Gluten Free Zucchini Bread FAQ
Your zucchini bread shouldn’t fall apart. Make sure you let it cool completely before removing it from the prepared loaf pan. Also, make sure you squeeze any liquid out of your zucchini before baking!
More Healthy Bread Recipes:
We love healthy bread recipes. Here are some of our favorites:
Healthy Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 egg room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1 cup shredded zucchini squeezed to remove water (about 1 medium zucchini)
- 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Oat Flour use gluten free if necessary
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 + prepare a greased 8×4 loaf pan.
- In a large bowl mix together olive oil, egg, vanilla extract, honey, almond milk and zucchini.
- Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients (oat flour, spices, baking powder/baking soda, salt)
- Fold in mini chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into greased loaf pan + top with additional chocolate chips if desired
- Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes, or until top of bread is golden and cake tester comes out clean. Allow bread to cool completely for at least 20 minutes, remove from pan + enjoy!
Video
Notes
- To make gluten free: replace regular oat flour with Bob’s Red Mill Certified Gluten Free Oat Flour
- To make vegan: replace 1 egg white with 1 flax egg. Sub honey with maple syrup
- To make nut free: Sub almond milk for oat milk or dairy milk
We are not generally fans of oat flour. I specifically hunted down this recipe for some friends who can’t eat gluten and who can eat oat flour without problem. I had a monster zucchini on hand, so I made double the recipe, but otherwise followed it almost to the letter. I had no chocolate chips, so I subbed in raisins and I ran out of enough honey for both loaves so I threw in maple syrup instead. (Thanks for those proposed substitutions, Liz!)
Both loaves came out beautifully. Only recommendation to add is that if you’re doubling the recipe, swap your loaves partway through because now mine are a little asymmetric. Didn’t affect the taste, of course!! 🙂
This is so good! Can they easily been made into muffins do you think?
Pour the batter into greased or lined muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the muffin. You can also check out our Healthy Zucchini Bread Muffins
This bread is fantastic. It has texture, the flavor is balanced and it’s made with wholesome ingredients. I will definitely make this again in the future.
I subbed almond flour for oat flour because that’s what I had on hand and it came out complete mush – had to throw it away. My own fault I guess, just wanted to comment for anyone else who might be thinking of trying this substitution!
We did write in the post “do not use almond or coconut flour” 🙁 Sorry it didn’t work, but just so you know for the future: this is what happens when you sub oat flour with almond or coconut flour. Almond flour is higher in fat which makes breads/baked goods more moist. You’d need to reduce the amount of moisture otherwise in the recipe. If you want to use almond flour in baked goods, I recommend looking up ‘almond flour + specific baked good’ rather than trying to make subs. It’s just too expensive to have to throw something out. Best of luck finding a different recipe that works for you, or if you want to give this another try with the oat flour I promise you’ll have a much better result!
Really good! Been looking for a lower carb wuick bread. I subbed coconut milk and maple syrup, ground my own oats but otherwise kept to the recipe. Only thing I noticed is that it was extra crumbly, even after cooling down.
Maybe the texture will improve by the next day. Will make again though, thanks so much!
this is probably because you ground your own oats! Try using oat flour next time 🙂 Should be very moist, not crumbly!
Love it! Been making it on repeat!
How do you think vanilla almond milk would taste in this recipe? I think it would be ok as it calls for vanilla extract anyway and I like vanilla flavor. But I’m not a great cook or baker and I usually follow recipes exactly. So need to know what you think. LOL
I’m sure it would be fine. I just wouldn’t use vanilla almond milk in savory recipes. And if it has sugar added it might make it sweeter
The bread tasted really good but it was still mushy and undercooked. What should i do next time? Is baking it in a muffin tin a good idea?
I wouldn’t bake it in a muffin tin. You can make these Zucchini Bread Muffins. The bread might just need a few more minutes in the oven. Maybe your oven runs a little less hot. The pan you bake it in can also make a difference. Metal cooks quicker. Glass/ceramic cook slower!
AMAZING. I literally have no words make this right now!
Wow
I wanted to make zucchini bread on a whim since I picked up way too much zucchini on clearance at Kroger and now have tons of it in my freezer. This was one of the only zucchini bread recipes I could find that didn’t use flour or bananas–neither of which I had on hand. I was easily able to make the oat flour and had all of the other ingredients. It came out great! I will definitely be making this again.
So glad you liked it!
Superb! Everything I could’ve wanted in a healthy zucchini bread. Thank you guys so much.
Also, side note: I discovered this website like 2 days ago and am really liking it — even though the competition is stiff when it comes to searching for “healthy ________ recipe.” So I’ll def be coming back here. Really love the emphasis on subs and the underlying reasoning behind the various steps/ingredients. Cheers to more happy 350F’s!
So glad you liked the bread, Bobby! Thank you so much. I’m really happy you found our site. We try super hard to provide substitutions & other info so everyone can enjoy our recipes. If there is ever a recipe you’re looking for or you need help with a recipe – don’t hesitate to reach out!
Hello, I just made your recipe for the Zucchini bread made with Oat flour. Mine bread came out really dry. When watching your video, i noticed your batter was a lot thinner than mine. I went over the recipe 3 times to make sure I used the right amount of each ingredient and I did.
Can you tell me what may have happened? Your bread looked so moist.
Thanks.
Did you make any ingredient substitutions? Was your oat flour ground super finely if it was homemade? I’m not sure what could’ve gone wrong here unless you possibly added more flour!
I only have 9 x 5 loaf pan, will that work okay? I can’t wait to try! I’m a terrible baker and can’t find conversion Baking times for a bigger pan! Thanks!
I’m sorry but I’m not sure. Without testing it I can’t tell. It probably will be shorter and flatter
Excellent moist bread! I’ve tried other gluten-free zucchini breads and they just didn’t taste right, but we can hardly quit munching this one!
So glad you liked it!
Came out really dry. What can I do to make it more moist? Add a banana or apple sauce maybe?
Hi Michelle- Did you make any substitutions? This recipe definitely should not be dry. Adding a banana or applesauce would likely make it too moist/make the bread not cook
Can I use summer squash instead of zucchini? Just picked a bunch of summer squash from my garden!
Haven’t tried that but I think it might work. I can’t be sure without trying – sorry!
This is such a great recipe. Really enjoy it. !!! Its a winner
Thank you so much, Janice!
These are amazing. Another Liz recipe that does not disappoint. I made them in muffin form, because, without a built in portion control I would eat the entire loaf. These are good for a quick breakfast on the go but also decadent enough for a healthier dessert. I saved them for a day at home because I expected zucchini break to be difficult to make, it couldn’t have been easier.
So glad you liked it, Elissa! Thank you so much!
This was so yummy and easy to make! A crowd pleaser as well!
So happy you liked it, Hayley!
Can you substitute coconut milk instead of almond milk? Looking for a nut-free substitute. Thanks!
I wouldn’t use full fat coconut milk, but the kind in the carton should be fine. Soy, oat, or regular dairy milk would also work.
This is really amazing! This is my 2nd time. Followed exactly except more spices and walnuts instead of chocolate chips. Thanks for such a great recipe.
So glad you liked it, Sonja! Thank you!
This Zucchini bread is moist and Delicious !!
So glad you liked it, Nadine!
Easy and delicious! If you grate the zucchini fine enough, no one notices you just snuck a veggie in to their chocolate chip bread! Will be passing this one to my supper club next!
Yay! That’s the goal! Sneaky veggies for the win 🙂
So excited when they posted this recipe. I love zucchini bread but my body does not love all the oil
& sugar. The dark chocolate chips add just enough sweetness!! So happy for this recipe and the bread was moist on the inside with a perfect crust on the outside!! YUM!!
So happy you liked it, Laurie! Thank you!