Simple & delicious Healthy Banana Bread with a hint of fragrant cardamom. Whole-grain, oil-free & perfect for breakfast or snacking!
This Healthy Banana Bread recipe has been around on AVV since the beginning of time but it badly needed a revamp. When I made it again last weekend I took the opportunity to retake some photos so I could update it and here we are with a new and improved post.
This recipe is the perfect way to use up very ripe bananas. I’m one of those crazy people who likes to eat slightly green bananas. Not so green that they are impossible to peel, but just slightly green tinged. Once they get yellow and spotty that’s it, I can’t eat them.
That doesn’t stop me buying too many every week though, just so they can go soft and spotty. I love baking with them and I also love freezing them to use in my Instant Mango Banana Ice Cream or for smoothies.
One of the many reasons I like Banana Bread so much is that I can fool myself into thinking I am not eating cake. It’s bread, and Healthy Banana Bread at that.
This recipe is made with healthy, unrefined spelt flour which gives it a lovely wholesome flavour. Much better than when made with regular all purpose flour. It only contains half a cup of sugar and no added oil at all, although if you want to, you can swap out the nut butter for oil.
It’s also full of fruit …. Hello? 3 WHOLE Bananas …. It’s practically a fruit itself 😂
I kind of defeat the object of making this Healthy Banana Bread oil-free, because I like to slather my slices with homemade Easy Vegan Butter. They are so good together! You don’t have to if you are feeling virtuous but I do recommend it 😉
I like to put a little twist on my recipes whenever I can and this one is no different. This Healthy Banana Bread has a touch of cardamom added to it’s batter.
Cardamom works really well with banana and it gives the bread a beautiful subtle fragrance. It really is a good combo.
If cardamom is not your thing though feel free to omit it. You could try switching it up by adding some chocolate chips instead!
Simple & delicious Healthy Banana Bread with a hint of fragrant cardamom. Whole-grain, oil-free & perfect for breakfast or snacking! Click To TweetThis is why I am loving this Healthy Banana Bread:
- It’s quick and easy to make
- It’s full of healthy ingredients
- It uses up your ‘past it’ spotty bananas
- It’s great for make ahead breakfasts
- It freezes perfectly so you can double up on the recipe for another time
Please note that a beautiful crust forms whilst baking so please don’t blame me when you have to fight everyone in your household to get the crusty end bit. Tell them that I said “it’s the cook’s perk” and swiftly cut and run!
If you enjoy healthy, oil-free, cake-y breads then be sure to check out my Vegan Pumpkin Bread with Cranberries & Pumpkin Seeds!
As with all of my baking recipes where precision is key to excellent results, I highly recommend using a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients, rather than using cup measurements. I love this one because it is very reasonably priced and it has a tare function which is really handy. It means you can place any bowl on the scale and reset to zero so it doesn’t include the weight in it’s calculation, plus you can reset to zero when adding multiple ingredients to the same bowl which saves on washing up!
Healthy Banana Bread
Simple & delicious Healthy Banana Bread with a hint of fragrant cardamom. Whole-grain, oil-free & perfect for breakfast or snacking!
Ingredients
- 3 medium bananas , make sure they are very ripe, (plus some extra slices for the top)
- 4 tablespoons cashew or almond butter , or 60mls | 1/4 cup coconut oil (liquid measure)
- 55g | 1/2 packed cup sugar , plus a little extra to sprinkle over the top before baking. Any sugar will do.
- 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
- ¾ teaspoon ground cardamom , can be omitted if you don't have any or don't like cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 230g | 2 cups spelt flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Grease a loaf pan (I used an 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pan )and line with a strip of parchment paper along the bottom, making sure it comes up over the ends so you can use it as a handle to lift the loaf out once cooked).
Peel the bananas then mash them with a fork or use your stand mixer to beat them up into a puree.
Add nut butter/coconut oil, sugar, molasses, cardamon and salt and beat well until smooth.
Add the flour and baking powder and gently fold it all together. Do not over mix. You want it so that it is just combined and so that you cannot see any dry flour throughout the mixture.
- Pour into your prepared pan.
OPTIONAL - Top with some sliced banana and a sprinkle of sugar.
Bake in oven for around 50 minutes or until a tooth pick or skewer comes out clean when inserted through the middle.
Lift out of pan, remove parchment paper and cool on a cooling rack.
Recipe Notes
This bread freezes really well. I often double the recipe so we have one to eat and one for another day.
You can use regular all purpose flour in place of the spelt flour but you might find you need to add a little plant-based milk to loosen up the batter a bit as it is more absorbent. Not too much though. Only a few tablespoons at most. The batter should be quite thick and need spooning rather than pouring into the tin but not so thick that it is difficult to stir.
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?
If you did, be a ☆ and let me know what you think by rating it and commenting below. Tag me on Instagram too. I am @avirtualvegan and my hashtag is #avirtualvegan
Lillian says
Could I leave out the cashew butter and just use more bananas to make it no added fat? Cashew butter is too expensive
A Virtual Vegan says
It needs some fat or the results aren’t so good. I tested it without and reduced the amount of cashew butter as much as I could without it the cake becoming gummy. If you use more bananas instead it will end up too wet. Any other nut butter would work and you can use coconut oil instead. Hope that helps!
Patrick McCoy says
This recipe is awesome! Super easy and healthy. I had a couple bunches of ripe bananas and this was a great way to use them up. And the cardamom goes really well with the Black Strap Molasses.
A Virtual Vegan says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Patrick. Thank you for letting me know!
Aalia says
THE BEST I HAVR EVER HAD
This recipe is absolutely gorgeous -sweet and moist ( I love the word;don’t hate) I loved this warm out of the oven and my father who is usually very fussy devoured half of it
A Virtual Vegan says
Wow! That’s a compliment I will take. Thank you so much. And just for the record..I like the word moist too! It describes cakes like this perfectly!
Rita says
delicious great recipe
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
jacquie says
the bread looks wonderful and i do love the addition of cardamon. Do you think i could swap out some of the sugar for more molasses?
A Virtual Vegan says
The molasses in this recipe is blackstrap molasses. You definitely don’t want to add more of it as it’s so dark and bitter. It wouldn’t taste great at all. I also think that if you did use regular molasses (and not blackstrap molasses) instead of some sugar, the batter would end up too wet and the loaf a bit soggy because of the extra liquid. In most recipes there would be some other liquid that you could reduce to make up for it, but in this recipe there is no other liquid to cut back on. All in all it’s probably not a good idea. You can use any type of sugar though, so if you prefer coconut sugar that would work ok. The loaf isn’t overly sweet anyway, but you might be able to get away with reducing the sugar a little. Not too much though as otherwise it will affect the structure. Hope that helps!
Ange says
Can I omit the molasses or substitute it with Agave?
A Virtual Vegan says
You can just omit it. Blackstrap molasses is different to regular molasses in that it isn’t sweet at all and just adds some bitter treacle-y richness. There would be no need to add the agave instead. Enjoy!
Eve says
I made this today, it’s sooo good. The banana on the top is delicious too.
A Virtual Vegan says
That’s great Eve. I am so pleased you enjoyed it. The banana on the top is my favourite bit!
Molly ~ EasycookingwithMolly says
I Love homemade breads and the combination of banana-cardamom sounds fantastic! Awesome Recipe Melanie !
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you Molly! It is one of my favourite recipes as I just love the flavours. In fact I haven’t made it for a while so might just change that this weekend!
Healing Tomato says
I love a great cardamom recipe. This banana bread is so awesome
Framed Recipes says
Banana bread looks perfect. Cardamom is essential to any sweet in Indian cuisine. Never tried it with banana bread. Next time I make banana bread, I know one of the flavors I am going to add. Thanks for sharing.
Madiha says
I love cardamom! It’s something I have everyday and any dish that calls for its addition is definitely on my to-do list; this banana bread is happening in my life soon 😀
Thank you!
A Virtual Vegan says
Hope you enjoy it Madiha!
jacqadactle says
I’ve never thought of using cardamom in banana bread, what a great idea! I’m totally going to make this!
A Virtual Vegan says
Let me know how you like it Jacqui!
immaculatebites says
Love Cardamom! And love banana bread even more . I do some banana on the counter. This is one banana bread I have got to try. Thanks for sharing!!! Pinning!!
[email protected] says
I love cardamom and use it in place of cinnamon all the time. Can’t wait to try your banana bread!
Byron Thomas says
I’ve never tried cardamom before… or have I? Is it commonly used in any day-to-day foods that I might be unaware of? Either way, this banana loaf would go so well with my afternoon tea!
A Virtual Vegan says
Byron it’s sometimes one of the spices in curry powder (not that this recipe tastes like curry at all!) and it’s often in chai tea so perhaps you have had it before without realizing.
Fareeha - faskitchen says
Looks delicious and fabulous.yumm
olivia giovanni says
I’ve never tried cardamom and banana.. A flavour combo to save in my recipe book!
Sarah says
Can I ask what will happen if when adding the flour I over mix it? Instead of folding the flour in. Just curious thank you.
A Virtual Vegan says
Hi Sarah. When you over mix cake or muffin mixture you start to activate the gluten in the flour, kind of like you do when you knead bread. This makes the gluten strands elastic and will produce a dense and almost chewy result. This isn’t what you want when making cake or muffins. Just mixing enough to incorporate the flour is all you need to do to avoid this.
This great info graphic from cupcakeproject.com illustrates this perfectly.
Sarah says
Thanks so much that is very helpful and the picture says it all! 🙂
Tamara says
This looks great! I love cardamom, and I have to agree, the roasted banana on top is intriguing!
Ariel Pingault says
This looks so good! 🙂 I make banana bread almost practically every weekend now to get rid of all of the pesky bananas that don’t go eaten throughout the work week, so I’ll have to give your version a try! It looks great! Thank you for sharing!
A Virtual Vegan says
Let me know how you like it Ariel!
Dawn @ Words Of Deliciousness says
I love the combination of cardamon and banana. Your bread sounds really yummy!
A Virtual Vegan says
Thanks Dawn!
Hillary says
I love the look of this! Also, I have WAY too many dried bananas… any ideas about how I could incorporate those?
A Virtual Vegan says
You could cook it without the banana slices on top, frost it then sprinkle dried banana chips over the top. That would be awesome! I’m not sure how it would turn out if you folded the dried banana into the mixture before cooking. That’s something I’ve never tried. It would probably be ok but I can’t guarantee a good result.
Jane says
Intrigued by the roast banana on top! Must try! thank you.
A Virtual Vegan says
The roast banana on the top is so good! I can’t describe the texture well. Kind of chewy & fudgy perhaps? Let me know what you think when you make it!