Spinach Muffins - Kid Approved

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One of my go-to lunchbox items is a good old muffin, and my spinach muffins are absolutely perfect for lunchboxes and after school snacks. They are a blender muffin recipe that is essentially a green smoothie in muffin form.

Green spinach muffins on crinkled baking paper scattered eith raisins and spinach leaves.

Why This Recipe Works

  • Kid approved: I've had lots of positive feedback on this recipe from both my kids and readers.
  • Healthy: not too high in sugar, has fibre, and the vegetable content is a bonus!
  • Basic everyday ingredients
  • Easy to make (if arecipe stresses me out, has too many steps or needs 1500 obscure ingredients then it makes me grumpy, and that’s no good for anyone

Ingredients you will need

To make my sweet spinach muffins you will need

  • plain flour
  • wholemeal flour
  • sugar
  • baking powder
  • baking soda
  • cinnamon
  • raisins
  • banana
  • orange
  • apple
  • oil
  • spinach leaves 
  • eggs
  • vanilla
The ingredients to make spinach muffins laid out on a bench top with seven baked spinach muffins.

Ingredient Notes and Substitutes

  • Wholemeal flour: This can be substituted for additional plain flour
  • Sugar: Any granulated sugar will work
  • Spinach leaves: Fresh spinach or frozen spinach can be used.
  • Oil: A mild flavoured oil, mild olive oil, rice bran oil work well. You can substitute for melted butter.
  • Orange: Can be substituted for 2-3 mandarins.
  • Banana: Can be substituted for ½ cup apple sauce.

This post was originally created for Countdown Supermarket as a sponsored post. The sponsorship is over but the recipe remains as it's a good one!


How to make Spinach Muffins

Below are illustrated step-by-step instructions to make my Spinach Muffins recipe, if you prefer just the written instructions then head straight to the printable recipe card below. Or check out my quick recipe video.

Prep: Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius or 360 Fahrenheit.

Step one: Pop the dry ingredients  (excluding the raisins) in a large bowl and give them a good whisk to combine, you can use a fork if you don’t have a whisk

Dry ingredients sitting in a glass mixing bowl ready to be combined.
Dry ingredients evenly combined in. glass mixing bowl.

Step two: Add the raisins to the dry ingredients

Step three: Peel the banana and the orange, and core the apple but you can leave the skin on the apple

Spinach leaves, orange and apple in a food processor ready to be blended.

Step four: Pop the fruit, spinach, and the rest of the wet ingredients in a blender or food processor, blitz until you get a nice smooth green smoothie

A green smoothie in a food processor.

Step five: Pour the smoothie into dry ingredients and mix together, mix until just combined

Step six: Portion into a greased muffin tin, I find the mix makes 12 standard-sized muffins. You can also make this recipe in muffin cases.

Spinach muffin batter in a 12 cup muffin tray ready to be baked.

Step Seven: Bake at 180 degrees Celsius until cooked, you should be able to press the top of the muffin and it will spring back.

Cool in the muffin tray for 5-10 minutes, remove from the muffin tray and leave on a cooling rack


Baked spinach muffins in a cream muffin tray cooling on a bench top.

A muffin broken in half to reveal it's inside texture,  raisins visible.

Top Tips

Here is how you can make these spinach muffins perfectly every time!

  • Ditch the sieve, pop the dry ingredients in a bowl and use a whisk to make sure they are well mixed. I find this little time-saving hack works for pretty much every muffin recipe.
  • Use your food processor, or blender to whip up a green spinach smoothie, this is what you are going to add to the muffins to give them a good boost of vegetables and fruit.
  • Freeze them; Pop the spinach muffins in an airtight container and freeze them. This makes lunch box packing so fast, pop them in frozen and they will be defrosted ready for the kids at school
Four muffins in an airtight container next to a stainless steel lunch box packed with a muffin, crackers and fruit.

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Two spinach muffins stacked on top of each other infront of a large glass jar of flour.

If you made my Spinach Muffins Recipe  or any other recipes on the blog please :

  • leave me a comment and a star rating below to let me know how you got on, I love hearing from you.
  •  FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK,  INSTAGRAM,  PINTEREST to see more kid-friendly food and what I’m getting up to.

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A lunchbox packed with a green muffin, cracker bread and apricots.
Green spinach muffins on crinkled baking paper scattered eith raisins and spinach leaves.

Spinach Muffins - Kid Approved

Healthy spinach muffins are perfect for the lunchbox, These blender muffins are like a green smoothie in muffin form. Loaded with vegetables and fruit
Print Pin Rate
Course: Baking
Cuisine: New Zealand
Keyword: Blender Muffins, Green Smoothie Muffins, healthy muffins for kids, Lunchbox Idea, Spinach muffins
Servings: 12 Muffins
Calories: 219kcal
Author: Stacey

RATE THIS RECIPE

4.56 from 131 votes

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1 cup wholemeal flour
  • 65 grams sugar one-third of a cup
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 cup raisins

Wet

  • 1 medium banana
  • 1 orange
  • 1 apple
  • ¼ cup mild flavoured oil
  • 3 good handfuls of baby spinach leaves almost 3 cups, approx 60g
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

  • Pop the dry ingredients  (excluding the raisins) in a large bowl and give them a good whisk to combine, you can use a fork if you don’t have a whisk
  • Add the raisins to the dry ingredients
  • Peel the banana and the orange, core the apple but you can leave the skin on the apple
  • Pop the fruit, spinach, and the rest of the wet ingredients in a blender or food processor, blitz until you get a nice smooth green smoothie
  • Pour the smoothie into dry ingredients and mix together, mix until just combined
  • Portion into a greased muffin tin, I find the mix makes 12 standard-sized muffins
  • Bake at 180 degrees Celsius until cooked, you should be able to press the top of the muffin and it will spring back
  • Cool in the muffin tray for 5-10 minutes, remove from the muffin tray and leave on a cooling rack
  • Store in an airtight container for 48 hours
  • Or Freeze for up to 3 months 

Video

Notes

I find a 50:50 mix of plain flour and wholemeal flour gives the best texture, you can make the recipe with all plain flour. If you want to up the wholemeal flour you may need to add a little extra oil, as 100% wholemeal flour makes a drier muffin
I do use sugar in this recipe, my kids found the recipe yum with ? of a cup, with ¼ of a cup they found them fine straight from the oven, but weren’t keen to eat them out of the freezer
I use white sugar, but you can use coconut sugar if you prefer
You can substitute the oil for melted butter. I find a mild olive oil or coconut oil work well as the oil. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is too strong

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 219kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 47mg | Sodium: 176mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 17g

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7 Comments

      1. I was about to comment the same thing - my little one can't have apple either, so i'd sub in pear puree, but how much should I use, I'm not sure what the equivalent of one banana is - would it be a whole puree pouch (120ml)? Thanks!

          1. Oh sorry, I'll try to fix, on some browsers the ? symbol doesn't work. It should be ? of a cup

  1. Is there an alternative to this recipe that means it has no banana please? Desperate for banana free kid friendly muffins ?