These delicious healthy chocolate muffins are low in added sugar, vegan, great for kids and have a secret ingredient in the form of kale. Perfect for lunch boxes and snacks.
This is one of my favourite hidden vegetable recipes – healthy chocolate muffins that contain kale. Do your kids eat kale? I’m forever seeing photos of children on instagram eating kale chips – well let me tell you that they are NOT my kids! I can sometimes get them to eat kale pesto, particularly if I put it in puff pastry, or kale crisps but straight up kale is definitely not popular!
These chocolate muffins were a resounding success though. Are you thinking that it’s a bit weird to hide kale in a muffin? Well you could be right. However, my kids love muffins and sweet treats and I am much happier to let them eat them if I know that they contain plenty of goodness and nutritional value. These muffins contain kale and banana, which is more than I can say for your average chocolate muffin! The kids love them, I know they’re not too unhealthy – everyone’s happy!
I decorated some of these muffins with naturally coloured buttercream. This vibrant colour was made with spirulina and my kids loved them – the toddler licked all the icing off first of course.
Read more about my experiments with natural food colourings.
What makes these vegan chocolate muffins healthy?
I like to make these muffins with wholemeal plain flour, which makes them a bit more wholesome. Rather than using refined caster sugar these healthy chocolate muffins are sweetened with banana and maple syrup. You can substitute another type of syrup if you prefer eg agave. Plus of course they contain a little bit of kale. This doesn’t affect the texture or flavour at all – it just adds some valuable nutrients to this chocolatey treat.
More muffin recipes
If you like this you might like my courgette (zucchini) chocolate muffins, these chocolate and spinach cupcakes or these healthy gingerbread muffins with cashew frosting.
Did you know that I also have a vegan food blog, Cook Veggielicious? I’d love it if you paid me a visit over there.
See all my kid-friendly muffin recipes in one place.
Pin healthy chocolate muffins with sneaky kale for later
Here’s how to make healthy chocolate muffins with sneaky kale:
These healthy chocolate muffins are really easy to make. You don’t need any special equipment but if you have a food processor you’ll be able to shred the kale much finer.
Healthy chocolate muffins with sneaky kale
Ingredients
- 160 g plain or wholemeal flour
- 40 g raw cacao powder or cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 50 ml sunflower oil
- 100 ml maple syrup
- 2 medium ripe bananas mashed
- 60 ml milk I used oat milk
- 50 g very finely shredded kale remove the thick stem first, process in a food processor to get very fine
Instructions
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Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (fan)/200°C/gas mark 6.
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Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cases.
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Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together and set aside.
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Mix the oil and maple syrup together. Stir in the bananas, the milk and finally the kale, beating a little after each addition.
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Finally fold the wet mixture into the flour and chocolate mixture. Be careful not to overmix.
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Fill each muffin case to 2/3 full with the mixture.
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Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
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Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
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I think these taste better the second day.
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