Leftover sweet potatoes and ripe bananas come together to create these healthy Grain-Free Sweet Potato Banana Nut Muffins.
Sweet Potato Banana Nut Muffins aren’t just any ol’ muffin!
I love all kinds of freshly baked muffins. I’m not too picky about the flavor, I just love sinking my teeth in a freshly baked warm muffin slathered with butter. Are you with me?
In fact, back in my college days, I worked at Perkins and any broken/deformed muffins (and other baked goods) were fair game. I definitely had to use my willpower not to go too crazy with the baked goods, otherwise, I’d end up with a carb crash and stomach ache city. While I do love me a good mammoth muffin from Perkins every once in a while (yes, the whole thing), I also know that they’re made with way too much sugar, white flour, and really no beneficial nutrition provided. Bummer, I know!
But I’m here to save the day with the solution to this muffin dilemma. While these Sweet Potato Banana Nut Muffins may not be as mammoth as Perkins muffins, they’re MUCH more nutritious, have about an ⅛ of the amount of sugar (and not the white stuff), made with only whole food ingredients, high in fiber and also include an option to boost the protein with your favorite protein powder. In addition, they’re gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, and paleo-friendly.
By adding a little protein powder to this muffin recipe it helps to balance out the nutrition and provide an adequate source of carbs, protein (10 g) and healthy fats. This results in better fuel for your body and a longer-lasting source of energy. If you don’t have protein powder on hand, no worries. While I recommend it, I’m all about sharing simple substitutions so feel free to substitute almond flour in its place.
Enjoy Sweet Potato Banana Nut Muffins for breakfast, as an afternoon or post-workout snack, or a tasty lunchbox addition that kids will love.
I love that these muffins not only provide a good source of quality protein but also great nutrition thanks to the sweet potatoes, banana, and walnuts. In addition to the ingredients called for in this recipe, feel free to add additional flavor with coconut flakes, dried cherries or cranberries, raisins, mini chocolate chips or change up the chopped nuts with pecans or almonds.
You can enjoy the muffins as is or top them with some banana slices and slather them with a little butter, almond butter OR…
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Drizzle ’em with coconut butter! So good.
To drizzle with coconut butter, melt the coconut butter until drizzle consistency. If tackling this task in the microwave, microwave in 30-second increments until drizzle consistency is achieved. You can also melt the coconut butter on a stovetop. What’s nice about topping baked goods with coconut butter is that it’s low in sugar, hardens nicely, tastes delicious and a little goes a long way.
Fun fact: Coconut butter is simply a spread made from the meat of the coconut. To make your own coconut butter you can process unsweetened coconut flakes in a food processor until a butter is formed.
Sweet Potato Banana Nut Muffins are freezer-friendly too.
It’s always nice to stock the freezer with a few re-heatable items – and muffins are great for that. Simply remove from the freezer, pop in the microwave for 30-60 seconds or in the oven set at 300ºF until heated through.
Are you ready to sink your teeth into these Sweet Potato Banana Nut Muffins?!
EnJoY!
Sweet Potato Banana Nut Muffins
Leftover sweet potatoes and ripe bananas come together to create these perfectly textured, high-protein, Paleo-friendly, Grain-Free Sweet Potato Banana Nut Muffins.
Ingredients
- ½ cup cooked sweet potato puree
- 1 banana, mashed (~⅓ cup)
- ⅓ cup almond butter, room temperature (may substitute any nut or seed butter of choice)
- 3 whole eggs
- 3 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup coconut flour
- ⅓ cup almond flour (may sub with protein powder)
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt (decrease to ¼ tsp. if nut butter contains salt)
- ⅓ cup walnuts, chopped
- ½ cup optional add-ins – chocolate chips, dried cranberries, dried cherries, raisins, or coconut flakes.
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or grease with oil.
- In a bowl, combine sweet potato, banana and almond butter; stir until smooth.
- Next add the whole eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla; stir until smooth.
- Lastly mix in the coconut flour, almond flour, ground cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and walnuts.
- Divide the batter evenly, filling each of the 12 muffin wells about half full.
- Bake for 16-18 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before transferring to wire rack.
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Nutrition Information
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 130
- Fat: 8 g
- Sodium: 210 mg
- Carbohydrate: 12 g
- (Fiber: 3 g
- Sugar: 7 g)
- Protein: 5 g
Dietary
We’d love to hear if you give this recipe a try – comment below!
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Photo Credit: The photos in this blog post were taken by Jess of Plays Well with Butter.
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Meagan says
Love these! So delicious and the whole family enjoys. But when I make them I feel like they are very oily, the bottom and cupcake tin are almost “wet”. Any suggestions? 🙂
Jessica Beacom says
Hi Meagan,
Part of the wetness is due to the high moisture content of the ripe bananas. You could try decreasing the amount of oil called for in the recipe to see if that give you more satisfactory results (note: we haven’t tested this, only making a guess here).
Also, be sure not to leave the muffins in the tin for more than 5-10 minutes after removing them from the oven. Allowing them to rest in the pan too long will cause them to ‘sweat’ and thus be wet on the bottoms.
Michelle Emme says
I have one celiac daughter, another with tree nut allergies and the other is a vegetarian. Is there a way to sub 1:1 gluten free flour for the almond/coconut flour? I would assume I’ll need to compensate for the drier flour by adding more moisture if so? Thanks for your suggestions!
Stacie Hassing says
Hi there! This recipe has not been tested with 1:1 gluten-free flour. However, we do have a similar recipe that I think you would like. https://therealfooddietitians.com/gluten-free-pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins/ These muffins are made with 1:1 gluten-free flour and you can sub the pumpkin for sweet potatoes in this recipe if you’d like. Hope you enjoy!
Emily Wolf says
Hi! First off, thank you for all the wonderful recipes on this site – it is one of my go-to’s anytime I’m looking for a recipe 🙂 Second, how much and when do you add the protein powder? I saw you mentioned it in the post, but I didn’t see it in the recipe. Really looking forward to making these!
Stacie Hassing says
Hi Emily! You can replace the 1/3 cup almond flour with protein powder. I updated the recipe to include that 🙂
Sandra says
Simple, quick and delicious
Definitely a keeper
Should have doubled the recipe 😁
Mixed everything up in my kitchen aid
Just started following you and I am loving what I see
Can’t wait to make many more recipes
Stacie Hassing says
Awesome! So happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for sharing your feedback and for following us.
Chris Behr says
Made these muffins and they were the BEST! Thanks for a nice treat that’s healthy as well.
Stacie Hassing says
Awesome! And you are so welcome!