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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Deb says
Just about to make these and I’m out of coconut flour😳. Is there an alternative that I can use? Thanks!
Stacie Hassing says
Hi Deb. Sorry, but there is not an alternative to coconut flour in this recipe. At least we haven’t tested it with any other flour. Coconut flour is a hard flour to substitute because of the way it absorbs liquid.
Danielle Brandt says
My son is allergic to nuts /treenuts and egg. Was going to use chia seed for the egg but what could I use for the almond flour?
Stacie Hassing says
We have not tested this recipe without almond flour or eggs. For the almond flour you could sub protein powder of your choice, flax meal, cassava flour or a gluten-free flour of choice. I’m not sure how the egg sub will work so if you give it a try, I’d love to hear how it turns out. I do however know that our Gluten-free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins as well as Gluten-free Pumpkin (or Sweet Potato) Muffins can be made egg-free and nut free. Here are the recipes: https://therealfooddietitians.com/gluten-free-pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins/ and https://therealfooddietitians.com/gluten-free-banana-chocolate-chip-muffins/
Colleen says
I used flax egg and it worked well!
Lake Girl says
Wow – can’t wait to finish my Whole30 so I can try these!
Stacie Hassing says
They’re so good! Happy Whole30 🙂
Rae says
Hi,
My muffins came out dry, and didn’t look anything like the pictures. The batter was very thick, and I even double checked the ingredients. I was reading the reviews and saw that you mentioned oil, which IS NOT listed in the ingredient list. I’m willing to try again but was very disappointed, as everything on your website that I have tried so far, has been delicious…
Stacie Hassing says
So sorry these didn’t turn out for you as you expected. It’s a recipe I make often and mine always turn out more on the moist side. A couple of things that could have happened 1) different brands of coconut flour can produce different outcomes. I use Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur. 2) The consistency of almond butter tends to be different from brand to brand. I use one that is more on the runny side. Again, I apologize that these didn’t come out the way that you had hoped and that it made you so disappointed!
Rae says
I will attempt making them again. Thanks so much for the tips!
Katelyn says
Have you ever tried making this recipe in a loaf pan? How long would you cook it for as a loaf?
Jessica Beacom says
We haven’t tried making this in a loaf pan. Our guess is that it will take about 45-50 minutes to bake.