Vegan Summer Squash Bread Perfection!
This always happens when I go to the farmer’s market… I have two or three things in mind that I need to get, but I end up buying fresh, local produce until either my backpack is full or my wallet is empty. So, this week I ended up with some delicious yellow summer squash that I needed to use up. I thought, if carrot cake is classic and zucchini bread is divine, why not give squash bread a go? And why not make it vegan while I’m at it? Here’s what I came up with:
(Due to the amount of squash I had on hand, I made enough batter for six muffins and one large loaf, but the recipe can easily be halved for a single medium-sized loaf, in which case you’d just want to bake it at 350 deg. for 55-60 minutes.)
Dry ingredients:
- 3 c. all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. salt
Wet Ingredients:
- 2 c. coarsely grated summer squash
- 2 c. raw cane sugar
- 1/4 c. canola oil
- 1/4 c. olive oil
- 2 tbsp. honey
- 1 over-ripe banana, mashed
- 1 carrot, finely grated
- zest of 1 lime
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, make a well in the center, and set aside. Mix wet ingredients in a separate large mixing bowl. Add wet mixture to dry mixture all at once and stir just until moistened. If desired, fold in 1 cup chopped pecans. Fill six paper-lined muffin tins level with top of pan. Pour remaining batter into a greased 8x4x2 loaf pan. Bake loaf and muffins for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center of a muffin comes out clean. After removing muffins, lower oven temp. to 350 deg. and bake loaf for another 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 min. in pan on a rack, then remove from pan to cool completely. Now, sit back and enjoy Vegan Summer Squash Bread Perfection!
rain rain go away 
stephen said,
August 28, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Mmmmmm. Can’t wait to eat it.
Shannon said,
July 27, 2009 at 4:24 pm
“Mmmmm” is right, Stephen. I just bit into my first muffin. This recipe yields decadently moist yet light results. Easily my new favorite vegan comfort food. Thank you!
Clare said,
July 29, 2009 at 11:57 pm
This was a beautiful recipe!
I tweaked this recipe a bit, and made it x 3, as I had about 6 c grated squash. I used zucchini and a little bit of yellow squash. Instead of all that cane sugar, I used about 1/3 the sugar and then substituted the rest with honey and maple sugar. That made it unnecessary to add the tbsp.s of honey later on as well. I skipped the carrot and the banana and added a little extra canola oil. It came out perfect! Kind of cake-y because of all the flour, but I really liked it! I thought it might be delicious to add some raisins in next time.
Thanks for this fantastic vegan recipe!
–Vegan in Louisville, Kentucky
vegan said,
September 4, 2009 at 2:17 am
Honey isn’t vegan…
kelseywood said,
November 7, 2009 at 4:48 pm
While that may be true, no meat or dairy products is vegan enough for my liking. The recipe calls for so little honey that replacing it with sugar or simply leaving it out won’t really detract from the flavor.
Cheri Gail said,
April 18, 2011 at 5:05 am
Just made these using organic blue agave sweetener in place of honey, YUM! I pureed the squash because I have a toddler. Also, my older child doesn’t like too much texture.
Skipped the banana, carrot and zest of lime as the goal was to disguise the squash so they would eat it. Made mini muffins for the kids (9 minutes at 375) and pecan for grown ups (12-15 minutes depending on size of muffin tin). Thanks for the recipe!
How to Cool Off « Driftless Summer said,
August 2, 2011 at 1:45 am
[…] Also, this process won’t actually cool you down, regardless of what the title of this post indicates. It’s actually a pretty hot process (but you’ll thank yourself come February when you’re chowing down on summer squash cake!). […]
Ash said,
September 8, 2011 at 12:51 am
I like to make muffins the night before our local farmer’s market so that my son and I can have a walking breakfast the next morning while we shop. I was curious if there was a muffin recipe that used yellow squash instead of zucchini, since that’s what we currently have in abundance in the garden, and this worked out great. We’re not vegan, but we are dairy- and egg-free, so the honey didn’t bother us (actually, we use a lot of it).
As a general rule, I follow recipes precisely the first time, but this was a last-minute sort of thing and I adapted the recipe to what I had on hand. I used 2 c. unbleached AP flour and 1 c. white whole wheat. I used regular white sugar, all regular olive oil (not virgin), skipped the lime, grated in about a small apple’s worth of slices left over from lunch, added 2 tbsp. flax seed gelled with 4 tbsp. water, and left out the banana because I used all of ours in banana bread a couple days ago. I baked 12 regular muffins and 20 mini-muffins. That’s a LOT of changes for my recipe-following brain to handle, and I was worried that they would be a disaster, but they came out really good! I’m going to play with reducing the sugar and slightly reducing the nutmeg, but I was quite happy. My 22-month-old has been dancing around the kitchen begging for more for the last half hour, so I call it a success. Thanks for the recipe!
kelseywood said,
November 9, 2011 at 6:54 pm
So glad it worked out and the little one approved!
cantrollerskate said,
July 16, 2012 at 7:44 pm
Made this yesterday and it’s a hit with vegans and non-vegans a like. I used a mix of zucchini and squash but otherwise followed the recipe.Thanks for a great new recipe!