Here’s a healthy delicious recipe for Banana Bread that makes good use of your sourdough starter (or discard) and is VEGAN! It’s moist and flavorful, fresh ginger and sesame seeds give it a unique twist!
I have a confession. I think this may be the first banana bread I’ve ever made! It’s my friend Tonia’s recipe and turned out wonderfully flavorful and moist and makes good use of the sourdough starter (or discard) we both have in our fridge.
If you don’t have sourdough starter, not to worry, just see the recipe notes.
what is sourdough starter/discard?
Sourdough Starter is often referred to as “wild yeast”, made from flour and water and the wild yeast in the air around us,and it is typically used as the “yeast” when baking Sourdough Bread. The sourdough “discard” – the part of the starter that often goes to waste- can be used to make flavorful biscuits, waffles and pancakes.
what can you do with sourdough discard?
- Make Sourdough Pancakes!
- Make Sourdough Biscuits
- Make Sourdough Buns!
- Make Sourdough Tortillas!
- Make Sourdough Scones!
What I love about this Banana Bread recipe is the beautiful Sesame Seed Crust.
To make the crust, oil a loaf and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Make the banana bread vegan if you like by adding “flax eggs”. Here we used ground flax seeds and water.
Use 3/4 of a cup of sour dough starter.
And 1 cup of ripe, mashed bananas.
Fresh grated ginger gives the Banana Bread and nice flavor- feel free to add a little more for extra punch.
Mix it all together into a thick batter. Feel free to add nuts if you like.
My husband likes walnuts but do as you please.
To create a pretty top, split a banana (less ripe is better here) and sprinkle with brown sugar or coconut sugar.
And bake in a 350F oven for 50-55 minutes.
Remove the Banana Bread from the pan and behold the lovely crust!
Make the Maple Tahini Sauce for drizzling. It is seriously good.
Slice up the banana bread, toast it if you like and drizzle on the sauce.
Whether you have sourdough starter to use up or not, we think you’ll love this Vegan Banana Bread!
Happy Baking!
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Healthy Vegan Banana Bread
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 55
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 8
- Category: vegan, bread, baked, quick bread
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Banana bread is not only healthy and vegan, it can be made with sourdough starter or discard! Infused with ginger, spices and crusted with sesame seeds it is flavorful and moist.
Ingredients
Flax eggs (optional, or sub 2 large eggs)
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
- 1/3 cup water
Loaf Pan Prep: (optional, or sub parchment)
- 1 teaspoon oil – avocado oil, olive oil , grapeseed oil, etc.
- 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup (3–4 bananas) ripe banana, mashed
- ¼ cup oil, (avocado oil, olive oil, grapeseed oil or other )
- ¾ cup sourdough starter discard (or see notes for substitution)
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup coconut sugar, (or brown sugar)
- 1 tablespoon ginger root, freshly grated (or 1 teaspoon ground ginger)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 cups (250 grams) flour, all-purpose
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
Optional tasty additions: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or other nuts), 1 banana (for the top, not too ripe) and brown sugar for sprinkling, 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
Tahini Maple Spread (optional)
- 2 tablespoons Tahini Paste
- 2 tablespoons Coconut Oil, softened but not melted or liquid
- 1 tablespoon Maple Syrup
- pinch of sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Make the Flax Eggs: Mix the flax seeds and water in a small bowl, set aside.
- Prep Loaf Pan: Oil a 9 x 5 loaf pan with the teaspoon of oil. Sprinkle sesame seeds in pan on top of the oil, shake pan around so they are coating the bottom and sides fairly evenly. Set pan aside.
- WET: In a large bowl, whisk mashed banana, oil, sourdough starter (see notes) , maple syrup, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and flax mixture together until well blended.
- DRY: In a small bowl mix flour, salt, baking powder & baking soda
- Combine: Add flour mixture to wet and stir to just combined. Pour into the prepared pan ( see notes for adding whole banana slices to the top) and place on a middle rack in a preheated oven.
- Bake on the middle rack at 350F for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 20 minutes. Carefully turn out onto a cooling rack.
- Toast slices of day old banana bread and lavishly spread with Tahini Maple Spread (optional, but heavenly)
Tahini Maple Spread:
- Mix all ingredients together in small bowl until smooth and creamy.
Notes
Feel free to use 2 real eggs instead of flax eggs.
Feel free to use 3/4 cups more mashed banana instead of sourdough starter, plus 1 addional teaspoon baking powder.
Feel free to add nuts, seeds, chocolate chips or nibs to the batter.
To add sliced banana to the top, cut an unpeeled banana in half lengthwise (not too ripe) remove peel and nestle in the batter. Sprinkle with brown sugar.
Keywords: Vegan Banana bread, healthy banana bread, sourdough banana bread, sourdough discard recipes, vegan banana bread recipes,
hello! can i ask if i can use whole wheat flour or oat flour? and how should I make the adjustments? thank you 🙂
Yes, they both sound great. Maybe 1/2 of each? The key is to weigh the flour as wheat is heavier than white flour. The weight measurement will be the same as stated in the recipe.
Yum! I made half the recipe with all purpose flour and the other with almond flour… both turned out great! Equal amounts of flour in both recipes.
The all purpose flour made it have a denser, bouncy consistency while the almond flour left it more moist. I would maybe recommend keeping it in the oven for another minute or two if you use almond flour.
Thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
Oh cool! Thanks for sharing!
Hi. Can ibmake this without baking powder and baking soda?
No, I think it needs both in this case.
Just made this banana bread. Fantastic! It turned out really well and tastes great. Used our own eggs as we have a chicken who is treated like one of the family so we feel we can eat her eggs. Also made the sourdough bread, second one was much better than the first and have a 3rd on the way at the moment. Thanks very much for your recipes. Sheena from Marbella Spain.
★★★★★
A returning success in our home! The fresh ginger gives a nice sharp kick. My favorite way of using sourdough discard! I use less sugar when my bananas are really ripe. And always keep some slices in the freezer for an excellent work lunch. Thank you so much for this recipe, Sylvia!
★★★★★
This recipe is quite good. I live at 7,500 ft altitude so it took about 65-70 minutes to bake (next time I’ll add flour).
Question: Can the bread be sliced and frozen? Will it taste as good?
★★★★★
It is always best fresh, but I’m guessing it should hold up fine sliced and forzen as long as you seal it well. 🙂
Amazing bread! I Was intrigued by the ginger. I would probably add a touch more next time. Didn’t have all spice, so I used nutmeg which worked fine. Topped with enjoy life Chocolate chips and banana. Loved the tahini sauce! Truly decadent. Overall 10/10 🙂
★★★★★
So happy you liked this!
Wonderful bread! Probably the best banana bread I have tasted!
I followed the recipe to the letter except for the bananas on top (next time!). I felt really good using my sourdough discard (my very first time!). I added some freshly toasted walnuts.
The loaf is moist, not too sweet. The sesame seeds make it very elegant looking and add to the flavour.
Sylvia, thank you for all the beautiful recipes you create and all the tips you share. You are truly inspiring!
★★★★★
Glad this worked for you!!!
Wonderful I left out the oil and used 1/2 cup banana!
Thanks for your great recipes!
★★★★★
This loaf is delicious! I didn’t have sour dough discard so I also made the vegan version. I am going to try it again with chopped dates (in addition to walnuts) and leave out the brown sugar just to experiment…but either way, I know it will be good! I couldn’t believe how moist and tasty it turned out even though it is vegan (this is a far cry from another vegan banana bread recipe I found on Google a couple of months ago that was so dry it crumbled when I put a fork into it lol)! From that experience, I was tempted to conclude that delicious vegan banana bread must not be possible…so thank you for sharing this, Sylvia!!
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed and thanks to my friend Tonia! She created the recipe.
This is now my favorite Banana Bread recipe ! Great use for sourdough discard and a beautiful loaf when it comes out of the oven. I love making it for friends and enjoy watching their reaction when they first set eyes on this beauty. ; )
Will almond flour work with this loaf?
★★★★★
Thanks Debbie so happy you are enjoying it! Not sure about almond flour? If you try it, will you let us know?
This was so comforting and I love the use of sourdough discard and flax egg. I’m not sure why, my crust came out kinda tough, any ideas? thank you for your amazing recipes Sylvia!! xx
Did you use convection by chance?
yes I did!
yes, my oven is convection!
This was an awesome recipe, Sylvia!
I did NOT have the energy to do sourdough, so I followed your vegan option instructions…
also, I only had whole wheat flour and 3 ripe bananas, so I added another 1/4 cup of oil (1/2 cup total) and added an additional full teaspoon of baking soda as per your instructions.
The loaf came out beautiful and yummy.
Great to hear Jennifer- thanks so much for the info- super helpful!
I just made this and it is so delicious. I wasn’t going to make the Tahini Maple spread but decided to give it a try. What a yummy topping! Between the sourdough bread and now this, I’m likely to gain a few pounds but that’s okay. Completely worth it.
Haha! I know – I love the spread- soooooo tasty!
Our multi-generational family LOVED this! Great use of sourdough 🙂
Trying it today but not until I’ve had a buttered slice of the sourdough bread that just came out of the oven. I love your recipes! Thanks so much.
This sourdough banana bread was out of this world! My family ate the whole loaf and there are only four of us! So good!!
★★★★★
Yay Josie! We devoured it too!
So good, and the Tahini Maple Spread this is a must-try for people who love that perfect balance of salty and sweet.
★★★★★
I know- it’s pretty tasty!
Very nice Banana Bread recipe! Made for an amazing breakfast this morning. As well perfect to use my sourdough discard, as I hate to waste food.
Skipped the Tahini Maple Souce as we are trying to cut on the sugars while locked at home. The bread itself was perfect not too sweet, just the right amount.
Thank you!
★★★★★
Perfect, I’m so glad you liked it.
This turned out very good. Added walnuts which is expected in my family and everyone raved. Great use of my sourdough discard.
★★★★★