These skinny pumpkin quinoa muffins are made without any oils, eggs, dairy or gluten. Plus, they're naturally sweetened and seriously delicious!
Oh how I adore breakfast. It's my favorite meal of the day and allows for so much creativity. I love being able to whip up a filling smoothie, or a creamy bowl of quinoa flakes, or crunchy homemade granola. There are so many options and directions you can take, it makes the experience fun, and (most of the time) delicious.
Breakfast to me needs to have three components: fast, easy, healthy.
Even though I work from home and run my own business, mornings are still hectic and I don't have the patience to cook an incredibly elaborate breakfast for myself. So…fast and easy is key.
Healthy is something that happens at every meal, but in particular, at breakfast. I like to make sure that my breakfasts are balanced – a good blend of fats, carbs and proteins – and incorporate fruits and veggies.
If you follow me on Instagram, then you've probably seen my most recent breakfast obsession: banana ice cream bowls. In like a hundred different flavors. With a bajillion different toppings. (although you'll notice I'm partial to a certain few)
But the weather is getting colder, and we're refraining from turning the heat on for as long as possible, so some mornings our apartment can feel more like an ice box. Banana ice cream isn't what my body wants or craves on days like this.
Instead, I find myself reaching for my quinoa flakes and oats.
Typically, that selection would mean porridge, but not today. Today it means pumpkin quinoa muffins.
These pumpkin quinoa muffins are probably one of the healthiest muffins you'll ever find. There's no oil, very little sugar (and the sugar that is inside is unrefined), no eggs, no dairy, no gluten, no gums and no refined starches.
What they do have? Loads of protein, fiber and tons of pumpkin flavor.
The base of these muffins is a simple blend of homemade oat flour, quinoa flakes and blanched almond flour. This combo makes them super moist and tender.
From there, the sweeteners: banana, coconut sugar and pure maple syrup. Then it's just organic pumpkin, a flax egg, a dash of plant-based milk and some spices.
I'm telling you, you're going to be head over heels for these muffins once you try them.
What's so great about muffins is that they're not only a really nourishing and hearty breakfast, but they're also super portable. You can toss one (or two!) in your bag on your way out the door, with a little packet or container of nut butter, and still have a healthy breakfast.
And if you have access to a toaster oven at your office, these are delicious slightly reheated.
Luckily for me, Matt's not a big muffin fan, so these babies have been my breakfast and snack all week long. I just had one again this morning (smothered in homemade pecan butter and hemp seeds) and mmmm it was the best way to start the day!
More Delicious Quinoa Muffin Recipes to try:
- Chocolate Chip Zucchini Quinoa Muffins
- Skinny Spiced Coconut Yogurt Quinoa Muffins
- Chai Spiced Oat & Quinoa Flour Muffins
- Skinny Banana Chocolate Chip Quinoa Muffins
Skinny Pumpkin Quinoa Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup mashed banana 1 large, 2 small
- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 1/4 cup oat flour oats ground in a blender
- 1/2 cup quinoa flakes
- 1/2 cup blanched almond flour
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean powder or 1 teaspoon extract
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin and set aside.
- Combine the flax and water and set aside to gel while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients (minus vanilla extract if using) in a large mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl, beat together banana, pumpkin, milk and syrup. Whisk in flax egg and pour wet ingredients into dry. Stir to thoroughly combine (the batter will be kind of thick, but still stirable and soft).
- Fill each cup 3/4 of the way full. Add water to the ones that are unused. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with pumpkin seeds and quinoa flakes if desired.
- Bake on the center rack for 23 - 25 minutes until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. If desired, reheat in the toaster oven or in the microwave.
Made these as a healthy snack/lunch side for my kids and they loved them. I may have eaten about half of them before my kids got a chance as well..
Haha so glad you’re *all* enjoying them!
These look really delicious! I would love to make them. Unfortunately I am very sensitive to all cereal grains and can’t eat oats (quinoa and buckwheat are fine).
Would you have a suggestion for a replacement flour I could use instead of the oats?
Have you tried coconut or almond flour?
I made these pumpkin muffins last week. Thank you so much. These are absolutely delicious!!!
So happy you enjoyed them, Elizabeth!
These were VERY good! Question: How did you get the pumpkins seeds to stick on the top?
So glad you liked them! Just kind of press the seeds into the batter before baking and they should stick 🙂
Hi Alyssa
i love the look of Pumpkin and Quinoa muffins. Unfortunately I cannot have sugar in any form so no maple syrup or coconut sugar for me, The banana and pumpkin would make this sweet enough for me. Would the recipe work without the two. It is so difficult to find suitable recipes. Many thanks. Gail.
Hi Gail – I think you could try it! I would say substitute the syrup for banana, then divide the sugar in half and use that amount of banana or pumpkin. You might want to also add a bit more oats!
The recipe says 1 1/4 Oat flour oats. If I already have oat flour, how much do I use? I’m assuming that oat flour oats means to grind your own oats into oat flour.
It should be about 1 cup!
If I don’t have quinoa flakes, can I use regular quinoa?
You can use quick cooking oats 🙂
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These look incredible! It is so difficult to find a truly healthy muffin recipe so thank you! I was wondering if you could recommend a substitute for the banana. Unfortunately, my daughter is allergic and I am on the hunt for a nutritious banana-free pumpkin muffin recipe for her.
Applesauce should work!!
I don’t have coconut sugar. Could I use something else instead? More maple syrup or honey?
Another granulated sugar will work! Unfortunately, I haven’t tested with a liquid sweetener so I’m not 100% sure how it will turn out. If you do end up trying that, the general rule of thumb is 1/2 the amount of liquid sweetener. Let me know!
Looks good! Would I be able to use chia seed meal instead of flax?
I haven’t tested it that way, but I don’t see why not!!
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Hello,
I would love to prepare these muffins tomorrow morning, but I’m out of pumpkin… Could I use some carrots?
If they were cooked and pureed! You could also use some applesauce, banana or sweet potato!
Hi, I don’t have muffin pans, but still want to make these. Could I do it as a loaf/cake/casserole style? Do you know how I could go about changing the cooking method for that?
Thanks!!
I think so, yes! I’d say that you’ll need at least double the baking time to get it to cook all the way through 🙂
Can you use quinoa flour instead of flakes? I have a whole bag but not sure how to use it with gluten free flours. I have dairy, egg, wheat, garlic, apple, strawberries, peaches, pork, peanuts,paprika, so it has been very challenging to find recipes. I have questions about some of yours. They all sound wonderful but I can’t make many ,esp.muffins, breads. I did make your eggplant lasagna which I loved. It was wonderful.
I haven’t tested it with quinoa flour – sorry! I do have a lot of quinoa flour recipes on the site though 🙂 Just search “quinoa flour” and you should get LOTS of inspiration!
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Alyssa congrats for your great web page. I love all of it. Please confirm if the skinny pumpkin aún us muffins use eggs on it. The list of ingredients don’t include them but you mention to put eggs on it on the preparation Paragraph
Thanks
They’re actually flaxseed eggs 🙂
can i use quinoa fluor instead of the oats … it is really difficult or almost imposible to find GF oatsss
I haven’t tried it, honestly, but I think it’s worth a test!
Alyssa, I love your recipes but I am allergic to bananas, what can I sub it for? I assume if you omit it will be dry? Maybe a type of oil? Or any other vegetable/fruit?
You could try applesauce, but I haven’t used that myself! Or maybe sweet potato puree?
Looks like a great recipe. What do you think would be the best substitute for the almond flour would be? Thanks!
I’m honestly not sure since almond flour as such a particular texture. You could try more oat, but you’d have to play around with the other ingredients/proportions!
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I dint have quinoa flakes…could I sum in cooked quinoa?
I haven’t tried with cooked quinoa, but I think the best thing would be to swap in quick cooking oats if you can use those. If not, another flaked grain would be good 🙂
I was wondering the same thing…I’ll experiment and try cooked quinoa 🙂 I have a friend that makes chocolate cupcakes with cooked quinoa and they’re so yummy and moist!
Let me know how it works for you! xo
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do you have the nutritional value posted anywhere for your pumpkin quinoa muffins? my husband and I truly love your recipe but would like to know the calories as well as the rest of the nutritional content. Thanks so much!
Hi there! I actually don’t have the nutrition info for this recipe, but here is a great website where you can just copy and paste in the ingredients to find it out 🙂
https://www.caloriecount.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
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hey i love quinoa so much! my girlfriend made filled tomatoes with it. i really loved it.
if your interested in the recipe:
http://cocolovin.weebly.com
So….if I’d want to try to make this totally grain free, do you think substituting almond for the oat would work? And if so, would you think one for one sub? Or what about coconut flour? I know THAT wouldn’t be a one fir one.