Savory Zucchini Muffins

Easy savory zucchini muffins with cheddar cheese for toddlers are great. Made with bell peppers, corn inside too, you can serve as a side dish or a quick snack throughout the day. A bit like our bacon egg and cheese breakfast bundt cake, these take less time to bake and are easier to grab on the way out of the door.

Cheddar Zucchini Muffins

Have you tried these Costco veggie muffins at this favorite bulk store? Well we did and they were great….but a bit too large, and didn’t last very long. SO it was time to experiment and figure out how to make these homemade right at home.

You can make dairy free if needed or top with cheddar like we did here, which is our favorite of them all. Easy to add other vegetables diced inside the dough but green squash is most common and makes them super moist.

Savory Muffins

NO, muffins aren’t always sweet, for breakfast or dessert. Our cornmeal muffins are a bit but more on the savory end. You can easily use the basic batter and add all sorts of other things into the mix. You just want to choose items that don’t have too much moisture in them so they make the end result mushy.

That brings me to how to shred zucchini the right way, when you’re adding it to baked goods. Yes there is a bit of a trick that you need to do or else you won’t maintain the texture you want, and it will add excess water into the mix.

It just involves a few paper towels. Place the shredded on top of a few and shred on top. Then roll it up and gently press down so all that extra water (you see here) can be absorbed and not added into the batter. You can see how much more would have been included if this hadn’t been done beforehand right?? Then you will need to get out:

Veggie Muffins Ingredients

1. Eggs
2. All purpose flour
3. Greek yogurt, plain
4. Milk
5. Olive oil
6. Baking powder
7. Shredded zucchini
8. Cheddar cheese is optional
9. Salt and pepper if you like
10. Diced bell pepper and frozen corn kernels were added

These three vegetables worked really well together. Frozen worked best so once it was cooked it didn’t get too soft and kept a nice texture. Shredded carrots would be okay too. These are pretty popular, but rather expensive and hard to find. Remember that the smaller you dice your add ins the softer they will get. If you want more texture let them be a bit larger, that aspect is up to y’all.

Since the zucchini is a bit more delicate add that at the end so it doesn’t break all apart when mixing. The cheese is of course optional but a must for us.

If you are ready to try adding some hidden veggies into your kids’ diets this is a great one to try. If yours are apprehensive I’d dice everything quite small, you could even give it a short whirl in a food processor to get them really fine. I personally prefer the texture and so do my girls so I don’t bother.

How to Make Zucchini Muffins with Cheese

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Shred zucchini on paper towels, wrap up and gently press down to remove excess moisture. Dice your bell pepper and set these aside.
• Whisk together eggs and yogurt with olive oil and milk at the end. Fold in 1/2 cup to 1 c shredded cheese into the batter.
• In a separate bowl mix flour with salt and baking powder. Slowly incorporate in with the milk mixture until well combined. Fold in frozen corn, shredded zucchini and bell peppers.
• Add muffin cups into pan or spray with non stick spray. Fill each 3/4 of the way full (sprinkle tops with 1/4 cup shredded cheese if desired now).
• Now bake for 18-22 minutes or until top of veggie muffins springs back when touched gently, or toothpick comes out clean with some crumbs attached.

Remove and place muffins on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before enjoying. Want to try another savory variety? Our pizza muffins are a fun twist as well.

Savory Zucchini Muffins with Bisquick

You would want to follow our savory breakfast muffins recipe if you wanted to use the yellow box to begin with instead of all purpose flour.

Mini muffins

These were “regular sized”. If you want to use the same recipe with carrots and zucchini but want to use mini muffin tins then you’d decrease timing to about 11 min. I have both of these muffin pans and sometimes will make half and half. Picky eater little ones may prefer “ooh so cute” hold in your hand sizes instead. 😉

How do you make good vegetable muffins?

Use what you love. If you like carrots over bell peppers then by all means swap those out. Love yellow over green peppers, then opt for those. Or if you love them all you can use one of each and make it more colorful inside with a variety. Another tip. Try to allow the veggies to reach room temperature before adding.

How to save leftovers

You do not want to refrigerate these or they will dry out. Instead just put into a container with a lid you can keep airtight. Leave on the counter and enjoy within 3 days, 1-2 is even better. I would warm in the microwave for 15 seconds when ready to enjoy again to soften up. To keep longer put into a freezer bag for up to 3 months.

Other easy brunch recipes you’ll love

If you wanted to offer a variety of brunch menu items for your guests I might include our apple sauce cake and Dunkin donut muffins as well.

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