These Savoury Cheese Zucchini Muffins make a great healthy lunchbox meal for your kids or savoury snack and breakfast. Packed with hidden veggies, these cheese muffins will also make a great appetiser at your next party!
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Why we love this recipe
I don't often bake with veggies, but if there is one exception, it is Zucchini. I have been making savory Healthy Zucchini Muffins for years and always find it to be as much of a delicious treat as Chocolate Zucchini Muffins.
Not only they are super easy to make, they are also great to get your kids to eat more veggies... Just like my Cheese and Spinach Muffins, these hidden vegetable muffins are packed with yummy and healthy ingredients, and are perfect as:
- a snack
- an appetiser for a party
- in a lunch box for work or school
- for brunch / morning tea
- to bring to a potluck or picnic
Ingredients
If you are like me, slightly addicted to un-healthy snacks (hello there, bag of chips!), these little Cheese Zucchini Muffins are a great healthier alternative.
The main ingredient is obviously the fresh veggie: Zucchini. Using that vegetable in baking is a great way to make super moist savoury muffins.
And because they are packed with that veggie, they are also way lighter than savoury muffins made with flour only.
You will need (scroll down to recipe card for all ingredients):
- Zucchini: grated and very well drained to remove any moisture/water that would make these muffins soggy.
- Goat Cheese: either crumbed or cut into small cubes
- Flour: Plain / All-Purpose
- Baking Powder
- Seasoning: I used a mix of Salt, Cumin Powder, Garlic Powder and Dried Oregano, but you can really flavour these cakes with your preferred seasoning and spices.
- Milk: preferably full cream, but you can absolutely use a Dairy-Free Milk if preferred.
- Eggs: at room temperature
- Olive Oil: try to use a good quality olive oil that doesn't have a very strong flavour.
Optional Ingredient Addition
There are many ways to make these Zucchini Savory Muffins your own. For this recipe, I used one of my favourite cheese to bake with: Goat Cheese.
I have also made similar recipes with Feta Cheese and other grated cheese like Mozzarella, Cheddar or Parmesan and they also turned out great!
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I tend to go for Goat Cheese or Feta cheese because their super fresh flavours work perfectly with the zucchini. Those cheeses are also a great way to bring a salty touch to these lunch muffins.
There are many other ingredients you could choose to add to these savory muffins, in addition to the Zucchini and Goat's Cheese.
Additional Ingredient Ideas:
- Sun-Dried Tomatoes
- Peas
- Pitted Olives
- Smoked Salmon
- Spinach
- Corn
- Carrots
- Bacon
How to make Zucchini Cheese Muffins
The most important step to make these Savoury Muffins is to grate and drain your Zucchini. Draining the grated zucchinis is SUPER important as you don't want extra water to come out of the veggie while the muffins are baking. That would result in super soggy muffins... not thanks!
Make sure to press the grated zucchini through a thin mesh sieve to remove all extra moisture. You can then start to make your savory zucchini muffins:
- Preheat your oven on 180'C/350'F and line your muffin pan with paper liners (or grease it very well if not using paper liners).
- Grate and Drain your Zucchini. Make sure your remove as much water as you can.
- Place all the Dry Ingredients in a Bowl: Flour, Baking Powder, Salt and Spices.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the wet ingredients together: Milk, Eggs and Olive Oil.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl and stir until combined.
- Fold in the Grated Zucchini then the Goat's Cheese Crumbs.
- Scoop the batter in a Muffin Pan and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until puffed and golden. Leave to cool down before removing from the pan.
Recipe FAQs
The full cream milk can be easily swapped for a dairy-free / plant based milk, but you will need to find a good dairy-free cheese alternative to replace the goats cheese.
Absolutely - simply replace the plain / AP flour with Self-Rising Flour (same quantities) and discard the baking powder.
Although always best eaten fresh, these muffins can not kept in the fridge in an air-tight container for up to three days.
Absolutely! It is one of the great thing about this recipe - these savory muffins can be made ahead, frozen then thawed when needed to be put in your kids lunchbox or to serve as an appetiser! They will last for months in the freezer but I recommend eating them within a month for maximum freshness.
To freeze these Muffins, leave them to cool down completely first. Wrap them individually in a layer of plastic wrap and aluminium foil to avoid freeze-burns and place in the freezer.
Alternatively, you can also freeze them in batches in a freezer-friendly container. Make sure to separate each layer with baking paper or foil so that they don't stick together.
When ready to be enjoyed, thaw in the fridge overnight, place in the oven at normal temperature for 5 minutes or in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
More Savoury Bakes Recipes
- Feta Asparagus Quiche
- Semi-Dried Tomato Savoury Madeleines
- Beetroot Tart with Goat's Cheese
- Cheese and Tomato Quiche
- Spinach and Feta Quiche
- Cauliflower Broccoli Muffins from Anotherfoodblogger
- Broccoli and Cheese Mini Muffins from Kidgredient
- Smoked Salmon Quiche
- Spinach and Feta Rolls
- Spanakopita Triangles
Made this recipe?
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Recipe
Zucchini Muffins with Goat Cheese
Ingredients
- 200 gr ( 1 1/3 cup) Plain / All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 teasp Baking Powder
- 1 teasp. Salt
- 1 teasp. Garlic Powder
- 1 teasp. Cumin Powder, optional
- 1 teasp. Dried Oregano, optional
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) Full Cream Milk
- 2 Eggs
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 180 gr (6.5 oz - about 1 cup grated) Grated Zucchini, drained, see note 1
- 100 gr (3.5 oz) Goat Cheese Crumbs
Instructions
- Preheat your oven on 180'C/350'F. Line a Muffin Pan with Liners, or make your own using Baking Paper.
- Finely Grate the Zucchini and place in a sieve to drain. Press the grated zucchini to remove as much of the moisture as possible. Set aside (see note 2)
- Place all the Dry Ingredients in a large bowl: Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, Garlic Powder, Cumin Powder & Dried Oregano.
- In a seperate bowl, whisk the Milk, Eggs and Olive Oil together. Pour the liquid ingredients over the Dry Ingredient and stir until combined.
- Fold in the Drained Grated Zucchini and Goat Cheese Crumbs until evenly incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the muffin liners and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool down on a cooling rack.
- Keep in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze for up to a month.
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Notes
- Make sure it is the right weight of grated zucchini after being drained
- Draining the grated Zucchini is REALLY important as you don't want the natural water of the veggie to come out while the muffins are baking. This would result in super soggy muffins.
