Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins {Paleo, Vegan}

These Paleo chocolate chip zucchini muffins are incredibly easy and deliciously sweet! You wouldn’t even know you’re getting your veggies in! With a vegan option and nut free, these chocolate chip zucchini muffins are fit for anyone!

These Paleo chocolate chip zucchini muffins are about to blow you away! Completely gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free, these healthy zucchini muffins also have a vegan option!

The best part? I’ve taste tested these gluten free chocolate chip zucchini muffins on everyone from the picky healthy eater to the traditional Oreo’s and ice cream lover, and all have approved 🙂 That’s when you know a recipe is good!

But first, I want to talk about why this recipe is “healthy” and then what exactly goes into it, along with a few tips and tricks to making these chocolate chip zucchini muffins the best ever!

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What makes these chocolate chip zucchini muffins healthy?

Well, for starters, I would just like to say that by my standards, everything fits into a healthy diet for me. I don’t associate guilt with food or feelings of “safety” or “cleanliness” with it either.

Now, by other people’s standards, they may see something different that makes these bites considered healthy zucchini muffins. So I’ll explain both! By your standard view point of healthy, these paleo chocolate chip zucchini muffins seriously check out. They are:

Nut free

Vegan

Gluten free

Grain free

Dairy free

Low in sugar and carbohydrates

Get some veggies in!

So, yes, by those standards, these Paleo and vegan chocolate chip zucchini muffins are healthy and don’t rack up a lot of sugar! Plus, they’re allergy friendly, which is something that I always like to include when creating a recipe. But how I like to view food, really all food, is what it’s doing for me.

When I see these muffins, I see that they’re full of really satiating carbohydrates, they’re made from whole foods (which by the way, regular wheat flour is also a whole food!), and most of all, this recipe was created with an intention of love: love for food, for the people consuming this recipe, and love for being able to make food that people enjoy!

So when I place a “judgement” on food (which without my or your judgement, food is just food), I always come back to my last point: whatever I’m eating was made with love, and if it wasn’t, then I can simply set the intention that I’m eating it with love and it changes the whole ball game.

Ya feel?

So let’s get into what makes these gluten free chocolate chip zucchini muffins so delicious, so yummy, and so perfectly fit for you!

Ingredients for these Paleo Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

Sweet Potato: the main ingredient in these healthy zucchini muffins is a big ol’ Japanese sweet potato! The Japanese sweet potatoes are honestly my favorite because they’re sweeter than their orange counterparts and come out amazingly in baked good recipes. I love using orange sweet potatoes for more savory dishes, and these guys for more sweet dishes! They make these gluten free chocolate chip zucchini muffins absolutely delicious!

Zucchini: The piece de resistance, of course you need some zucchini in healthy zucchini muffins! I used one large zucchini, grated it down, and added it to the batter 🙂 If your batter seems a little to moist, you can pat down the grated zucchini to soak up some water. I’ve tried these muffins both ways, and either way is suitable! They both came out perfectly moist and not dry in the slightest!

Coconut Flour: I love using coconut flour in this recipe. As I’ve said before, coconut flour is a great way to absorb any extra liquid and/or moisture in the batter! I have tried these gluten free chocolate chip zucchini muffins using ground oat flour (another gluten free flour), and it worked out deliciously, but definitely a little doughier than using coconut flour!

Coconut Milk: You can absolutely swap in unsweetened almond milk in here, but for my allergy friends, stick with the coconut milk! Of course, you can also swap in any other dairy free mylk, but I do love the subtle sweetness that coconut milk adds 🙂 I use an unsweetened coconut milk (the one you find in the refrigerator section), and it works fabulously!

Eggs or Flaxseed Eggs: As I said earlier, these paleo chocolate chip zucchini muffins do indeed have a vegan option! Swap in an equal ratio of ground flaxseed eggs to regular eggs, and you have the fluffiest and delicious (still Paleo!) vegan and gluten free chocolate chip zucchini muffins! I gave the exact way down below in the recipe so check it out there 🙂

Chocolate Chips: you can use whatever chocolate chips here! I have my favorites, but if you’re keeping this recipe completely Paleo, I would highly recommend Pascha’s 100% baking chocolate chips– they’re completely sugar free, just cacao! I also love Lily’s Sweets chocolate chips, which are definitely sweeter from the stevia 🙂

Maple Syrup: just a little bit of maple syrup goes a long way! These paleo chocolate chip zucchini muffins are already pretty sweet on their own with the help of the Japanese sweet potato, so only a teensy bit and I love it!

Tips and Tricks for fluffy and light zucchini muffins

Bake your sweet potato the right way

There are many ways to cook a sweet potato, but I highly recommend my way. Okay, so it’s not exclusively my way haha! But I find it’s the best method for these vegan chocolate chip zucchini muffins!

You want your muffins to be sweet, and since we’re only using a little maple syrup, that means the bulk sweetness needs to come from the sweet potato.

How do you make sure your sweet potato gets extra sweet? Caramelizing it in the oven! All you need to do is bake it whole (not chopped) and slow and medium heat. I find this is the best way to caramelize the natural sugars found in a sweet potato!

Fold in your zucchini and chocolate chips into the batter

Several times, I almost added all of the ingredients into the food processor! Not good haha! You still want to be able to see strands of zucchini and obviously chunky chocolate chips in these vegan chocolate chip zucchini muffins!

A tip for getting the consistency just right is patting down your grated zucchini with a paper towel to absorb some moisture. I didn’t do this every time, but some people like their muffins a little fluffier so I thought I’d suggest it!

Subbing in ingredients

Now, I get a few questions per day regarding ingredient swaps in for recipes. If you can, I always recommend just following the recipe as written, as that is usually the best method and why I put only that way. However, occasionally I add in some swaps, which means I’ve definitely tried it and liked the outcome!

I also understand that not everyone has every ingredient for a given recipe- been there, trust me! Which is why I made this handy dandy recipe ingredient swap guide for you to download for free 🙂 It has the main ingredients that I commonly use on my blog, as well as multiple ways you can swap something in!

For these Paleo chocolate chip muffins in particular, I have tried them with flaxseed- amazing. I have tried them with ground oat flour (a cup rather than 3/4 cup), also amazing, just a little doughier! If you’re interested in downloading my free ingredient swap guide, you can sign up below for the password to access my Free Resource Library delivered directly to your mailbox!

Other than that, happy baking friends! I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

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