Savoury Vegetable Muffins are our favourite healthy pastry to bake for breakfast.
You can prepare our quick and easy Cheesy Vegetable Muffins at home in less than an hour using leftover veggies in your fridge and herbs from your garden.
Our Savoury Vegetable Muffins recipe features affordable ingredients like cayenne pepper, scallions, red onion, mushrooms, red bell pepper, cream cheese, sour cream, greek yogurt, parsley, thyme and parmesan cheese.
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What Are Savoury Vegetable Muffins?
We love baking muffins! They’re our favourite versatile baked good as they can be made sweet or savoury.
Most people associate muffins as a sweet pastry, often served at breakfast, as a midday snack or with a scoop of ice cream as a quick and easy dessert.
Don’t overlook the potential of a savoury muffin to make mouths water! Some of our favourites from the salty camp include Cheddar Welsh Rarebit Muffins, Cheese and Onion Muffins, Cheese Bacon Muffins and Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins.
We love baking this Savoury Vegetable Muffins recipe because it’s very versatile, allowing you to use up veggies loitering in the back of your fridge. We’ve used scallions, red onions, red bell peppers and mushrooms in this recipe, but you can get creative and substitue for other veggies like corn, broccoli, asparagus, and zucchini.
Our homemade Vegetable Muffins are crunchy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. They have a rich flavour thanks to the addition of sour cream, greek yogurt, cream cheese and parmesan, which help moisten the batter.
We often prepare Savoury Vegetable Muffins as a brunch pastry, served alongside scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. They can also be served instead of dinner rolls with a Sunday roast.
History of Muffins
A muffin is an individual-sized, baked product most commonly associated with morning mealtime. It’s one of the most popular on-the-go breakfasts that can easily be made ahead and stored in the freezer to enjoy later.
Muffins can refer to two distinct baked goods, a part-raised unsweetened flatbread that is baked and then cooked on a griddle, and a cupcake-like sweet or savoury quickbread that is leavened with baking powder and baked in a mold.
While the most common quickbread muffins are sweetened (such as lemon blueberry muffins, mincemeat muffins and morning glory muffins), there are also savoury varieties such as jalapeno cheddar cornbread muffins and cheddar apple muffins.
The flatbread “English Muffin” variety is of British origin, and dates from at least the early 18th century, while the quickbread originated in Canada and America during the 19th century.
One 19th century source suggests that muffins may be related to the Greek bread maphula, a cake baked on a hearth or griddle. Culinary historians also look to the Old French mou-pain, meaning soft bread, which may have been corrupted into “mouffin.”
The word is first found in print in 1703, spelled moofin; it is of uncertain origin but possibly derived from the Low German Muffen, the plural of Muffe meaning a small cake. The expression muffin-man, meaning a street seller of muffins, is attested in a 1754 poem, which includes the line: “Hark! the shrill Muffin-Man his Carol plies…”
One of Canada’s top selling cookbooks of the 1980s was Muffin Mania, which helped popularize muffin making from Newfoundland to British Columbia. Homemade muffins were originally prepared as a healthy breakfast option, high-fibre mid-afternoon snack or low calorie dessert.
In 1997, muffins were popularized once again in Seinfeld’s now famous “The Muffin Tops,” episode. Like many muffin lovers, Elaine shared her love for only eating muffin tops. She hilariously talks about the fact that muffin stumps are not worthy of consumption as they don’t have the desirable crunchy texture. She shares the idea of opening a store that sells just muffin tops with her ex-boss and is outraged when he steals her idea.
When he offers her 30% of the profits to help his struggling business, they initially give the unused stumps to a homeless shelter. But after they get complaints about the missing muffin tops by a charity worker, they have to get rid of them elsewhere. Newman eventually takes the muffin stumps off their hands, smiling with glee!
My Family Loves Savoury Vegetable Muffins
One of my fondest memories growing up as a kid was waking up in the morning at our family cottage in Muskoka and smelling freshly baked muffins.
My family’s two favourite recipes were Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins and Lemon Blueberry Muffins. In the summer we’d forage for wild blueberries and incorporate them into out favourite baked goods. My sister was the family blueberry fan while I was mostly obsessed with the marriage of banana and chocolate.
While most morning muffin recipes are sweet, savoury vegetable muffins are an enjoyable quick breakfast served with scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and fresh fruit.
My family loves to make these muffins on the weekend for brunch. We grab all the fresh vegetables in the fridge and chop up the ones that need to get used up quick to avoid food waste.
Love baking for your family? Check out our best healthy muffins for kids list and favourite vegetarian muffin recipes.
Health Benefits
Our homemade savoury vegetable muffins are packed full of healthy ingredients!
Onions are a humble vegetable packed with vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Regular consumption of onions can help boost digestive health and reduce the risk of developing heart disease.
Mushrooms are rich in B vitamins: riboflavin, niacin, and pantothenic acid. The combination helps protect heart health.
Bell Peppers are an incredible source of vitamins C and A, which support your skin and immune system. They also provide beneficial carotenoid compounds such as beta-carotene, which has been shown to reduce the risk of certain cancers.
An excellent source of vitamin K, as well as vitamin C, folate, and iron, parsley helps keep your bones and blood healthy, and protects your skin from damage by free radicals.
Rich in energy-boosting manganese and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals, thyme may help keep your blood and immune system healthy.
Consuming dairy products (such as milk and cheese) provides health benefits — especially improved bone health. Dairy foods provide nutrients that are vital for health and maintenance of your body. These nutrients include calcium, potassium, vitamin D, and protein.
Packed with calcium and friendly probiotic bacteria, sour cream and yogurt help keep your bones strong and your gut healthy. Yogurt may also help reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes and some types of cancer.
Eggs contain two vital nutrients that are not present in many foods: iodine and vitamin D. Eggs are also rich in tissue-building protein and vitamin B12, which helps your body manufacture blood cells.
Whole wheat flour is rich in vitamins B-1, B-3, and B-5, along with riboflavin and folate. It also has more iron, calcium, protein, and other nutrients than white flour.
Buying VS Making Homemade Muffins
Today, muffins are often sold at grocery stores, McDonald’s cafes and coffee shops like Starbucks and Tim Horton’s. Unfortunately most commercially prepared muffins are simply cupcakes without the icing.
Read the ingredients list and you’ll find store bought muffins are full of sugar, fat and “flavourings” rather than real fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs. The excessive sugar, salt, fat and additives in commercial muffin recipes allow the grocery stores and coffee shops to extend the shelf life so they don’t go stale as quickly as a homemade muffin would.
The best way to enjoy healthy muffins is by preparing them at home, allowing you to control the proportion of ingredients. We suggest eating muffins fresh the day they are prepared. If you have any leftovers muffins pack 3-4 in a ziplock bag in your fridge and simply warm them up the next day in the oven. You can use a microwave to reheat muffins but they won’t produce the desired crunchy texture.
Any remaining Savoury Vegetable Muffins should be stored in the freezer and can keep for 2-3 months. We like to double our muffin recipes when we prepare them so we have a storage of yummy muffins in the freezer that we can easily enjoy several weeks later.
Best Savoury Vegetable Muffins Recipe
There’s no better comfort food than a steaming, moist Savoury Vegetable Muffin enjoyed straight out of the oven. Homemade muffins can be easily stored in the freezer to extend their shelf life and are a great on-the-go breakfast snack.
So what qualities make the best muffins? The perfect muffin must be crunchy on the outside, well leavened so the muffin cap holds its shape and doesn’t shrink when cooled and feature a moist and light interior.
Looking to prepare an easy Vegetable Muffins recipe? Baking is a science so you can’t just lower a muffins fat and sugar content or you will find yourself biting into a chewy, hard and unappetizing product.
Savoury Vegetable Muffins Recipe Baking Tips
If you’re looking to prepare muffins on a whim and are missing a few ingredients at home don’t worry!
We alway have cheese in our kitchen. In fact we’ve designated an entire drawer to cheese we’re such big fans!
We’ve used Parmigiano Reggiano in this recipe but you could substitute for Smoked Cheddar, Gouda, Gruyere, Manchego, Beemster XO, and Mimolette.
We’ve used all purpose flour but you could also add whole wheat flour and adjust the proportions to add additional healthy fibre.
The recipe includes Greek Yogurt and Sour Cream but you can make these muffins more healthy by omitting the sour cream and just using nonfat yogurt.
If you’re looking to substitute vegetables in the recipe just make sure to keep the batter to vegetable ratio the same so the muffins rise with ease.
You might want to substitue the red bell peppers for zucchini or swap out the suggested fresh herbs if you have other varieties growing in your garden.
Feel free to get creative with what’s in season but just make sure to chop the veggies as small as you can so they’re aren’t any big chunks in your batter.
The one tip I give all muffin making beginners is to avoid over-mixing the batter. Light and fluffy muffins are made by reducing the amount of gluten in the batter. If you whip muffin batter with a beater the final product will be as hard as a hockey puck.
For best results, form a well in the dry ingredients and pour your wet ingredients inside. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. The finished batter should be fully incorporated, so be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl so you don’t find unmixed flour. The most important rule to muffin making: when mixing, less is more!
Best Muffin Tools & Equipment
Before making a batch of Savoury Vegetable Muffins make sure your kitchen is outfitted with essential bakers tools.
- Mixing Bowl Set: It’s important to have a set of durable mixing bowls. We love stainless steel mixing bowls with a good grip. When making muffins you’ll typically need a large mixing bowl to sift your dry ingredients into, and a medium or small mixing bowl to beat your wet ingredients.
- Measuring Cups: Ensure you have a set of measuring cups with a flat top rather than a spout, so you can easily use a knife to level off your dry ingredients like flour and sugar.
- Measuring Spoons: We love these durable stainless steel measuring spoons that will help you accurately measure spices, baking soda and baking powder.
- Whisk: This stainless steel whisk has a great grip and is helpful when beating eggs into other wet ingredients.
- Sieve: It’s essential to have this tool in your kitchen so you can ensure all your dry ingredients are separated and don’t clump in the wet batter.
- Bakers Scale: Use this digital scale to weigh flour and other ingredients that require a weight measurement.
- Spatula: We love this rubber spatula as it also acts as a spoon so you can easily drop batter into each greased muffin cup.
- Muffin Tins: We only use silicone muffin tins as they allow you to easily remove baked muffins from the tin with minimal baking spray required.
- Baking Spray: Ensure your cupboards are stocked with baking spray so your muffins don’t get stubborn and refuse to slide out of the pan.
- Cooling Rack: A sturdy cooling rack is a must to ensure your muffins cool without falling apart or getting soggy. They need breathing space to let out the steam before storing.
- Storage Containers: We love doubling our muffin recipes so we have leftovers to store in the fridge or freezer to enjoy later.
You May Also Enjoy These Muffin Recipes…
- Savoury Cheddar Welsh Rarebit Muffins
- Christmas Cranberry and White Chocolate Muffins
- Blueberry Lemon Muffin Tops
- Buckwheat Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Moist Buttermilk Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chips
- Ginger Spiced Banana Pear Muffins
- Banana Pumpkin Muffins
- Fresh Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins
- Healthy Homemade Sweet Potato Muffins
- Banana Rhubarb Muffins
- Savoury Cheese and Onion Muffins
- Banana Prune Muffins
- Healthy Kiwi Muffins
- Healthy Bran Muffins with Applesauce
- Peach Cobbler Muffins
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
How To Make Savoury Vegetable Muffins
Savoury Vegetable Muffins
Equipment
- muffin tins
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- French knife
- Wooden spoon or spatula
- Mixing bowls
- whisk
Ingredients
- 250 g All Purpose Flour
- Pinch Kosher Salt
- 2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp White Sugar
- 3/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 5 Scallions sliced, whites and greens divided
- 1 cup Mushrooms finely chopped
- 1/3 cup Red Bell Pepper finely chopped
- 2 tbsp Red Onion grated
- 2 tsp Malt or Apple Cider Vinegar
- Black Pepper
- 1 cup Cream Cheese softened
- 1/2 cup Sour Cream
- 1/2 cup Greek Yogurt
- 6 tbsp Butter melted
- 2 Eggs
- 1/2 tbsp Fresh Parsley chopped
- 1/2 tbsp Fresh Thyme chopped
- 1 oz Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and muffin moulds.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, and cayenne pepper and set aside.
- Slice the white parts of the scallions and mix with red onion, mushrooms and bell pepper. Sprinkle with vinegar. Season and set aside to marinate.
- Whisk the soft cream cheese into the sour cream, greek yogurt, then whisk in the melted butter, eggs, and herbs. Pour into the dry ingredients with the parmesan and grated vegetables and any juices from the bowl. Stir to mix.
- Fill the prepared muffin tins 3/4 full with batter. Sprinkle with cracked black pepper and scallion greens then bake for 25-30 minutes. Leave to cool slightly then transfer to a wire rack.
Nutrition
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