This marble oatmeal banana bread from Jillian Glenn’s Healthy Vegan Breakfasts and Lunches makes a beautiful and tasty loaf that’s fully plant-based. You get the classic banana bread flavor with a fun chocolate swirl down the center. It’s soft, lightly sweet, and comes together with simple ingredients like oats, maple syrup, and overripe bananas.

This marble oatmeal banana bread recipe skips white sugar and uses a mix of oat and all-purpose flour, which gives it a hearty texture without being dense. The oats add fiber, while the bananas and maple syrup bring natural sweetness and moisture. You only need one bowl to mix it, and the swirl is easier than it looks – just split the batter, add cocoa to half, and spoon it on top.

Serve it as breakfast, a snack, or dessert. It’s the kind of recipe that works for any time of day and keeps well on the counter. If you’re looking for a go-to vegan banana bread with a little twist, this one delivers every time.

Read more: Vegan Rice Cake Chocolate Bars

Here’s how to make the vegan banana bread

Some of the flour in this recipe is substituted with oats. For further substitutions you can also use gluten-free flour and oats.

vegan amazing marble oatmeal banana bread

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Servings

Ingredients

Olive oil avocado oil or coconut oil spray, for greasing
3 mashed overripe bananas
1 cup (240 ml) plain unsweetened almond milk
¾ cup (180 ml) maple syrup (see Healthy Tips)
¼ cup (60 ml) melted vegan butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp (9 g) baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup (90 g) quick oats gluten-free if needed
1½ cups (188 g) regular or gluten-free all-purpose flour
2 tbsp (11 g) cocoa powder (see Healthy Tips)
Banana slices for topping

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a 5 x 9–inch (13 x 23–cm) loaf pan with olive oil, avocado oil or coconut oil spray.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, almond milk, maple syrup, vegan butter, vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda. Then, add the quick oats and flour and mix until smooth. Spoon half of the batter into the greased loaf pan.
Add the cocoa powder to the remaining batter and mix until smooth. Use a tablespoon to spoon the cocoa banana bread batter down the top-center of the regular banana bread batter.
Top the batter with banana slices and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.
Store any leftover banana bread at room temperature wrapped in plastic or sealed tightly with aluminum foil.

Healthy Tips:

You can leave out the cocoa powder to make classic oatmeal banana bread.

If you reduce the maple syrup to ½ cup (120 ml), you will cut back on a few grams of sugar and save about 20 calories per slice.

Reprinted with permission from Healthy Vegan Breakfasts and Lunches by Jillian Glenn. Page Street Publishing Co. 2023. Photo credit: Jillian Glenn.