European inspired Healthier Zucchini Lemon Bread Recipe with pure Rapeseed oil, kefir, lots of garden fresh zucchini and two whole lemons.
Boasting Healthier Zucchini Bread!
Doesn’t everyone have a favorite recipe for a Zucchini Bread? Well, here is mine.
And yes, I will boast that mine is probably healthier than the recipe you’ve got tucked away somewhere. Tastier too!
Rapeseed Oil, and Kefir are my two magical ingredients.
Let’s chat a bit about those two.
Healthy Rapeseed Oil
Made from a flower of the rapeseed fields of England.
When it is cold pressed, it is lowest in saturated fats, rich in vitamin E and Omega 3 and 6, and has a higher smoke point than our beloved olive oil.
The Difference Between Rapeseed Oil And Canola Oil
If you thought Canola oil was rapeseed oil, think again.
Canola oil has been processed in such a way as to make it cheap.
It has been processed under high heat, with chemicals, making canola oil, an oil you will never find in my pantry.
Rapeseed oil, from England, is now easily purchased on-line, and I love the slightly floral essence in it.
Kefir In My Healthier Zucchini Bread
A milk product which packs a higher punch in the nutrition department, then yogurt.
At about three times the amount of probiotics, kefir is fast to become one of your tummy’s best friends!
When baking, I try to incorporate the most nutritional ingredients, simply by swapping the more well-known ingredients (such as butter or low-fat milk) with these.
While yogurt has many of the gut healthy bacteria when it is naturally fermented from a homemade batch, kefir has even more.
Kefir contains a wider variety of bacteria and it also contains beneficial yeasts when are important in populating good bacteria in the tummy.
Healthier Bread Recipes
Having been a bread lover most of my life, I want to bake breads that offer me more nutrients and leave me with less guilt!
For this reason, you will find many of my bread recipes using ingredients such as kefir, instead of milk, whole grain and nut flours and healthier oils. I’ll share some with you here:
- Healthy Chocolate Banana Bread – made with olive oil an spelt flour
- Beetroot and Spinach Bread – a beautiful braided bread of colorful veggies
- Cranberry Almond Flour Yeast Bread – exactly that, almond flour, yeast and cranberries
- Spelt Potato Sandwich Bread – a potato rich bread that won’t go soggy as a sandwich
Healthy Zucchini Bread Overflowing In Your Garden?
I mean, zucchinis overflowing in your garden and you have already filled your freezer with enough Ratatouille for the winter months.
Speaking of ratatouille, if you’ve got lots of zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from your garden or farmer’s market, you will want to make a Deconstructed Ratatouille Pizza!
Let’s fill that freezer with a bunch of healthier zucchini bread loaves, straight from your garden or farmer’s market.
Then, when winter arrives, the healthy sun kissed vitamins from summertime will be hiding in the freezer, waiting for you.
How To Make A Zucchini Bread You Can Trust Is Healthier
It helps to start out with garden fresh, organically grown zucchini, whether from your garden or your local farmer’s markets.
Once you scrub and trim the zucchini, simply toss them into a food processor, or grate them with a box grater.
Add to the zucchini, all the wet ingredients and give it a whisk until well blended. Then whisk in the dry ingredients.
Transfer the batter to a loaf pan and bake until firm and golden.
A drizzle of lemon glaze on top is a nice added touch, however the bread doesn’t need it.
Hiding Zucchini In Foods To Make Them Healthier
If you are newly here at Whisk and Dine, that might sound strange to you, but if you know me, you know by now that I love to hide veggies in food, for those picky eaters we all have in life.
A beautiful and sort-of hidden recipe I use zucchini in, is my Fig and Chive Pizza.
I will make zucchini ribbons to roll on top of a Unique Almond Pizza Crust and the flavors of goat cheese and fig marry well with the zucchini.
Last but not least, is my highly secret (at least to my grandchildren), Grandmas Sneaky Meatballs, in which the same grated zucchini I use in my zucchini bread, goes into my meatballs.
This is a great way to get the kids to eat veggies they can’t see on their pasta or pizza! Shhhh!
Ingredients Needed
- Eggs
- Sugar – coconut, date or unrefined
- Cold pressed Rapeseed oil
- Kefir
- Lemon juice and zest
- Zucchini
- Flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Confection sugar – optional for a glaze
Equipment Needed
- Food processor or box grater
- Mixing bowl
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Citrus press
- Whisk
- Loaf pan
- Basting brush
- Oven
Healthier Zucchini Lemon Bread
Equipment
- Box Grater or Food Processor
- Loaf pan
Ingredients
- 4 Eggs
- 1/2 cup Sugar unrefined sugar, coconut, or date sugar
- 1/2 cup Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil
- 1 cup Kefir or yogurt
- 3 tbsp Lemon juice about 3 lemons
- 1 tsp Lemon zest extra for glaze
- 2 cups Grated Zucchini
- 3 1/2 cups Flour
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Brush a little oil inside the loaf pan.
- Whisk the eggs and sugar until light and creamy in color. Whisk in 2 tablespoons lemon juice, zest, oil and kefir.
- Add the grated zucchini, and slowly incorporate the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pans.
- Bake until tester comes out clean, about 45 – 60 minutes, depending on the pans you use. Cool while you make the Glaze.
- Whisk the remaining lemon juice and powdered sugar. Drizzle across the top of the baked bread. Garnish with a bit of lemon zest.
Video
Notes
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.