Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Soft, simple, and delicious, these Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins are sweet, bright, and easy to make for breakfast or dessert! Top them with my 3-minute blueberry glaze for a little extra sweetness.

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Hey Internet, as you may have noticed with my recent vegan chocolate chip scones, I like breakfasts that are kind of dessert-y in nature. I wanted to celebrate the fresh blueberries I’ve been seeing everywhere this summer, so I came up with these delicious, soft, moist (sorry) vegan lemon blueberry muffins.

This recipe is INSANELY easy. It takes less than 10 minutes to get these mixed and in the oven, baking away and making your home smell ahh-mazing.

The best part about this recipe is you can use fresh OR frozen blueberries, so you can make these any time of the year! The finished muffins also freeze SUPER well and are just as soft defrosted and warm as when you baked them.

You can substitute any type of berry and even use a different citrus in this recipe. How good would strawberry orange or raspberry lime be?! :p

This recipe is also super customizable so I provided an extensive list of potential substitutions below. I like to make my blog articles as helpful as possible so you’re not just scrolling through minute details about a stranger’s life.

I hope that you get to know me through other means like my Instagram (check my stories for complete dorkiness)! YouTube channel coming soon… or as soon as I have time to get it set up, haha.

ANYWAY, let’s get started on these delicious muffins!

What You’ll Need

I prefer to use fresh lemon for these muffins because adding the zest in makes the lemon taste more prominent, but you can use bottled if you need to. Fresh lemon juice is much more tasty than bottled, but it’s not always accessible.

For blueberries, I mentioned it before but you can use either fresh or frozen blueberries. To prevent the juices from getting mixed into the batter, you can toss your just rinsed or frozen blueberries in a few tablespoons of flour. This step is optional.

If using fresh blueberries, pick out ones that are more blue than purple, and make sure to remove any stems.

I used a flax egg as a binder for this recipe. All you need to make a flax egg is 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoons of water. Just let the mixture sit for a few minutes until gelled!

For liquid, I used coconut milk from the can. I tried this recipe with regular non-dairy milk from a carton and it wasn’t bad, but it was so much richer and fluffier with the canned coconut milk--I highly recommend it, and you won’t taste the coconut at all.

And to get a lot of lemon flavor, I used the juice of a large lemon, some of its zest, and bonus lemon extract which really made the lemon flavor pop. The extract is optional, though.

Speaking of extracts, I also included a little vanilla extract for flavor.

For the dry goods, I included the standards: flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. I used organic cane sugar (organic to ensure it’s vegan), but I also tried the recipe with coconut sugar which is an unrefined sugar--just as good but a little darker in color!

Alright, but what if you don’t have some of these ingredients?

What Substitutions Can I Make?

I understand not everyone has the same access to ingredients or the same tastes, so I tried to provide substantial information on possible ingredient substitutions below.

Blueberries

You can use either fresh or frozen blueberries here, both are delicious. Or you could substitute any type of berry and even use a different citrus in this recipe. How good would strawberry orange or raspberry lime be?! :p

Flax Egg

You can use any egg substitute you like. Try grinding chia seeds and mixing them with water (1 tablespoon chia seeds + 3 tablespoons water), or you could use aquafaba or even just a store-bought substitute such as Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer.

Coconut Milk

If you don’t want to use canned coconut milk, you don’t need to. The fat in it makes these muffins more fluffy, and you won’t taste the coconut, but you can use any non-dairy milk you like.

Lemon Juice

Fresh or bottled lemon juice will work here, but as mentioned above you could substitute the juice of any other citrus in this recipe. If you just want to make blueberry muffins, you can leave it out entirely--just add an extra tablespoon of coconut milk.

Flour

I used regular all purpose flour for this recipe. If you’d like to make this recipe gluten-free, use a one to one replacement. My favorite is King Arthur Measure for Measure Gluten-Free Flour, but Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 is also great.

How to Make Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Making these muffins is ridiculously easy. All you’ll need is a large mixing bowl, a spatula, a muffin tin (that holds 12 muffins), an oven, and the ingredients of course.

For muffin tins, I REALLY love using silicone bakeware. My favorite is this silicone hybrid muffin tin. It provides structure through metal between the cups, but the cups themselves are silicone so you can pop the muffins right out, no grease, no spray, no liners!

Before you get to mixing, preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (or 190 degrees Celsius) and mix your flax egg in a small bowl.

Grab your large bowl and your spatula. Add your coconut milk, lemon juice, zest, lemon extract if using, vanilla extract, sugar, and finally your flax egg once it’s gelled.

Give everything a good stir until well incorporated.

Now, sprinkle your flour, baking powder, and salt over the wet ingredients and stir it well, using your spatula to scrape the inside and bottom of the bowl while you stir so everything is well incorporated. The batter will be fairly thick.

To keep your blueberries from exploding their juices into the raw batter (this step is optional):
Add your just-rinsed fresh blueberries (so they’re still wet) or frozen blueberries to separate, medium bowl and toss them with about 2 tablespoons of flour so they’re covered in a light coat of flour.

Gently fold your blueberries into your batter.

Now take your muffin tin and spoon in the batter until each muffin cup is about ⅔ of the way full. Do not overfill.

This recipe should make exactly 12 muffins. Make sure to scrape out that bowl and get every last drop of delicious batter!

Finally, bake your muffins for approximately 25 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the middle when they’re close to done. If it comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs on it, they’re done!

Let them cool completely before removing them from the tin or glazing.

Store glazed or unglazed vegan lemon blueberry muffins in an airtight container for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Make sure to wrap muffins very well in plastic or freezer safe wrap before freezing.

To Make the Blueberry Glaze

This step is completely optional, but I thought these were extra special with a tasty purple glaze on them.

Take about ½ cup frozen blueberries (or blueberry juice if you have it!) and heat them (I microwave them for about 1 minute).

Add about ⅔ cup organic powdered sugar to a bowl and about 1 tablespoon of the blueberry juice (leave out the blueberries themselves--add them to a smoothie later or something).

Now add just enough non-dairy milk to get everything to liquify. About 1.5 tablespoons for me.

Most non-dairy milk will darken your glaze a bit, but if you have leftover coconut milk from the can that you used for the muffins, use that instead and your glaze should be a beautiful lavender color.

Drizzle the glaze onto your muffins and enjoy!

Other Great Vegan Breakfast Recipes

Whether you like sweet or savory breakfasts, I’ve gotcha covered. Here are some awesome vegan breakfast recipes:

Sweet

Chocolate Chip Scones

Apple Pie Baked Oatmeal

Matcha Pound Cake

Gluten-Free Banana Bread

Gluten-Free Chocolate Banana Muffins

Coconut Cacao Granola

Chia Pudding 5 Ways

Savory

Cheesy Grits with Crispy Chickpeas and Garlicky Collard Greens

Tofu Eggs Benedict

Tofu Scramble

Buddha Bowl with Sweet Potatoes

Air-fried Breakfast Potatoes

Anything Else?

As always, I hope you love this breakfast recipe–I know I do, and Mr. Zardyplants does too.

These vegan lemon blueberry muffins are:

• Soft
• Sweet
• Bright
• Satisfying
• Sunny
• And great for kids AND adults (and kids-at-heart, like me)!

Let me know in the comments below if you make this recipe or tag me @Zardyplants on Instagram so I can see your beautiful recreations! If you tag me on IG, I will share your post in my stories :)

Also, one quick request: if you love how this recipe looks or tastes, please leave me a 5-star rating and a nice comment–ratings help more people find my recipes which helps me keep providing them! Thank you!

<3 Liz

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