Healthy Breakfast Muffins: Egg Free & Loaded with Veggies

Healthy breakfast muffins are so easy to make and delicious to resist. Presented here is a recipe for egg free breakfast muffins that are savory and loaded with vegetables and without processed flour, sugar, or fat. Savory muffins make a great healthy choice for breakfast on the go, to pack for school lunches or for light after school snacks.

These healthy breakfast muffins can also be steamed in an instant pot using an egg bites mold, and they are a perfect bite size appetizer for gatherings. To enhance the flavors, serve these with green chutney and strawberry chutney.

Jump to:

• Why These Breakfast Muffins are Healthy
• Type os Seeds Added to My Breakfast Muffins
• How to make Dairy Free Vegan Breakfast Muffins
• How to Customize Breakfast Muffins
• Tips for Perfect Breakfast Muffins
• How to Store Leftover Muffins
• Freezing Breakfast Muffins
• Reheating Breakfast Muffins or Egg-Bites
• Why I love These Muffins
• Ingredients for Breakfast Muffin or Veggie Egg-Bites
• Instructions
• Recipe
• Condiments to go along with Savory Breakfast Muffins

These vegetable savory muffins or veggie egg-bites are very easy to customize as per your taste. Add your favorite vegetables and seasonings to the base and enjoy.

Why These Breakfast Muffins are Healthy

These breakfast muffins are wholesome packed with all kind goodness. Savory Muffins are great way to add vegetables into kids’ diet. These savory muffins are healthy because these are made out of semolina flour and not with processed white flour. This recipe does not require any butter, oil or fat in it. Use of yogurt and cottage cheese make muffins enough moist and rich in protein. Addition of sesame seeds, hemp hearts and pumpkin seeds level them up in protein and as well as in other essential micro nutrients.

• Made with the combination of wholesome flours.
• Loaded with the goodness and fiber of vegetables.
• Provide good amount of protein
• Rich in essential micro nutrients
• Energy booster
• Low in fat
• Low in sugar

Is Semolina flour or Suji Healthy?

Semolina or Suji is a course flour that is made from durum wheat. Durum wheat is the hardest species of wheat, which has high protein and gluten content. Semolina flour is a coarsely ground endosperm of durum or similar hard wheat. Suji, or semolina, is one of the healthy grain/flours to incorporate in our diet. Semolina flour is available in coarse, medium, and fine textures.

When compared to all-purpose flour, semolina is more nutritious. It has double the amount of dietary fiber and significantly more protein.  Dietary fiber is what responsible for our healthy digestive system. Semolina flour also provides high concentrations of essential minerals such as potassium, iron, zinc, and phosphorous, as well as certain vitamins.

Type os Seeds Added to My Breakfast Muffins

These little seeds work as nutritional enhancer in the recipe. Seeds are great sources of fibers, and contain healthy fats, plant-based protein, many important vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Addition of the tiny seeds elevates and offer great health benefits.

• Hemp hearts are great source of protein, as per the healthline.com 25% of the calories in hemp hearts come from protein. They contain all the essential amino acids making them a complete protein source, which is very rare in plant-based diet. Hemp hearts offer good percentage of dietary fibers, potassium, iron, and Vitamin A and also a source of Omega-3 and -6 fatty acids. In short it is hard to find another food that is so nutrient-dense.
• Sesame Seeds are tine oil rich seeds  really great for your heart health. Regular consumption of sesame seed can help in reducing high blood pressure, triglycerides, and LDL cholesterol and improves overall heart health. Sesame seeds are also rich source of nutrients like fiber, protein, phosphorus and selenium that support thyroid health. Unhulled sesame seeds are also great of calcium which can help improving bone health. If you are not allergic to sesame seeds addition of these into your diet will help improving overall health.
• Pumpkin Seeds are second rich source of protein after hemp seeds. Pumpkin seeds are also valued source of dietary fibers, zinc, manganese, phosphorus, copper, magnesium. The magnesium and fiber in pumpkin seeds helps maintain healthy insulin level and can improves the overall lipid profile. This little bundle of goodness also rich source of vitamin E, antioxidants and amino acids. Pumpkin seeds may be small, but packed with full of valuable and healthy nutrients.

How to make Dairy Free Vegan Breakfast Muffins

The best part about this Savory Breakfast Muffin recipe is though most savory muffins are made using eggs, but this is already egg-free. So, we don’t have to figure out any egg replacer to make them vegan.

This savory muffin recipe does require yogurt and cottage cheese to make them moist. However, to make them vegan and dairy free simply substitute with vegan coconut or cashew yogurt and your favorite vegan cottage cheese.

How to Customize Breakfast Muffins

This recipe is very easy to customize, just keep experimenting until you find your best combination. Other than Zucchini & Carrot, you can try incorporating cabbage, bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, mushroom and caramelized onions, any greens like spinach, kale, spring greens, beetroot for some pink hue, green beans, green peas, green onions just throw whatever is available in your fridge.

For seasonings, experiment with Italian seasoning, everything bagel seasoning, taco seasoning, chili lime, you can even add sun dried tomatoes, olives, just go wild with your imagination, options are limitless.

Tips for Perfect Breakfast Muffins

• Adjust the spice levels as per your taste, reduce it or simply omit the green chili and red pepper flakes. My kids have good tolerance of spices, since I cook regular spicy food for them as well.
• Chop all the cilantro stalks as well when adding cilantro. Stalks add so much more flavor compared to just leaves.
• You can use full fat as well as low fat yogurt and cottage cheese in this recipe. Since, we are not adding any additional fat in this recipe, I prefer to use full fat versions of both.
• Don’t throw away the whey and juices from yogurt and vegetables they are full of nutrients. Instead adjust and reduce the amount of water needed.
• Make sure the consistency of final batter is lumpy, thick and kind of messy. Excess liquid may result in sinking the muffins from center.
• Always preheat the oven before adding baking powder and baking soda to the batter.
• Lined the muffin tins with either paper muffins or silicon liner. Make sure to oil the liners as well otherwise half of the goodness will get stuck with liners.
• You can use your choice of mold and use the same batter. Be it regular muffins, mini muffins or cake tin.  The time of baking will change depending upon the individual size. Regular muffins would need at least 28 minutes, mini muffins would be little quicker approximately 20 minutes. If you are baking in cake tin then at least bake for 40 minutes.
• Different ovens vary in temperatures and might heat up differently. The above given baking time are approximation, do a doneness check with a toothpick or a knife when closer to end of baking time. If the toothpick comes out clean it’s time to cool down the muffins/cake, if not bake for little more time.
• Cooling themis an important step, or else the muffins would break when trying to take them out from baking tin. Let your muffins cool down completely on a wire rack.
• If steaming in instant pot make sure to let the water boil before you transfer the egg bites mold to Instant pot. This is very important, failure to do so might result in dense egg bites instead of fluffy and soft.
• Oil the egg bites mold as well before transferring the batter to mold for easy demolding.
• When closing the lid make sure the valve is on venting and you have an external timer handy.
• Steaming is faster cooking method than baking and only needs 15 minutes to cook the batter into egg bites.
• When Steaming, skip topping them with seeds as steaming makes them soft and soggy.

How to Store Leftover Muffins

Before storing your muffins or egg bites, it is important to allow them to properly cool.  Allow your savory muffins to cool in the muffin tray for around 5-7 minutes. When manageable to handle transfer them to cooling rack.  If you leave them in the pan for too long, they might get soggy, you just want them to be firm enough to transfer to a wire rack. Storing the muffins when they are even a little bit warm will result in condensation and soggy muffins.

Once the muffins are completely cool, first decide on how long and where you want to store your muffins. Although the muffins can safely be left on the counter in an air-tight container for a day, to practice food-safety and hygiene, I would recommend to store in the fridge.  In fridge, muffins or egg bites can be stored up to a week in air tight container. Lined the container with a kitchen paper towel place the muffins on-top and then another layer of kitchen paper, before closing the lid. The paper towel will absorb any moisture from the muffins, to absorb any moisture developed during storage and will help not getting them soggy.

Freezing Breakfast Muffins

Yes, they are delightful when defrosted and re-warmed in the microwave. If properly frozen they will be good for around 2-3 months (but will remain safe to eat well past that). To ensure best quality, individually wrap the muffins in clingfilm or foil and then transfer to a freezer friendly container.

Reheating Breakfast Muffins or Egg-Bites

To reheat – just pop them out of the freezer or fridge place them on microwave friendly plate, cover them with a kitchen towel and reheat them in the microwave until heated through.

Why I love These Muffins

1. Made with wholesome flours.
2. Good serving of veggies.
3. Essential nutrients from seeds.
4. Healthy dose of antioxidants from ginger, cilantro and turmeric.  
5. Easily customizable as per your family and kids liking.
6. Freezer friendly, hence can be cooked in big batches.
7. They’re super easy and great recipe to involve kids in kitchen.

Let’s collect all the ingredients and begin making them!

Ingredients for Breakfast Muffin or Veggie Egg-Bites

Pantry

• Semolina Flour (Suji): ¾ cup/ 135 grams/ 4.7 oz
• Chickpea Flour (Besan): ¼ cup/ 35 grams/1.2 oz
• Sesame Seeds (Til): 2 tablespoon/ 20 grams/ 0.7 oz
• Hemp Hearts (Bhang ke beej): 2 tablespoon/ 20 grams/ 0.7 oz
• Pumpkin Seeds (Kaddu ke beej): 2 tablespoon/ 15 grams/ 0.5 oz, for topping

Dairy/Fridge

• Yogurt (Dahi): ½ cup / 130 grams / 4.5 oz
• Cottage Cheese: ½ cup / 110 grams / 3.8 oz
• Water (Paanee): ⅓ cup/ 80 ml/ 2.7 fl. Oz.

Produce

• Carrots (Gajar): 1cup/ 100 grams/ 1 large size, shredded
• Zucchini squash: 1cup/ 100 grams/ 1 medium, shredded
• Onions (Pyaz): ¾ cup/ 100 grams/ 1 medium, finely chopped
• Cilantro (Hara Dhaniya): ¼ cup/ 20 grams/ ⅓ of bunch, finely chopped.
• Ginger (Adrak): 1 tablespoon/ 15 grams/ 1 inch of knob, grated or minced
• Green chili (Hari Mirch): 1 teaspoon/ 3 grams/ 3 green Thai chilis or one serrano, finely chopped or minced

Spices/oils

• Cumin seeds (Jeera): 1 tablespoon
• Red chili Flakes: 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric Powder (Haldi): ½ teaspoon
• Baking powder: ½ teaspoon
• Baking Soda: ½ teaspoon
• Salt (Namak): ½ teaspoon, adjust as per taste
• Oil: 1 teaspoon, to oil molds and liners

Instructions

Follow these Instruction if Baking Muffins:

1. Preheat the oven at 350 ^oF and grease the regular size muffin tray.
2. In a mixing bowl, add semolina flour, chickpea flour, yogurt and cottage cheese and stir to incorporate using Danish whisk or spatula. Stir the flours well until no flecks of flour remain.
3. Then add grated carrots, zucchini, finely chopped onions and cilantro. Fold them into flour and yogurt mixture. 
4. Add water to adjust the consistency, add only little by little until reach the right consistency of batter.
5. Make sure the consistency of final batter is lumpy, thick and kind of messy. Excess liquid may result in sinking the muffins from center.
6. Now add minced ginger, green chills, salt, red chili flakes, cumin seeds, turmeric powder, sesame seeds and hemp hearts.
7. Give a good mix to incorporate everything together all the ingredients.
8. At this point check, if oven has preheated and you have oiled the muffin tray is lined with oiled liners and ready to fill the batter.
9. Now add baking powder and baking soda, give a quick rigorous mix and quickly fill the muffin tray. This batter would be enough to fill 12 regular size muffin molds.
10. Sprinkle some sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds on top and bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes.
11. The above given baking time is approximation, do a doneness check with a toothpick or a knife when closer to end of baking time. If the toothpick comes out clean it’s time to cool down the muffins, if not bake for little more time.
12. Allow freshly baked muffins to cool in the muffin tray for around 5-7 minutes. When manageable to handle transfer them to cooling rack.
13. Enjoy them warm just like that or pair them with some green cilantro chutney and strawberry chutney.

Follow these Instruction for Steaming into Veggie Egg-Bites in Instant Pot:

1. Prepare the Instant pot for steaming. Place the inner pot inside the instant pot and two cups of water to inner pot and switch on the sauté mode on normal heat level. Oil 2 egg-bite molds and keep them aside.
2. Now follow the instructions from 2-6 steps from above baking instructions to prepare batter.
3. At this point check, if water has started boiling and you have oiled the egg-bites mold and ready to fill with batter. Place a trivet at bottom to hold egg-bite molds.
4. Now add baking powder and baking soda, give a quick rigorous mix and quickly fill the egg-bite molds. This batter would be enough to fill two, 7 cavities egg-bite molds.
5. Carefully transfer the first mold on trivet, while keeping second mold on top of first mold make sure you rotate the second mold a little so that it sits on the bridges of the cavities of first mold.
6. Put the Instant pot lid on, make sure valve is on venting position.
7. Cancel the sauté mode and switch to steam mode. Steam for 15 minutes, put an external timer as Instant pot timer would not work.
8. Once 15 minutes are over, switch off the steam function, open the lid and allow the mold to cool down a little before take the molds out.
9. Flip the mold on a dinner plate, tap the back of each cavity and the steamed egg-bites will slide out easily.
10. To serve these egg-bites as appetizer, cut them length wise into half, then topped with green cilantro, strawberry chutney and garnish them with some chopped cilantro and poms arils. 
11. Enjoy!!!

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Recipe

Condiments to go along with Savory Breakfast Muffins

• Cilantro Mint Green Chutney
• Strawberry Ginger Chutney: Sweet Sour and Spicy
• Cranberry Chutney