These Apple Cinnamon Red Lentil Muffins are kid-friendly, lightly sweetened and full of fiber! They’re perfect for breakfast, snack time or a nut-free school lunch!
Hi friends!
I’m excited to share these Apple Cinnamon Red Lentil Muffins with you guys! If you’ve been around awhile, you know I make my Lentil Banana Muffins every week and they’re my kids’ all-time favorite. I’ve been meaning to try another flavor combo for a while and finally got around to it last week.
Red Lentil Recipes
Instead of the green lentils, I use in my lentil banana muffins, I went for red lentils. They cook super quickly and are perfect for adding to baked goods! I’ve used red lentils specifically in these Red Lentil Cookies from my friend Sally and they’re great! If you’re looking for a savory recipe, try the Best Lentil Soup Recipe via Cookie & Kate.
Since a lot of you are looking for more plant-based recipes, I rounded up 15+ Easy Red Lentil Recipes for you to try them.
You also might know that I make almost all my muffin recipes in the food processor. Here’s why – I can put pretty much anything into my muffins and the food processor blends it up nice and smooth so there are no chunks – which my kids don’t like. I don’t hide things in my baked goods – my kids always know exactly what’s in them and usually help me make them, but it’s nice to be able to end up with a smoother muffin once they’re baked!
Apple Cinnamon Red Lentil Muffins
If you don’t have a food processor, you can mix the lentils, , apple, oil and egg in a blender and then transfer to a bowl and mix by hand.
Also, remember the correct why to measure flour is to spoon into the measuring cup and level with a knife. If you don’t, you may overfill your measure cup and end up with too much flour, which can alter the recipe.
Here’s how you make these:
PrintApple Cinnamon Red Lentil Muffins
These Apple Cinnamon Red Lentil Muffins are kid-friendly, lightly sweetened and full of fiber! They’re perfect for breakfast, snack time or a nut-free school lunch!
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 10-12 muffins 1x
Ingredients
1/2 cup pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds)
heaping 1/3 cup dry red lentils
2/3 cup shredded apple (squeeze in paper towel to remove moisture, then measure)
1/3 cup oil (i use avocado oil)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1.25 cups white whole wheat flour
extra cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Put lentils in a small pot with 2 cups water. Cover and bring to a boil. Crack the lid, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Drain. You should have about 1 cup once cooked.
- Put pepitas in a food processor and process until finely chopped.
- Add cooked lentils, shredded apple, brown sugar, oil and egg and process until smooth.
- Add cinnamon, vanilla, flour (correctly measured), and baking soda and process until combined.
- Scoop into greased muffin tins (i make 11 muffins).
- Mix a little sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and sprinkle on top of the muffins.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
Notes
- Someone made these by just adding a medium apple (sliced off the core) to the food processor without shredding first and reducing the oil to 1/4 cup and said they worked fine!
- I make this with King Arther measure for measure gluten-free flour and it works great.
- When measuring flour be sure to spoon into measuring cup and level with knife.
- I haven’t tried the recipe without the pepitas but i think they’d be fine without it. I just like the nutrients they add.
If you’re intimidated by lentils, this is a great place to start! I promise you can’t even taste them!
Do you have any favorite lentil recipes to share?
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
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Hi Lindsay! Do you use raw pepitas or roasted and/or salted? Thank you!
I use raw sprouted pepitas that i get at costco. Since there’s no salt in the recipe itself, you could also use the salted kind!
Do you think they’d be okay with green lentils?
honestly not sure. i think the cinnamon flavor would cover but not positive. if you try, let me know!
I used green lentils because that’s all I had. I doubled the cinnamon and it tasted great.
Ok, actually I doubled the cinnamon then also added 1/2 cup of applesauce and a splash of buttermilk because my batter looked dry – but the green lentils were still no problem haha.
My kids love these! I used Cashews instead of pepitas bc that’s what I had on hand. Like mentioned above, I just used the apple chunks with skin on instead of squeezing out liquid and decreased the oil. Everything blended up well in the vitamix. Turned out great!
Turned out SO good! I used roasted/salted pepitas and the salt level in the muffins was perfect. I would recommend adding a small amount of salt if you use unsalted pepitas, though.
Have you ever experimented with chickpea flour for baking? I’ve only used it for more savory things but this muffin recipe made me think it would be great for muffins and bars that are kid-friendly but super nutritious!
Do you have the nutritional breakdown for this? Curious what the points would be with WW 🙂
i don’t, sorry!
Okay, these muffins are SO good! So full of great ingredients and you really cant taste the lentils. Great to help use up this 10lb bag of apples from going apple picking! The shredded apple measurements worked out to two small/medium sized apples for me. Thanks as always for your awesome recipes. You are my go-to for kid friendly meals and inspo!
My 4yo and I love these muffins!! We have already made them 4 times. I make them following the note by just adding just apple to the food processor and reducing the oil to 1/4 cup. I use a flax egg instead of a regular egg and it works great! Also added blueberries once and it worked well! Thanks for the yummy and nutritious recipes!!
Couldn’t find red lentils anywhere so used brown lentils. They were delicious! Loving these and of course your lentil banana muffins are a huge hit too! We make those often.
I love the muffins! I noticed after leaving in the refrigerator for the day black flecks inside the muffin. Have you experienced this? I used walnuts instead of pumpkin seeds, maybe it was that? Thanks for the delicious recipe!
it might be the walnuts oxidizing or something like that!
These were delicious and very moist! We added a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar to the top before baking because it gives a nice texture. I made them for my kids as mini muffins, but happened to try myself and was shocked how good I thought they were.
My family loved this recipe! I used one of those small servings of apple sauce from the store because my kids don’t like them anymore. Worked out perfect. I’ll be making it again! I am also so happy to be able to serve such nutritious ingredients to my kids in the form of a muffin.
Love these! This is my second time making these muffins. This time, I did not have enough pumpkin seeds, so I added some hemp hearts – still delicious.
Thanks Lindsay!
Just made these for the first time. Big success with the kids. Thank you for another muffin recipe with great things in it!
I made these and my husband and I loved them. Wondering what the nutritional information is- calories, fat, etc. Thanks
I don’t have that info, sorry! glad you liked them!
Yikes! Delete that comment, please! I entered the quantity incorrectly!
Recipe made 28 mini muffin servings for a breakdown of 72 calories, 3.5g fat, 8.9g carbs & 1.6g protein each.
Sorry about my mess up earlier!
Delish! I used 1/4 c of walnuts and canola oil because I didn’t have pepitas or avocado oil. This is the first time I’ve cooked with lentils – sold! I just wish I could finesse this recipe to reduce calories (1/4 c walnuts vs 1/2 c pepitas helps). Any other calorie-cutting ideas?
Made with sunflower seeds and coconut oil. Great texture for my toddler. They did turn green after cooling on baking rack which was rather odd but they taste great
sunflower reacts with baking soda to turn things green after baking. perfectly safe to eat!
I went looking for an apple cinnamon muffin recipe with beans in it and this is what I found… and I’m really glad because they’re yummy!! I have tried many fruit/veggie muffins and this recipe is possibly my favorite, or at least in my top 3 for sure. My 3 year old currently says they’re her favorites as well. I took some liberties with the recipe, I added some zucchini for a bit of veg and some protein powder. I didn’t squeeze out the moisture in the apple or zucchini. I food processed some oats, pepitas, sugar, cinnamon, and avocado oil and used that to top the muffins. They are really good! I don’t taste the lentils at all, and with some of my modifications (and possibly some extra sugar) they kind of taste like a treat and both me and my kids sometimes eat them when we want something sweet. Really impressed with the recipe! Try some zucchini in it (and a fun topping), it’s great!
What can you substitute for the sugar? thanks!
You could try applesauce or mashed banana.
Great recipe. Can almond flour be substituted without isssues as far as you know?