These Blueberry Beet Muffins are a healthy, kid-friendly breakfast or snack. Their pink color makes them fun to eat and you’d never know they’re packed with vegetables!
Hi friends!
Let’s talk beets. Specifically, these Blueberry Beet Muffins. As you may have noticed, I’ve been having a lot of fun lately adding vegetables to different recipes! Be sure to check out my Chocolate Pea Cookies, Carrot Oat Bars and PB Chocolate Cauliflower Oatmeal if you missed them! I asked the mamas over in my Turnips & Tantrums group which veggie I should tackle next and beets won by a landslide.
That worked out perfectly because I’d had a Blueberry Beet Muffins idea floating around in the back of my brain for a while now and this was just the push I needed to put it into action!
Let me start by saying I am not a fan of beets. I don’t like how messy they are. I don’t like the way they smell. I hate eating them plain, no matter how hard I try to like them. But I love these Blueberry Beet Muffins. So that should tell you something. If you can get past the smell of steaming the beets in the microwave, I don’t think the muffins themselves taste like beets at all.
And Squish, who is definitely the pickier of my kids, has gobbled up 6 of these in the past 3 days…and he doesn’t like the Chocolate Pea Cookies or the Carrot Oat Bars like his sister does. So that should also tell you something.
I used frozen blueberries from my stash we picked last summer (which is getting dangerously low by the way) but you could also use fresh blueberries. I steamed my beets in the microwave, but you could also just wrap them in foil and throw them in the oven for a while if you happen to be roasting other veggies.
Here’s how you make them:
PrintBlueberry Beet Muffins
These Blueberry Beet Muffins are a healthy, kid-friendly breakfast or snack. Their pink color makes them fun to eat and you’d never know they’re packed with vegetables!
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 30 min
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: makes 10-12 muffins 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped beets (steamed or roasted and peeled)
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup milk (I used non-dairy)
- 1/3 cup oil (i used avocado oil)
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Instructions
In a food processor, combine beets, egg, sugar, oil and milk and process until smooth.
Add flour, oats, cinnamon, vanilla and baking powder and process until just combined.
Stir in blueberries.
Scoop into lined muffin tins and bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes.
Notes
To steam the beets, cut into quarters and put in a glass dish with about 2 Tbsp water. Cover the dish with saran wrap and place it on a plate and microwave for 5 minutes. Carefully remove the plastic wrap, stir, re-cover and microwave for another 2-3 minutes until beets pierce easily with a knife. Drain the water and let cool for a few minutes. Then use a spoon or knife to remove the skins.
You could try making these in a high-powered blender but I haven’t tried it myself yet.
White flour will also work if you don’t have white whole wheat. I don’t recommend regular whole wheat flour as I find it too dense for baking.
Easy, right??
[clickToTweet tweet=”Add some vegetables to your breakfast or snack with these Blueberry Beet Muffins!” quote=”Add some extra vegetables to your breakfast or snack with these Blueberry Beet Muffins!”]
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
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I’ll give these a try for my kid’s sake, but because I haaaaate beets, I’ll be buying the pre cooked & peeled ones from Trader Joe’s
sounds like a good shortcut to me! i’ll probably do the same next time!
Can you use canned beets?
i would assume so! you just need them to be cooked and soft enough to blend up so they should be fine!
I used canned sliced beets with no salt added and they turned out so yummy!
I am also not a fan of beets, mostly the dirt kind of taste. But if you say you can’t taste them, then wow! What a win, especially for kiddos!
Yes! Beets taste like dirt. But I need to read a few comments verifying that these really don’t taste like beets before I make them (no offense Lindsay! I believe you haha I just really really hate beets)
How many muffins does the recipe make? And can I use coconut/any other oil?
10-12 muffins depending on the taste. you could use vegetable oil. coconut oil would probably be fine but would probably alter the taste.
Any difference between white whole wheat and whole wheat flour?
i don’t like whole wheat flour. i find it to be too dense and heavy for baking. White whole wheat is much nicer and i sub it 100% for white flour.
I have never used white whole wheat flour. Do you think unbleached would work? I have used it for yeast bread making without a problem.
white flour should be fine!
I was really interested in making these… but not with 1/2c of sugar. With beets and blueberries, i can’t imagine that much sugar is needed and i don’t use sugar, i use natural sweeteners like honey or maple syrup. Could maybe 1/4c honey be subbed and still come out ok?
You could definitely give it a try! Please let me know how they turn out. As with all my recipes, i love hearing how readers modify/substitute and how they turn out!
instapot your beets, they taste delicious coming out of the instapot, done in 20 minutes! I took your idea of beats, and used one in your sweet potatoe muffin recipe, worked great!
love your recipes, have been using them for along time!!
Mine came out even brighter purple than yours and smell great! 🙂
Two out of three girls gobbled them down
it must totally depend on the beets bc I’ve had a batch brighter and a batch mucccch paler! Glad they were mostly a hit!!
Have made these twice now! My 2 year old daughter loves them! (She calls them her “pink muffins”) I just mix all the wet ingredients (including the cooked beets) in a high power blender and then mix with my dry ingredients in another bowl. I also only bake them for about 20 minutes! Great recipe! Thanks!
so glad you guys like them!
Delicious! I added two Tablespoons of unsweetened applesauce and used blackberries crushed with a fork. Yummy!!
so glad you liked them!
I made these with canned beets and Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free flour and they turned out magnificently. Thanks for the great recipe!
so glad to hear it!
These are just so pretty – what a gorgeous colour
My kids love the program Tumbleleaf and the characters on that show often eat Beetberry Muffins. I am very happy to find this recipe because they keep asking for these muffins specifically. We eat a gluten-free diet in my home. Will the recipe turn out using alternative flours? Thank you!
you should be able to sub a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend!
I made these today with some beets I had left from our CSA. I didn’t have whole wheat flour so I just used AP. I also used mini chocolate chips instead of blueberries because my daughter doesn’t like them. So far so good! She ate two today, and I’m happy to have another muffin to add to her rotation. These are great in addition to your carrot oat bars and chocolate squash muffins which are also her faves. Thanks for creating great recipes with veggies that are easy for kids to help with, too!
Just made these with my kids! Didn’t add the cinnamon, used a small amount of chocolate chips instead of blueberries . I added ~1/4 cup maple syrup and only used 1/4 cup of sugar. They were plenty sweet and I probably could’ve gotten away with 1/3 cup maple syrup and no sugar.
Thanks for the recipe!
Can you use oat flour? I don’t really use any white /whole wheat flour in my baking? As well can I substitute the egg for a flax instead. I love beets and this recipes looks incredible
flax egg should work fine. I haven’t tried with oat flour but it’s worth a shot!
These were easy to make and tasty. My kids loved the color and ate them happily. Next time, I will add just a bit of salt to bring out the other flavors.
Yum! I tried some with a flax egg and some with applesauce as an egg substitute and both seemed to work just fine. I think I’ll be making these for our Schrute Farms themed bridal shower coming up! Thanks for the recipe!
So surprised by how great these are. Even my ‘will puke in the presence of cooked beets’ husband loved these muffins. Even said they were his favorite out of all the muffins I make of yours (I’ve made 5-6 of your recipes) I didn’t do sugar, but instead added 2 bananas and apple sauce as my sweetener. I also used canned beets and the kids ate them up! Keeper recipe!!
What size food processor did you use for this recipe? I don’t think this small amount would blend in my big one, but it feels too big for my little one! 🙂
These muffins are almost exactly the same as the ones from my favorite bakery and even my beet hating husband loves them. I’ve made them at least 4 times in the last month alone! SO good! As for the flour, I used whole wheat with very good results.
Fantastic muffins! I’ve made them twice now – once with a gluten free flour mix in place of the the regular flour; the second time with an almond flour home mix (3/4 almond flour, 1/4 coconut flour, 1 tsp xantham gum). Both times, these turned out great, and my kids loved their “pink muffins”! In addition to being gluten free and dairy free, my kids (7, 5, and 3) have sensory processing challenges, and one is very picky because of it. These are such a great way to get in nutrients they wouldn’t get otherwise! This time, I tripled the recipe to freeze a bunch!
Fantastic muffins! I’ve made them twice now – once with a gluten free flour mix in place of the the regular flour; the second time with an almond flour home mix (3/4 almond flour, 1/4 coconut flour, 1 tsp xantham gum). I also use coconut sugar in place of sugar. Both times, these turned out great, and my kids loved their “pink muffins”! In addition to being gluten free and dairy free, my kids (7, 5, and 3) have sensory processing challenges, and one is very picky because of it. These are such a great way to get in nutrients they wouldn’t get otherwise! This time, I tripled the recipe to freeze a bunch!
Could I make this in a loaf pan?
yep!
Hi! I just tried this recipe, but it came out a regular brown color. I did roast the beets before pureeing it. Any advise on getting the red color? Also could you tell me how much 1 cup of chopped beets are in ounces? Not sure how to measure the chopped ones! Thanks!
This looks so good! What a great combination of flavors!
I love this recepy my first time they turned out nice and pink inside too now they turn pink on the outside and inside they come yellow any reason why! Please still testing good but I love the purple color
This is delicious. If you are still tasting beet it probably means that the vanilla you are using is not real vanilla, but imitation because the overwhelming flavor of the muffin (aside from when you hit a blueberry) is vanilla. You could possibly double the amount of imitation vanilla, but then deduct that amount from the liquid. I used golden beets and they were a lovely gold color. Just another option if you have a lot from a CSA. This is a great way to use leftover beets.
Lindsay,
These muffins are amazing! I’m currently a dietetic intern and used this recipe for a food demo serving 300 kids at an elementary school. Most of them said they’ve never tried beets before and they LOVED the muffins. What a great recipe to introduce kids to a new food. The only thing I changed was I added a pinch of salt. I would like to try these again using 2 cups of oats and omitting the flour.
Great recipe!
so happy to hear it!