Vegan zucchini buns are soft, moist, tender and super easy and quick to make. You can do them with fresh or dry yeast and the zucchini will keep the buns extra moist and soft. We make a batch at least twice a week as they are perfect for a quick lunch, snack and even for breakfast with some homemade jam.
🎥 Video
These vegan zucchini buns are one of the easiest recipes you will ever make. We promise. There are weeks when we make these every other day. We wake up, mix the dough, let it rest, take a shower, shape the buns, brush our teeth, bake the buns, drink our coffee, et voilà...our buns are ready 🙂 We've done them so many times we don't really measure the flour anymore.
🥬 Ingredients
Fresh yeast or dry yeast: this recipe uses quite a bit of yeast to keep proofing time under one hour. You can use either fresh yeast or dry yeast. In either case, make sure you read our tips below.
Flour: we always recommend organic flour. You can use 100% all purpose flour or you can mix it up. We like to do a mix with 50% all purpose, 30% wholegrain and 20% semolina.
Water: tap water is fine. Make sure is lukewarm.
Unsweetened soy milk: this is optional but we recommended as it makes the buns more fluffy and yummy. Try to get organic one.
Sugar: you can use any sugar or syrup. You'll just need a little bit to help the yeast ferment.
Sea salt: we recommend sea salt as opposed to table salt. It's healthier and has better flavour.
🔪 Equipment
You'll need a large bowl, a wooden spoon and a grater to grate the zucchini. If you don't want to do the buns by hand you can use a food processor or kitchen robot.
📋 Recipe Card
Vegan zucchini buns recipe
Ingredients
- 40 grams fresh yeast or 15 grams active dry yeast
- 4 cups flour 600 grams
- 0.8 cups lukewarm water 2 dl
- 0.4 cups unsweetened soy milk 1 dl
- 1 medium zucchini
- 0.5 tbsp sugar
- 0.5 tbsp sea salt
Instructions
- Add plant milk, warm water, sugar and fresh yeast into a large bowl.
- With your hands or with a wooden spoon, dissolve the fresh yeast and the sugar in the liquid. Make sure that the liquid is lukewarm to help the yeast wake up.
- Add grated zucchini to the liquid and incorporate with a wooden spoon.
- Add the flour a little at a time while stirring in with the wooden spoon.
- Add the salt and keep stirring and mixing until you have a dough.
- Continue adding flour until you get to a dough that is still moist and soft, but does not stick to the wooden spoon. In total you should knead for about 15 min.
- Cover the bowl with a kitchen cloth and let proof for 30 mins or until the dough double in size.
- On a baking tray with parchment paper or silicon baking mat, shape 9 buns and distribute evenly on the tray. You can shape the buns with your hands or with two spoons. In both cases, wet the hands or the spoons so that the dough doesn't stick.
- Preheat the oven at 200°C (390°F), while allowing the buns to proof on the tray for another 15 minutes.
- If you want, you can sprinkle some seeds on top of the buns. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
- If you can, let the buns cool down before eating them.
Video
Nutrition
👨🏻🍳 Top tips
Start with the liquids
To make these vegan zucchini buns, we start with the liquid. We know that one cube of fresh yeast (40 grams) goes with 3 dl of liquid (2dl water + 1dl soy milk). Start with that. Then, add the flour as you go, while mixing. When you have reached your desired consistency that's it.
Louise likes our buns softer, fluffier, and more chewy, so sometimes, when I want to make her really happy I add less flour and let the dough more hydrated and sticky. I prefer the buns firm, with more bite, and rounder, and for this I need to add a bit more flour and have a firmer dough.
It's really up to you how you like your buns. Remember to always start with the liquid and you won't go wrong. Give it a go and you'll get the hang of it. And you'll never have to buy bread buns again.
Make your yeast happy
Yeast are fascinating creatures. Give it the right conditions and they will make bread for you. Isn't it incredible? Since we want to make these buns often and quickly we require the yeast to act fast. To do this, make sure you dissolve the yeast in lukewarm liquid.
First, we add the refrigerated milk to the bowl. Then we add the water - hot from the tap - into the cold milk. This creates a lukewarm liquid perfect for the yeast. If you want to give an extra boost to your yeast, add a teaspoon or two of sugar. Agave syrup and maple syrup will work too.
Careful with the salt
If you want to bring out the flavour of the zucchini, you need to add some salt to these buns. We prefer to use good quality sea salt, ideally unrefined and with label of origin. Sea salt is made by simply letting sea water evaporate in the sun. It's a natural product and is full of minerals that give it a much more complex flavour than cheap table salt.
Table salt is mined from underground, is heavily processed and contains a bunch of chemicals to make it stay dry. In my opinion it really damages the flavour of food.
In any case, whatever salt you choose to use, make sure you add it towards the middle of the process, and never directly in touch with the yeast. The salt will dehydrate the yeast and eventually kill it and your bread won't proof.
Use wooden spoon and wet spoons
We usually like to get our hands dirty when cooking, however, since we make these buns very often, we prefer to make them without getting our hands dirty. To do that, you can simply make the dough a bit more hydrated than usual - just add less flour - and keep kneading it in your bowl with a wooden spoon without touching it with your hands. It might take you a minute or two to get use to it, but you'll get the hang of it.
Also, to shape the buns, you can simply use two tablespoons and shape the dough in between them. Just remember to dip the spoons in water before shaping each bun. The water will prevent the buns from sticking to the spoons.
We hope you liked these super easy vegan zucchini buns. They are quick to make, soft, tasty, and perfect for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. If you like bread, we think you might also like our homemade vegan carrot buns and our delicious and super simple no-knead bread.
🥫 Storage
These vegan buns can keep for about 3 days in a bread basket covered with a kitchen cloth, and up to 4 days if you warm them up again.
🍝 Related recipes
- Vegan carrot buns
- Homemade no-knead bread
- Pasta aglio olio e peperoncino
- Vegan asparagus risotto
- Vegan pasta salad with lemon vinaigrette
If you have any tips or questions let us know in the comments below!
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