Add Some Zest to Your Meal Prep with These 4-Way Vegan Orange Muffins

I love to meal prep on the weekends to save time during the school week, but eating the same thing every day can get seriously boring. Enter: vegan orange muffins that make 4 different flavor varieties per batch.

The mix-ins in these muffins keep things interesting, and the batter comes together in just one bowl, so clean-up is a breeze. Bake a batch of these versatile muffins, and you’ll have the perfect muffin on hand for any time of day, all week long!

How to Make Vegan Orange Muffins

These vegan orange muffins are incredibly easy to prepare. Just whisk together the dry ingredients, fold in the wet ingredients, and your batter is ready! Since there’s no butter to cream, you won’t even need to pull out an electric mixer.

However, there is one essential kitchen tool for this recipe: a zester. Adding the zest from not one, but two, oranges is what gives these muffins their sunny citrus flavor. Don’t skip this step!

How do we turn our one-bowl batter into four different kinds of orange muffins? All it takes is a bit of creativity and a smidge of patience. We’ll spoon the batter into nine out of twelve cavities in a muffin tin, leaving three to fill later.

Then, using a toothpick or your finger, push a handful of blueberries into one column of muffins, chocolate chips into the second column, and dried cranberries into the third. Add more of each topping on top.

To make the fourth flavor variety – almond orange muffins – add a few drops of almond extract to the quarter of the batter remaining in the bowl. Almond extract is pretty potent, so you don’t need much for the flavor to come through. After spooning this batter into the last three muffin cavities, sprinkle slivered almonds on top for a nice crunch.

After that, the muffins are ready to bake! I recommend letting these vegan orange muffins cool completely before tucking them away in some Tupperware to enjoy later in the week. To keep the muffins as moist as possible, store them in the refrigerator rather than on the countertop.  

4-Way Vegan Orange Muffins

• Prep Time:15 mins
• Cook Time:20 mins
• Total Time:35 mins
• Servings:12
• Easy

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1 cup non-dairy milk
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp orange juice
• zest from 2 oranges
• 1/4 cup blueberries
• 1 Tbsp dried cranberries
• 1 Tbsp chocolate chips
• 1/8 tsp almond extract - reserved

• Step 1

  Preheat the oven to 400F and prepare a muffin pan with 12 liners.

• Step 2

  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

• Step 3

  Add the almond milk, applesauce, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, orange juice, and orange zest. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined.

  

• Step 4

  Spoon the batter into 9 muffin liners, reserving a quarter of the batter for later. Using a toothpick or your finger, push a few blueberries into the batter in 3 of the liners, cranberries into another 3, and chocolate chips into the last 3. Top each muffin with more of each mix-in.

  

• Step 5

  Mix the almond extract into the remaining batter and use it to fill the last 3 muffin liners. Sprinkle slivered almonds on top.

  

• Step 6

  Bake the muffins for 20-23 minutes, until the tops are lightly golden and spring back when touched.

  

• Step 7

  Let the muffins cool completely, then store in an airtight container. The muffins will keep well for up to a week in the refrigerator.

Even More Flavor Varieties

I've chosen four kinds of vegan orange muffins with a range of flavor profiles so you don't get sick of them halfway through the week, but there are lots of variations you can make instead:

Very Berry: If you like lush pockets of fruit in your muffins, raspberries and chopped strawberries are a great alternative or addition to blueberries.

The Chocoholic: replace 1/4 cup of flour with cocoa powder and add chocolate chips to make a batch of decadent chocolate orange muffins.

A Little Nutty: other nuts such as pecans, walnuts, or pistachios can be used in place of almonds.

Feel free to experiment and see what flavor combinations you like the most! This recipe is so versatile that you can also easily use it to make lemon muffins by using lemon zest and juice instead of orange. You can throw in some poppyseeds to give the muffins a pretty speckled appearance, too!

Whatever variations of these vegan orange muffins you make, I hope they’ll help you conquer the mid-week meal prep slump. Sadly, you can't live on muffins alone though, so check out these affordable meal prep recipes for even more meal-prep inspiration to fuel your busy life.

A little Nutty: other nuts, such as pecans, walnuts, or pistachios, can be used in place of almonds