This Greek yogurt zucchini bread is one of my favorite ways to use up summer zucchini. Naturally sweetened with honey, made with wholesome ingredients, and packed with moisture from Greek yogurt, it’s soft, flavorful, and easy to make with just a couple bowls and no mixer required.
I originally published this recipe in 2015 and have since updated it with new photos and additional success tips.
This is my go-to, healthier version of classic zucchini bread.
The loaf bakes up wonderfully moist with a tender crumb and lightly spiced flavor. You can enjoy it plain, add chopped nuts for crunch (love walnuts in this), fold in dried cranberries or fresh blueberries for a burst of fruit, or stir in chocolate chips for a sweeter treat.
You can also bake this batter as Greek yogurt zucchini muffins. However you make it, you’ll love how simple, versatile, and reliably delicious it is. It’s one of my favorite ways to use up summer zucchini.
One reader, Ashley, commented: “These are excellent! Made the muffins last night and they’re already almost all gone. I peeled the zucchini before I grated it and it’s the first time my vegetable-hesitant preschooler has eaten zucchini bread (and he asked for thirds). ★★★★★“
And another reader, Val, commented: “Best healthier zucchini bread I’ve made yet. ★★★★★“
Why You’ll Love This Greek Yogurt Zucchini Bread
- Naturally sweetened with honey—no refined sugar (coarse sugar on top is optional!)
- Wonderfully moist from Greek yogurt, avocado oil, and zucchini
- Made with simple, wholesome ingredients
- Easy to customize with nuts, berries, or chocolate chips
- Lightly flavored with cinnamon, vanilla, and fresh orange zest
- No mixer required
- Can be baked as a loaf or muffins
- Freezes beautifully
5 Key Ingredients You Need & Why
- Greek Yogurt: I typically use plain 2% or nonfat Greek yogurt. It adds moisture, richness, and a wonderfully soft texture without making the bread heavy.
- Honey: Honey is my preferred sweetener here because it complements the zucchini and warm spices so well. It also helps keep the bread moist for days. If you’d like to use pure maple syrup instead, many readers have reported excellent results.
- Oil: Avocado oil is my go-to choice, but melted coconut oil, melted butter, or olive oil all work well in this recipe. You could also use canola or vegetable oil instead.
- Zucchini: No need to peel it first, though you certainly can. Simply grate the zucchini and lightly blot away excess moisture if it seems particularly wet. I always use this box grater for prepping zucchini.
- Orange Zest: This is optional, but I never skip it. A little orange zest brightens all the flavors and pairs beautifully with the honey, cinnamon, and zucchini. I know you’ll love it.
Greek Yogurt Zucchini Bread Batter
Today’s zucchini bread comes together quickly with just 2 mixing bowls. Whisk the dry ingredients together in one bowl and the wet ingredients together in another. For the smoothest batter, I recommend starting with room-temperature ingredients, which combine much more easily. If you’re interested, I have an entire page discussing the importance of room temperature ingredients in baking!
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently mix until just combined. Fold in the zucchini and orange zest. If you’re adding any add-ins, fold them in with the zucchini and zest. The batter will be fairly thick, and that’s exactly what you want.
Feel free to sprinkle the batter lightly with coarse sugar, such as Sugar In The Raw, before baking.
For best results, bake the bread in an 8.5×4.5-inch loaf pan. Look for a pan labeled “1-lb loaf pan.” This size loaf pan helps the bread bake up taller with a beautiful domed top and a soft, moist center. If using a 9×5-inch pan, the loaf will be shorter and take less time in the oven.
Whether you make it as a loaf or muffins, this is a wonderful recipe to keep on hand throughout zucchini season!
If you have more zucchini to use up, try my zucchini cake, zucchini fritters, or zucchini biscuits next. And for even more inspiration, browse my collection of favorite zucchini recipes, including both sweet and savory options.
Greek Yogurt Zucchini Bread
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours (includes cooling)
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Greek yogurt zucchini bread is one of my favorite ways to use up summer zucchini. Naturally sweetened with honey, made with wholesome ingredients, and packed with moisture from Greek yogurt, it’s soft, flavorful, and easy to make with just a couple bowls and no mixer required. Bake it as a loaf or turn the batter into muffins.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup (76g/80ml) avocado oil, olive oil, or melted coconut oil*
- 1/2 cup (180g/120ml) honey*
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120g) plain Greek yogurt, at room temperature*
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup (130g) shredded zucchini (see note)*
- optional: 2 teaspoons orange zest (so good!)
- optional: 3/4 cup (95g) chopped walnuts, (115g) raisins/dried cranberries, or (135g) chocolate chips
- optional: coarse sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease an 8.5×4.5-inch loaf pan with butter or nonstick spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the oil, honey, egg, yogurt, and vanilla together until combined.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Avoid overmixing. The batter is thick. Fold in the zucchini, orange zest, and add-ins (if using).
- Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle lightly with coarse sugar, if desired, before baking.
- Bake the bread for 50–55 minutes, tenting loosely with foil about halfway through to prevent the top from over-browning. Poke the center of the bread with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, the bread is done.
- Remove from the oven and allow the bread to cool in the pan set on a cooling rack for 1 hour. After that, remove the bread from the pan and let it finish cooling directly on the rack.
- Slice and serve. Cover and store leftover bread at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Bread freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Box Grater | 8.5 x 9.5-inch Loaf Pan (1-lb loaf pan)| Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Wooden Spoon or Silicone Spatula | Citrus Zester | Coarse Sugar | Cooling Rack
- Muffins: Prepare batter as instructed. Grease a 12-count muffin pan or use liners. Fill with batter all the way to the top. Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F (218°C) then, keeping the muffins in the oven, lower the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C) and continue to bake for an additional 13-14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before serving. Makes about 10-12 muffins.
- Oil: You can use avocado oil, olive oil, or melted coconut oil. You could also use vegetable oil or canola oil, or even melted butter. I typically use avocado oil.
- Honey: Instead of honey, you can use pure maple syrup (not “breakfast syrup”) or agave syrup.
- Yogurt: I use plain 2% or nonfat Greek yogurt. Vanilla or honey flavors would work wonderfully here!
- Zucchini: If your zucchini is extra wet, blot it a bit before adding to the batter.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 198
- Sugar: 14.3 g
- Sodium: 191.4 mg
- Fat: 8 g
- Carbohydrates: 29.3 g
- Protein: 3.5 g
- Cholesterol: 19 mg
Reader Comments and Reviews
I love your recipes! Question: May I substitute oat flour and maple syrup instead of honey?
Hi Leslie, we have not tested oat flour in this bread. Maple syrup works great here!
Fantastic recipe. I added shredded carrots as well, also used olive oil because that is all I had. Did half regular flour and half oat flour. Very fluffy and light results. Thank you for the recipe!
Can I use regular plain full fat yogurt instead of Greek yogurt?
Hi Brooke, yes, that will work in a pinch.
Can I use olive oil instead?
Hi Daniela, olive oil has a very distinct flavor. I recommend vegetable or canola oil in place of coconut.
This yogurt zucchini bread is delicious. I used maple syrup instead of honey because it’s what I have. Otherwise, I followed the recipe. I used walnuts too. It baked well and is moist and flavorful.
So good! I used King Arthur gluten free “measure for measure” flour and it is absolutely delicious! Not overly sweet and super moist.
For the gal that used gluten-free flour measured to measure. Did you make any other adjustments? I need to make this one with that flower as well.
Omg this recipe is sooooo good. The best part of this recipe is that is not too sugary. (even in an Asian’s standard lol) I substituted 50g honey with brown sugar—and it went out perfect! Also its texture is soft and moist. Totally love it. We’re having zucchini shortage in my area right now so I substituted it with cucumber. It also worked. For anyone who concerns about sweetness -this recipe is perfect for ya, go try it!
Would love the nutritional information
Hi Heather, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
This is the best zucchini bread I’ve made…so moist and not super sweet! I love that it used coconut oil instead of seed oils and used honey instead of sugar! Thanks for a healthy bread that my kids and husband love!
I love this bread and healthy ingredients recipe. I’ve taken it to friends house and it was gone. My husband raves about it. I’m not a big fan of zucchini but with this recipe, I can eat it every day. Thank you.
My family loves so many of your recipes, I am excited to try the healthier ones too. Does the melted coconut oil need to be unrefined that starts in a solid and then melted, or can I use refined that comes in a liquid form? Thank you!
Hi Lauren, you can use either in this recipe. Enjoy!
These are excellent! Made the muffins last night and they’re already almost all gone. I peeled the zucchini before I grated it and it’s the first time my vegetable-hesitant preschooler has eaten zucchini bread (and he asked for thirds). I also tried maple syrup instead of agave (1:1) and it worked great
Any tips for getting even amounts of batter into each muffin well? Thank you!
I use a small cookie scoop when I make muffins/cupcakes. Works out pretty well.
Best healthier zucchini bread I’ve made yet.
I want to try this recipe but do you give the calories and nutrition info anywhere?
Hi Mary, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Hi, Sally! I’m planning to make these tomorrow, but I wondered if whole wheat or bread flour would be an okay substitute? I JUST ran out of all-purpose flour, and won’t be able to make it to the store before tomorrow!
Hi Rey, You can substitute the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. The bread will taste heavier with the heavier flour, though. Enjoy!
This recipe is amazing! I replaced the coconut oil with butter on a 1:1 ratio. The bread has a perfectly moist consistency and is stable – it doesn’t fall apart even when topped with butter and honey 🙂
Can I use sugar in place of honey
Hi Ellie, that swap should work. Or we’d recommend following our regular zucchini bread instead. You can use Greek yogurt in place of the applesauce.
I love this recipe and my kids devoured these. The texture is so good. I subbed regular sugar for the honey and did 1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg because I love the spices of the other zucchini muffins recipe on this site. This one is going to be a regular for us!
These turned out amazing. I didn’t have enough honey, so I did half honey half maple syrup. I made muffins and had to bake them a bit longer. Will be making these again.
Can I sub melted butter instead of vegetable/coconut oil? Always love your recipes! Thanks!
Hi Margaret, You can try it, but in this zucchini bread the oil serves to keep the crumb light and moist, where the butter could weigh the batter down.
Thoughts on making this with all whole wheat flour or a mix of of AP and whole wheat? I haven’t baked much with the latter but have a bag of it I’m trying to use up! Worried it might affect the texture though.
Hi Maggie! You can substitute the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. The bread will taste heavier with the heavier flour, though.
I need to know the sodium content of this bread
Hi Lois, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Can these be made without eggs? My baby has an egg allergy.
Hi Colby, we haven’t tested any egg alternatives, so I’m unsure of the exact result. Let us know if you do!
If i want to add in some strawberries with the chocolate chips, should i change anything?
Hi Adi, you can add some strawberries with the chocolate chips, keeping the total amount of add-ins to about 3/4 cup. Keep in mind that strawberries can be quite wet, so the bake time may be just a few minutes longer. Enjoy!
Thank you for sharing with us your Recipe.
Hello,
Can I use maple syrup as a sweetener for this recipe?
Yes, that works!
If you use a vanilla or honey yogurt should you reduce the amount of the either of those ingredients? And thoughts on by how much?
Hi Nancy, you can use either with no changes to the recipe. Enjoy!
These were a huge hit at our house! Made them into muffins-baked for 18 minutes. Also, added a scoop of vanilla protein powder (in place of the equivalent amount of flour) and added two tablespoons of hemp seeds. (Teen athletes at home want as much protein power as possible!) I omitted the zest but did add the walnuts, which I toasted for 5 minutes first! Thanks for such a great recipe!
What are the calories please
We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Great recipe. Love that it has clean ingredients
Can I use cane sugar instead of honey?
Hi Denise, that swap should work. Or we’d recommend following our regular zucchini bread instead. You can use Greek yogurt in place of the applesauce.