These vegan lemon blueberry muffins are fluffy and tender with just the right amount of sweetness from the juicy blueberries to balance out the tangy lemony flavor. Ready in just 30 minutes using just a handful of simple ingredients, these bakery-style muffins make for the perfect breakfast or anytime snack. Plus it is naturally gluten-free!

With spring approaching, I like to go all in on the seasonal flavor combos and one of my all-time favorites is the pairing of lemons and blueberries. This time of year, nothing beats a refreshing lemon blueberry smoothie in the morning or a fresh batch of softly-baked lemon blueberry cookies for dessert.
But lately I have been satisfying this craving with this vegan muffin recipe. Not only does it taste incredible, but it also makes it easy to feed the whole family, especially on busy mornings where we need to just grab a quick breakfast and go.
My easy vegan blueberry muffins and, more recently, my fluffy vegan blackberry muffins have been our go-to vegan muffins, but this lemon muffin recipe is now in the rotation! The fresh berries combined with fresh lemon juice wakes up the taste buds in a way like no other.
Why You'll Love these Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Delicious freshly-baked muffins
- Quick and easy - ready in 30 minutes
- No fancy ingredients
- Wholesome and nutrient-rich
- Vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free and nut-free
Making Healthy Muffins for Breakfast
These muffins really are an ideal health boost as you transition seasons. The fresh blueberries and fresh lemons combine perfectly with the warmth and protein of the oat flour.
Maple syrup and coconut cream top these off with just the right amount of sweetness. Whether you’re continuing your health journey or are trying to reset after eating heavy during the cold winter days, these muffins give you nutrients and convenience in a perfect on-the-go package to start your day, and season, off right!
Ingredients
- Old-fashioned oats - a great source of carbs, protein and fiber, keeping you fuller for longer!
- Baking powder
- Fine salt
- Maple syrup
- Avocado oil or vegetable oil
- Unsweetened non-dairy milk (i.e., almond milk, cashew milk, oat milk)
- Lemons - helps support your immune system with high amounts of vitamin C
- Vanilla extract
- Fresh blueberries - lots of antioxidants and vitamin C and they aid in digestion too!
See the recipe card for precise measurements and instructions.
How to Make Perfect Muffins for Breakfast
Beyond tasting delicious, looking beautiful, and providing the right nutrients, these muffins are also super simple to make! You can make the oat flour yourself — just pop old fashioned oats in your blender and blend until it becomes a flour-like consistency.
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with silicone or paper muffin liners.
2. Blend oats into a flour (if not using store-bought). Add oats to a dry high speed blender and process the oats until a fine oat flour forms. Pour the oat flour into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add baking powder and salt to the mixing bowl. Stir to combine and set aside.
4. Blend the wet ingredients. Rinse out the blender (if used to make the oat flour) and add maple syrup, oil, dairy-free milk, vanilla and lemon juice and zest. Blend for 30 seconds on high speed then pour into the mixing bowl. Stir well to combine.
5. Gently fold in the blueberries. I like to set aside a handful or two of blueberries to top the muffins for presentation.
6. Fill the liners with the muffin batter. Top with reserved blueberries for presentation.
7. Bake the muffins. Start by baking for 10 minutes. Then, without opening the oven door, lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for another 10 minutes. This step helps them rise quickly but not burn.
8. Allow muffins to cool. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing the muffins from the muffin pan. Transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Drizzle with melted coconut butter or cashew icing and sprinkle with lemon zest if desired.
Storage
Store leftover muffins in the refrigerator, in an airtight container, for up to 5 days. They will stay fresh and fluffy!
You can also freeze these muffins very easily and store them in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw at room temperature completely before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Since this is a popular recipe that has received many comments, I have answered some of the common reader questions here for you.
Why are my muffins not fluffy and moist?
If you find that your muffins come out too dense, there are a few things to try to get your muffins back to being moist and fluffy!
- You can substitute ½ cup of almond flour for ½ cup of oats
- Make sure to grind the oats quite fine, as coarsely ground oats will make for a more dry and dense muffin. Or use store-bought oats to ensure it is very fine.
- Be careful of overtaxing the batter! My tip is to just mix until the last dry bit of flour has been mixed in and then stop.
What brand of oats is the best to use?
I use Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free certified oats for this recipe. I find their products are always consistent, fresh and taste great. If you are using any other brand of oats, you might have to adjust the amount of oats slightly to prevent dryness.
Can you use frozen blueberries?
Yes, you can use frozen blueberries instead of fresh ones. The only difference you might have is the color of the frozen blueberries sometimes leaks into the muffin batter and could give it a slight purple hue.
More Vegan Breakfast Recipes
Another super easy muffin recipe that you can make in your blender is my popular dye-free green muffins - they're the perfect baked snack to make for St. Patrick's Day or for your kids as they are packed with nutrition too!
If you have more of a hankering for chocolate, try my pumpkin swirl muffins, chocolate oat flour muffins or vegan chocolate donuts with ganache glaze! They are so tasty and fluffy while being good for you too!
Try my vegan baked oatmeal and homemade vegan pop-tarts. These are fantastic family-friendly breakfast recipes that are healthy too.
This recipe is vegan, soy-free, grain-free, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, raw and nut-free. If you give it a try, please let me know! Leave a comment or rating below and tag a photo @eatingbyelaine so I can see your delicious lemon and blueberry muffin creations!
Print
Fluffy Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These gluten-free lemon and blueberry muffins are fluffy and tender with just the right amount of sweetness to balance out the tangy lemon flavor. The pop of fresh and juicy blueberries pairs perfectly with the bright lemon. The muffins are refined sugar-free, nut-free and full of wholesome nutrient-rich ingredients.
Ingredients
- 3 cups old fashioned oats (certified gluten-free if desired)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup avocado oil or melted coconut oil
- ¼ cup unsweetened plain plant-based milk (I use almond milk or oat milk)
- 2 lemons, zested and juiced (6 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with silicone or paper muffin liners.
- Blend oats into a flour (if not using store-bought). Add oats to a dry high speed blender and process the oats until a fine oat flour forms. Pour the oat flour into a large mixing bowl.
- Add baking powder and salt to the mixing bowl. Stir to combine and set aside.
- Blend the wet ingredients. Rinse out the blender (if used to make the oat flour) and add maple syrup, oil, dairy-free milk, vanilla and lemon juice and zest. Blend for 30 seconds on high speed then pour into the mixing bowl. Stir well to combine.
- Gently fold in the blueberries. I like to set aside a handful or two of blueberries to top the muffins for presentation.
- Fill the liners with the muffin batter. Top with reserved blueberries for presentation.
- Bake the muffins. Start by baking for 10 minutes. Then, without opening the oven door, lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for another 10 minutes. This step helps them rise quickly but not burn.
- Allow muffins to cool. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing the muffins from the muffin pan. Transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Drizzle with melted coconut butter or cashew icing and sprinkle with lemon zest if desired.
Notes
Store leftover muffins in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can also freeze these muffins, just thaw them completely before serving.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 20
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Oven Baked
- Cuisine: American
Di says
I would not recommend this recipe. I made these exactly to the recipe. The muffins were not fluffy at all they were like lead.
The batter was like stiff dough.
Elaine Gordon says
Omigosh, I'm devastated to hear this, Di. I'm so terribly sorry that it wasted your time and ingredients and did not turn out well for you. This is honestly one of my favorite recipes and it never turns out like this for me. Please let me know if there is anything at all that was slightly different so I can make a note of it for others. I am so upset this did not work out for you. Again, I'm so so sorry!
Yonna says
Here same problem! I used frozen blueberries... thought this might have caused the dough to stiffen too much. I have three in the oven to try and hope to save the rest.... just don’t know how.
Elaine Gordon says
Hi there - thank you for commenting on this. I'm so sorry you are having trouble with the texture. Are you using store-bought oat flour by any chance? And are you using almond meal or almond flour?
Shilpa M. says
Tried this today and my lemon loving, gluten free, sugar free, dairy free kid and family absolutely loved it. I substituted almond milk for just plain water but still the outcome was amazing. Perfect combination of sourness, sweetness and berri-ness. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Elaine Gordon says
Thank you so much for letting me know! I really appreciate your positive review for these muffins. Good to know about the water substitution if I'm ever out!
Marla says
These were yummy! I ended up needing to add an extra 1/2 cup of plant milk since my batter was so thick and difficult to mix (I used old fashion oats to make the oat flour). I only had one lemon to zest and use the juice and compensated the rest of the lemon juice with the kind that comes in a bottle. It ended up still being nice a lemony. Thank you for the recipe!
Elaine Gordon says
Hi, Marla! Sorry for the delayed response here. I somehow missed your comment before. So happy you enjoyed them. If you are ever low on lemon in the future another option is to use a little lemon extract and more plant-milk. I hope that helps and thank you for the review! Best, Elaine
AMR says
Starting off by saying I absolutely love this recipe and have recommended it to my friends and family!! The flavors are so delicious! I did find that 3 cups of oats did make my muffins feel a bit dense so I reduced it down to 2.5 cups and that seemed to do the trick. Can you confirm what brand of oats you're using? Perhaps it's my brand!
Also, this past time I made the recipe I tried drizzling coconut butter on top of the muffins once they cooled, but the butter just blended into the muffins. Is there a trick to getting it to be more like a frosting? I've never worked with coconut butter before. Thanks!
Elaine Gordon says
Thank you so much for letting me know you love it! And thank you even more for recommending this recipe to your friends and family. I really appreciate you spreading the word. I use Bob's Red Mill gluten-free certified oats for this recipe. If you find it too dense you could substitute 1/2 cup of almond flour for 1/2 cup of oats. Additionally, it really helps the texture to finely grind the oats before mixing in the other ingredients. And, to keep them light and fluffy don't over-mix the batter. I should probably mention that in the recipe!
As for the coconut butter, the muffins might seem cool but if they are still warm inside they will emit heat and melt the coconut butter. So, you might want to actually stick them in the freezer for 2 hours to make sure they are fully cooled. Then, you can add the coconut butter while they are frozen. This should do the trick. Also, make sure the coconut butter itself is not too hot. You do want it melted but not burning hot or it won't harden back up. I hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions. I'm happy to give more tips.
And thank you for taking the time to give me this feedback!
Honey says
These were awesome! I used fresh blueberries & added a dash of cardamom!
They did turn out a tiny bit gummy; maybe I over-mixed the batter? Another few minutes in the oven may have solved it...
Next time, I'll try subbing out 1/2 c of a different flour (have you experimented w/tigernut flour?) and sprinkling a bit of coconut sugar on top for a little crunchy sweetness!
So, 5 stars! Thank you!
Elaine Gordon says
Thank you so much, Honey! I'm sorry to hear they turned out gummy for you though. Yes, perhaps over-mixing the batter was it... or under-baking... it is hard to say... they definitely should be light and fluffy though! And crumbly not gummy :). I would not recommend substituting a different flour in this recipe though as gluten-free baking flour swaps don't work 1:1. I have tigernut flour in my pantry and need to use it more myself... I imagine it will be very different from oat flour since oat flour is more dense and absorbs more liquid. I love the idea of sprinkling coconut sugar on top for crunchy sweetness. I sometimes mix it with a little almond flour and vegan butter for a little streusel... I have an apple muffin recipe coming to the blog next week with the exact measurements for a yummy cinnamon streusel so please look out for that! Anyhow, thanks for the five star rating and taking the time to comment thoughtfully with your feedback. I hope they turn out better for you the next time you try them!
Shayla says
Just made these and they came out great! Being vegan and gluten free can be challenging so I'm always looking for new recipes and this one is a keeper. I was nervous because I had to substitute with frozen blueberries and the batter started getting sticky but after baking it was so light and fluffy.
Elaine Gordon says
Aw, yay! Thank you so much for letting me know, Shayla! I'm so glad it didn't affect the texture for you. I love this muffin recipe so much and now I'm craving it for breakfast tomorrow! LOL!
Sandy Reid says
Hi Elaine,
I love all of your recipes. Same problem as some of the others. I put 2.5 cups of oat flour instead of processing the 3 cups of oats. maybe I will try 2 cups.
batter becomes too thick then muffins too dry.
will try again.
I make so many of your recipes and always tell everyone about eatingbyelaine!!!
Elaine Gordon says
Thanks, Sandy! I really appreciate that! Sorry to hear the muffins came out thick and dry for you... that is not yummy at all! Yes, try making your own oat flour - maybe that is it? I wish I could be there in the kitchen with you to help. Feel free to send along any specific questions via email (elaine@eatingbyelaine.com) and I can help you out! Happy holidays!
Jenny says
Hi!
I love all of your recipes but I can’t get this one right. The muffins all turn out really crumbly and dry. They make a huge mess everywhere.
The taste is delicious though. I’ve made them maybe 8+ times and still have this problem. The batter is super thick and foamy before placing in the muffin tin.
Elaine Gordon says
Hi Jenny: Thank you for reaching out about this. I'm so sorry to hear this... they definitely should not be turning out crumbly and dry. We want fluffy and moist! Thank you for continuing to try... are you 100% sure you are using all the correct ingredients and measurements? Is your oven temperature correct? I have the best luck with muffins in general when I use my silicone muffin cups and spray them with avocado oil before the batter goes in. Your batter should not be "super thick" so perhaps your oats are absorbing the liquid if they are sitting for too long before baking? I usually mix everything together and put them in the oven right away. Could that be it? It is hard to say what it might be without being there with you so the more information you can give me the better I can help you. Thank you again for letting me know. I hope we can figure this one out together! Best, Elaine
Maria M. says
I just had the same situation. The batter was just super thick and not moist while mixing together. I used the exact amount of ingredients. Not sure what happened tbh.
Monica Thomas says
Love the lemony flavor of these & the zest! I was skeptical using all the zest from the 2 lemons, but it was fantastic, I love the bite & zing it created. Keeping these in a container for a quick grab & go breakfast.!
I used coconut oil & unsweetened almond milk, and am so appreciative for a good muffin recipe that doesn’t have dairy.
The directions are easy to follow, and uses everyday ingredients (with options!), which is an added bonus.
Will be making these again & again!
Elaine Gordon says
Thank you so much, Monica! I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed the muffins so much! I make them all the time too! That lemon blueberry combo just never disappoints!
Gracie says
THIS IS THE BEST RECIPE EVER.
Best combination of all the spring/summer freshness that I need.
Thank you so much!
Elaine Gordon says
Thank you so much, Gracie! Best comment ever! I love this one too... Be sure to also check out my Lemon Blueberry Smoothie: https://www.eatingbyelaine.com/vegan-paleo-lemon-blueberry-smoothie-no-banana/ - same combo of flavors but in smoothie form 🙂
Virginia says
Hi Elaine,
Can't wait to giving these a try! Have you tried using frozen blueberries instead? This may be the option I go with due to the crazy costs of fresh ones... but don't want to sacrifice taste/texture.
Virginia says
Hi Elaine,
Can't wait to try these! Have you tried using frozen blueberries instead? I might go with that option due to the crazy cost of fresh ones but don't want to sacrifice taste/texture...
Elaine Gordon says
Hi, Virginia! I have not personally but I know this is commonly done in muffin recipes so it should be fine. You could thaw them out slightly before adding. Please let me know how this turns out for you! Best, Elaine
Maria says
Hi Elaine, Happy new year and thanks for the recipe. They were delicious, a bit gummy for me. I’m a new baker and so this is likely due to my own knowledge (or lack thereof)! Can these be frozen and eaten later?
Elaine Gordon says
Thank you, Maria! Happy new year you to you too! Yes, they can be frozen and thawed out and enjoyed later for sure. I hope you the texture improves as they cool to room temperature - for me that usually is the case. Also did you use store bought flour or did you make your own? Sometimes that can make a difference.