Zucchini is my favourite summer vegetable, and this lightly sweetened vegan banana zucchini bread is my favourite way to enjoy it!

We are only a handful of days away from the official start of summer! Summer solstice is a day of good vibes. It marks day one of my favourite season. The days are long, the nights are short, and while that sounds like a hazardous combination for my insomniac self, it means more time for the summer activities I adore so much. Lazy lake days, picnics at the park, watching sunsets at 10pm from the nearby pier, hiking new trails, U-pick berries, hacking open countless watermelons, grilling flatbread pizza for every party, and baking loaf after loaf of zucchini bread. Ok pretty much any day without school is a great day but the warm sunshine and blue skies lifts my spirits to even higher heights.

I spent the first month of my summer break in Hong Kong but am super excited to be spending the rest of my summer in the place that is best enjoyed at this time of year: Vancouver. Our home city is such a dream during the summer months. It’s warm enough to sport all your cute summer attire but uncomfortably hot. The sky is blue almost everyday and the ocean breeze dances through your hair as you zip along the Sea Wall on bicycles. The alpine trails are open, the beaches and lakes are warm enough to swim at, and everyone is just in a dandy mood. When I see the happy tourists strolling around downtown, I feel like I’m on vacation too! Summer is such a happy time here. Even though there are so many foreign countries I want to visit, I’d prefer spending my Julys and Augusts at home and jet off during the more dreary months.

Both of our homes have grassy backyards and being able to enjoy them is one of summer’s greatest pleasures. Whether it be rolling out our yoga mats for a stretch, bring our lunch outside, or learning to sing a new duet, we want to soak in the vitamin D while we can!

Neither of us are particularly talented at singing, but it washes away our tensions and gives us a temporary challenge (harmonizing is so difficult!) Recently we started learning ‘Rewrite the Stars’ from The Greatest Showman soundtrack. That’s my favourite song from the movie and I suggested the song without hesitation. When our voices started giving out, we went to find other songs. I got a good belly laugh from hearing Chew sing the slowest version of ‘Ave Maria’ and also reading the lyrics of Luke Bryan’s ‘Rain is a Good Thing’ (rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey, whiskey makes my baby feel a little frisky!)

Summer is the time to not take life so seriously, and the time to treat your body to the endless array of fresh fruits and veggies! Zucchini being one of the most versatile summer veggie. It can be used in sweet and savoury recipes, but today I’m sharing my favourite: vegan zucchini banana bread.

My favourite quick bread is, without hesitation, zucchini banana bread. Our Great Vegan Banana Bread has a special place in my heart (and stomach) but for some reason, adding some zucchini and chocolate chips makes me love it even more. Last year was the first time I toyed with zucchini bread recipes. I tried some with no banana, with applesauce, with a little bit of banana, with unsqueezed zucchini and squeezed zucchini, but in the end this was the one that emerged victorious.

This vegan banana zucchini bread is everything you love about banana bread but with ‘hidden’ veggies and melty chocolate chips. It’s dense, which differentiates it from banana cake, moist, and sweetened with very spotty bananas and a bit of brown sugar. The spottier the bananas, the better the loaf. I am appalled when I see videos of people making banana bread with barely yellow bananas; how tasteless their loaves must be!

My favourite way to enjoy this vegan banana zucchini bread is reheated in a toaster oven and topped with a very generous slather of natural peanut butter. I’m an odd child and like eating my loaves in a bowl of almond milk, as if it were cereal. Sometimes even with cereal (I love my bran flakes, don’t laugh). For some reason, things taste better out of a bowl. However you choose to eat it, this vegan banana zucchini bread is a wonderful breakfast or afternoon snack!