This wonderful cheesy zucchini bread is THE recipe if you have zucchini to use up! It’s so simple and there’s no need to drain your zucchini first – mix your ingredients in one bowl, transfer to a loaf pan, and bake. Packed with cheese, scallions, and bacon, it’s a wonderful prep-ahead breakfast, weekend brunch, snack or light lunch.
Most recipes for zucchini bread I see are all sweet, but as a savory girl through and through, this very cheesy version is perfection to me.
While this isn’t a traditional bread – it’s a little like a cross between a crustless quiche and a light, savory muffin – it’s very delicious and very easy to eat.
It’s based on a recipe my nana makes all the time with the glut of zucchini from her garden, and it’s such a wonderful way to use them up. It’s also incredibly easy to make. Thanks to the zucchini, it’s super moist and packed with lovely umami flavors. Plus, you can easily make it vegetarian by skipping the bacon.
Why You’ll Love Cheesy Zucchini Bread
- One bowl recipe. All you need to do is add everything to a bowl – and there’s no need to drain your grated zucchini – mix to combine, pour into a loaf pan, and bake.
- Fabulous as a prep-ahead breakfast or light lunch. The bread is great served with jammy roasted tomatoes, homemade creamy labneh, or smashed avocado (or this avocado and pea hummus or whipped green goddess dip) piled on top, or with a slathering of roasted garlic butter.
- Fabulous in mini form for party bites. I use this mixture to make mini zucchini bites for parties all the time. You’ll get 48 mini bites from this recipe – just pour the mixture into a mini muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Zucchini (courgettes). There’s no need to salt and drain the zucchini in this recipe – you can just grate them and throw them straight in.
- Cheese. I’m using a mixture of sharp cheddar and creamy feta. It’s a lovely combination, but you can play around with the cheese you use. Gruyere, Emmental, or blue cheese are also great, as is Parmesan.
- Bacon. You can cook your bacon before adding it to the mixture, or add it raw (it cooks in the oven). Both work – cooking it first gives it a little more texture and flavor in the finished bread, but it’s not a huge difference.
- Fish sauce. It may seem bizarre, but fish sauce adds a wonderful, deep savory flavor that salt alone can’t replicate. I recommend using it here (and promise it doesn’t make the bread taste fishy at all!)
- Chili flakes. This adds a tiny bit of heat, but you can skip it if you like, or if you’re making this for kids.
How to Make Cheesy Zucchini Bread
This is a step-by-step photo overview of how to make the bread – the full recipe with instructions and ingredient quantities is at the bottom of the page for you.
1. Add all the ingredients for the bread to a large mixing bowl.
PRO TIP: You can add the bacon uncooked into the mixture (it’ll cook in the oven), or you can cook it first. It’s up to you! Cooking will give you a little more texture in the bread, but both ways are delicious.
2. Stir until there are no streaks of flour remaining and everything is combined into a wet mixture.
3. Pour the zucchini bread mixture into a lined 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. I like to scatter the bread with extra cheese and everything bagel seasoning at this point.
4. Bake the zucchini bread until golden, puffy, and glorious.
5. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then remove the bread from the pan, peel off the parchment paper, and set it on a wire rack.
Slice and enjoy with a big smear of roasted garlic butter if you like!
Watch How to Make Cheesy Zucchini Bread
Cheesy Zucchini Bread FAQs
Yes, you absolutely can – the bacon will cook in the bread anyway, but if you cook it until super crispy before adding it, it will have a slightly different texture in the finished bread. Both are great – it just comes down to preference.
It keeps well for 4 days in the fridge, and it freezes well too. I like to slice it and then freeze it in ziplock bags. That way, you can easily pop it in the toaster to defrost it.
Yes! I love doing this. Grease your muffin pan, then pour in the mixture. Leave a little space at the top to allow for rising in the oven. Then you can bake at 400ยฐF (200ยฐC) for 20 to 25 minutes. It works for regular-sized muffins, or mini bite-sized muffins (perfect for party bites). 20 minutes will be enough for the mini version – larger muffins will need a little longer in the oven.
Definitely – cheddar and feta work well because they’re both strong and creamy, but you can play around. Swap in mozzarella, Gruyere, Parmesan, or even blue cheese.
Like this recipe? Try these other ideas with zucchini
If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you! You can leave a recipe rating and a comment below. And remember to tag @DishedByKate on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok if you’ve made one of my recipes. Seeing your recreations really makes my day ๐.
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One Bowl Cheesy Zucchini Bread
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 servings
- Diet: Low Fat
Description
This wonderful cheesy zucchini bread is THE recipe if you have zucchini to use up! It’s so simple and there’s no need to drain your zucchini first – mix your ingredients in one bowl, transfer to a loaf pan, and bake. Packed with cheese, scallions, and bacon, it’s a wonderful prep-ahead breakfast, weekend brunch, snack or light lunch.
I’m using a regular 9 x 5 inch loaf pan here.
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 cup plain flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2.5 cups grated zucchini (roughly 2 large zucchini or 400g)
- 3 scallions (spring onions), finely sliced
- 3 slices of bacon
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated (plus extra to scatter on top)
- 1/2 cup feta, crumbled
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons chilli flakes
- Black pepper.
- 1 tablespoon everything bagel seasoning or sesame seeds (optional)
- Zest of 1 lemon (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare your loaf pan. Line your pan with parchment paper, and heat your oven to 400ยฐF (200ยฐC fan).
- Cook the bacon (optional). You can add the bacon into the mixture without cooking it first (it will cook in the oven), but cooking it first gives you lovely crispy pieces and a little extra flavor. It’s up to you! If you’re cooking the bacon, add your bacon slices to a pan over medium-high heat and cook for about five minutes, flipping a few times as you do, until the bacon is super crispy. Remove from the pan and chop into small pieces.
- Mix the zucchini bread. Crack your eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk them. Add 1/3 cup olive oil, 1 cup of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce, the grated zucchini, chopped scallions, chilli flakes, chopped bacon, grated cheddar, crumbled feta, 1 teaspoon of salt, a good grind of black pepper and the lemon zest if you’re using it. Mix until no streaks of flour remain, then pour into the prepared tin. The mixture will be reasonably wet. Scatter over the extra cheese and everything bagel seasoning if you’re using it.
- Bake the zucchini bread.ย Transfer the tin to the oven, and cook for 45 to 50 minutes, until the top looks deeply golden and you can cleanly insert a skewer or knife into the middle (there shouldn’t be any sticky residue). If there is residue on the skewer, keep the bread in the oven for another 10 minutes and check again. Remove from the oven and let cool in the tin for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Slice and serve with softened butter (I can HIGHLY recommend trying this with roasted garlic butter).
Notes
INGREDIENT NOTES:ย Skip the bacon to make the bread vegetarian, or you could use chorizo. Play around with the cheese too – Gruyere, blue cheese or Emmental would be lovely swaps.ย
STORAGE INSTRUCTIONS:ย The bread will keep for roughly 4 days, stored in the fridge. You can pop slices into the toaster if you like to heat it a little, but it’s great cold. It also freezes well. Slice it, then store in ziplock bags so you can easily pull a slice or two out when you need to.ย
WANT MINI VERSIONS? I used this mixture to make mini zucchini bites for a party recently – this one batch was enough to make 48 mini bites. They went down very well and I’ll definitely be trying it again! They only needed around 20 minutes in the oven.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 50
- Category: baking
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: american
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 257
- Sugar: 0.8g
- Sodium: 603.2mg
- Fat: 17.7g
- Saturated Fat: 5.3g
- Unsaturated Fat: 11.3g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 16.5g
- Fiber: 1.4g
- Protein: 9.8g
- Cholesterol: 109.6mg
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