How to turn brown bananas into the best vegan bread of the bunch – recipe | Waste not

After nine years, I can’t believe I’ve never written a recipe for banana bread for this column, so it had better be a good one, especially after I picked up a huge bunch of brown bananas at the corner shop for next to nothing the other day. This is a vegan bread made with olive oil instead of butter and with the mashed bananas acting as a binder in place of eggs; I’ve also added some miso to boost the umami and overall satiety – the salt enhances the sugar, boosting the sweetness while rounding it off nicely. In the interest of biodiversity and flavour, I’ve used wholemeal spelt flour, but any will do.

Chocolate, spelt and miso banana bread

This has become our go-to banana bread at home because it has crazy levels of deliciousness. The recipe is inspired by a plant-based banana bread recipe I found on Laura Wright’s wonderful The First Mess website, and my tweaked version of her loaf uses extra-virgin olive oil and wholegrain flour for nutrition, flavour and biodiversity; I’ve also used miso instead of salt, to bump up the umami factor.

Makes 1 loaf

280g wholemeal spelt flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
150g dark chocolate chunks
150g walnut pieces
6 very ripe bananas
120ml maple syrup , or brown sugar
120ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp miso, or ½ tsp salt

Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 and grease and line a 1kg bread tin. Mix the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and bicarb in a large bowl. Set aside about seven pieces each of the chocolate and walnuts to decorate the loaf later, then stir the rest into the flour mix until well distributed. Peel five of the brown bananas and, in a second bowl, mash them with the maple syrup, olive oil, vanilla extract and miso. Add the banana mix to the bowl of dry ingredients, stirring until properly combined, then pour into the bread tin and level out the top. Peel the last brown banana, cut it in half lengthways and arrange on top of the dough with the reserved chocolate and walnut pieces. Bake for an hour, until just cooked through, then leave to cool before slicing.