Delicate, moist muffins that are bursting with fresh lemon taste. Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins are ideal summertime dessert that perfectly combines contradictions of sweet and sour.
Ready in 30 minutes, tender lemon muffins are perfect snack for all fans of lemon desserts (yeap, that’s me!). Lemon and poppy seeds are such a classic combination.
Why do we love those Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins?
- soft, fluffy and moist
- ideal light summer dessert
- super easy to prepare in just two bowls
- ready in under 30 minutes
- nut-free, dairy-free, egg-free
Ingredients in Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
POPPY SEEDS
Poppy seeds are supposedly very healthy as most seeds and grains. I just like them for their nutty taste and how they crunch. Those little seeds are often used in baking breads, buns and cakes. You can add them for example to this Homemade Vegan Bread.

PLANT BASED MILK
I used unsweetened soy milk in this recipe. I think vanilla flavored soy milk should work here very well too and the result might be interesting. Please remember that flavored milks are usually sweetened, so your muffins may turn out even sweeter.
If you cannot use soy milk I would substitute it with almond or oat milk.
FRESH LEMON JUICE
Fresh lemon juice has three purposes in this recipe.
- Firstly of course it provides this delightful citrus flavor.
- Curdles soy milk, so that it becomes similar to buttermilk.
- Helps baking soda to form bubbles and raise the cake.
BAKING SODA
Baking soda elevates the dough and make the cake light and fluffy.
OIL
In this recipe we want to use any oil that doesn’t have a distinct taste. Sunflower oil, colza oil, grape seed or soy oil will do nicely.
BROWN SUGAR
Organic or raw brown sugar is usually vegan. If you have doubts please check out this interesting article.
Soft and moist Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins seduce with refreshing citrus flavor.
Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy12
servings5
minutes20
minutes25
minutesDelicate, moist muffins that are bursting with fresh lemon taste. Ideal summertime dessert that perfectly combines contradictions of sweet and sour.
Ingredients
- DRY INGREDIENTS
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tbsp poppy seeds
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
- WET INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup soy milk (you can use soy vanilla for extra vanilla punch)
0.5 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil (neutral like sunflower, grape, or colza oil)
- OPTIONAL ICING
2 tbsp icing sugar
few drops of lemon juice
Directions
- Add fresh lemon juice to milk, mix and set aside for 10 minutes.
- Add all dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk well.
- In a bowl or blender container mix brown sugar, milk with lemon juice and oil – make sure they are all combined well. I used smoothie blender to do that. You can also use hand blender.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry ones and mix just enough for the batter to come together. DO NOT OVERMIX.
- Line muffin baking tray with muffin (cupcake) liners or grease the tray if not using liners. I use silicone muffin forms, that don’t need lining nor greasing.
- Use spoon or ice cream scoop to fill muffin forms, don’t put more batter than half of the tray height. Those muffins raise considerably.
- Bake in  180°C / 350°F for about 20 minutes (*check comment below about tray size and exact baking time).
Check with a toothpick if the muffins are baked enough. There should be no dough on the toothpick as you take it out. - OPTIONAL: combine icing sugar with lemon juice and decorate the muffins with lemon icing. Garnish with lemon peel if you like.
Notes
- * You can make those muffins using standard 12 pieces muffin tray (in this case bake them for 15-18 minutes. If you use jumbo muffin trays like I did, you will end up with 6-8 muffins. You need to bake them 20-22 minutes.
- I recommend using silicone muffin forms that do not require greasing or lining with baking paper. They are not only useful, but super cute. Just look at those neon colors. You can use them to bake, store and serve your muffins.
- If you want you can add 2-3 tsp grated lemon peel together with dry ingredients. Not everyone likes the intensity of it though.
- More details about making Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins below.

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CAN YOU ADD MORE GOODNESS TO VEGAN LEMON POPPY SEED MUFFINS?
If you are a big fun of lemon flavor you can add some grated lemon peel into the dough (when mixing dry ingredients).
Other recipes for delicious sweets you will love:

How to make Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
CURDLING SOY MILK
After you mix soy milk with fresh lemon juice you will notice the milk will thicken. Without getting into all details of the curdling process, your milk will become similar to buttermilk, that’s common ingredient in non-vegan muffins.
Similar process I used to make this Best Vegan Cottage Cheese.
MIX DRY INGREDIENTS
Dry ingredients need to be whisked well before we add wet ones. We need to make sure that flour, baking soda, salt and poppy seeds are combined perfectly.
If you want to add lemon zest, do it in this step, as we want to avoid overmixing while the wet ingredients are in.

MIX WET INGREDIENTS
Add oil and brown sugar to curdled milk and mix well in a smoothie blender or using hand blender.
What we want to obtain in this step is more or less homogenous mix of oil, milk, lemon juice and sugar. We add sugar in this step as we want it combined perfectly with the liquid ingredients.

MIX WET WITH DRY INGREDIENTS
Pour wet ingredients into the dry ones mixing gently just until the dough becomes uniform. Do not overmix as your muffins might turn out gummy and tough. When you mix cake batter shortly you make sure your cake or muffins turn out light and fluffy.

PREPARE MUFFIN TRAYS
If you have silicone muffin trays you don’t have to do anything special – just pour the dough inside. If you are using metal muffin tray, line it with cupcake liners or grease it with some oil.

POUR MUFFIN DOUGH INTO LINERS
Use ice cream scoop or spoon to gently pour the dough into forms. Don’t pour more than half the height.. We need some space for the muffins to grow.

BAKE MUFFINS
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C / 350°F. If you bake jumbo muffins like I did they need around 20-22 minutes in the oven. Regular muffins should be ready in 15-18 minutes.
You can do the toothpick test. Insert it into one of the muffins, if it comes out dry, the muffins are baked.

COOL THEM DOWN
Now the most difficult part in making those Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. Wait 5-10 minutes for them to cool down. Your kitchen smells amazing and you are probably eager to get a bite 🙂
When they are no longer hot you can take your muffins out of the baking tray or silicone trays.

MORE LEMON PUNCH ?
How about adding more delicious citrus flavor to your muffins?
You can prepare icing with 2 tbsp of icing sugar and just few drops of lemon juice. The icing should be quite thick. Garnish your muffins with generous amount of icing and some lemon peel.

How to store Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins?
Good news! Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins can be stored for couple of days in air tight container and they are still soft and moist. They are so delicious they will probably disappear much sooner.
Let me know did you like Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins Recipe! Please share it on Pinterest and Yummly!
