Healthy Oil-Free Granola

I’m obsessed with this one guys! It’s so simple to make, tastes great, and can be made with a bunch of variety depending on what you want to throw into it. It also stores great in the pantry so you can batch-made it and have it around to throw onto your morning breakfast or just snack on when you want an easy, grab and go snack. If you try out this recipe, please share it with me by commenting here or on my YouTube channel, or even tagging me in a photo on Instagram @plantsnotplastic. I read every comment and love hearing from you. Enjoy! 

Healthy Oil-Free Granola

Plants Not Plastic

This simple granola is easy to make, tastes great, and can be stored in your pantry easily for months. Great to throw over your breakfast for a little texture or enjoy as a grab and go snack!

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine American

Servings 12 1/4 cup

Calories 118.2 kcal

Equipment

• large mixing bowl
• 9x13 inch baking sheet

Ingredients

  

• 3 cups rolled oats sub mix of puffed brown rice, quinoa, kamut, etc. [note#1]
• 1 cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, apricots, mixed, etc.)
• 2-4 tbsp brown sugar unpacked
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup water or plant milk
• 1/2 tsp maple syrup sub agave
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Optional (Higher-Fat) Additions [note#2]

• <3 tbsp walnuts chopped; or other nut of choice
• <3 tbsp sunflower seeds or other seeds of choice
• <5 tbsp coconut flakes

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
• In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, starting with the dry before adding the wet and stir to evenly incorporate.
• Spread evenly onto your baking sheet and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring every 5-7 minutes until a golden brown but not burnt.
• Let cool, then transfer to an airtight storage container and store at room temperature [note#3].
• Enjoy!

Notes

1. Rolled oats are going to be your cheapest option. The recipe is still great in it's simplest form, but I do enjoy adding additional grains to the granola. My preference is puffed brown rice and rolled oats.
2. I recommend adding only one of the higher fat options to keep the overall fat content of the recipe under 20%
3. The internet tells me that opened granola can last for 4-6 months in the pantry. I've never had this granola around that long but I expect it to have a pretty decent storage life as long as it is stored in an airtight container, away from moisture and heat.

Keyword banana oatmeal pancakes, breakfast, chia seeds, dried fruit, grains, granola, healthy, oats, oil free, snack, snacks, walnuts

Video Transcript:

Welcome back to Plants Not Plastic. I’m Nikita, and today I’m gonna show you how to make a super easy granola that is delicious, inexpensive, simple, healthy, whole foods, plant based, low fat and oil free.

Before coming up with this recipe and ever since switching to a whole foods plant based, low fat, oil free diet, has pretty much been something that I have avoided because it is high in fat, it’s typically made with oil, and it usually has nuts and seeds. So it just wasn’t really something that I had thought about having around. But this recipe has proved to me that granola without those things tastes great, is super easy to make, and has really great texture, so it is probably something that I am going to have a batch up ready to go in my pantry from now on. And I’m just really excited to share it with you.

Before we get started though, if you are not already subscribed and you like this video, you can go ahead and click that subscribe button and the bell so you can get notifications whenever I upload a new video. I release new content weekly, would love to have you stick around and appreciate your support. So here’s everything you’ll need to make this recipe. I’ll also leave everything in the description box below along with a link to the blog post with a printable recipe card.

Covering the base for this recipe first, you can make this granola by just using rolled oats, which is also going to be your cheapest options. But in my search for an interesting mix of ingredients, I landed on oil-free cooked grain options. This could includes things like puffed brown rice, puffed whole wheat, puffed quinoa or other simple cereals like O’s, or corn or whole wheat flakes. I have really enjoyed adding this extra texture and interest my granola but since these aren’t our only ingredients, you can just stick with the rolled oats because you’re going to have more texture in there that goes beyond just the grains that you use. And it’ll also keep your cost down. As for the dried fruit, I would recommend including it but you’ll have to be careful to buy options that don’t have any oil, and a lot of dried fruits actually do. Raisins are usually a safe bet because they typically won’t have additional ingredients and sometimes won’t even have preservatives, where cranberries typically don’t have oil but will have sugar to make them taste better, and I’m sure with some poking around you’ll be able to find other dried fruit options that are made simply and are oil-free. While I mentioned that I don’t typically add nuts to the granola when I make it, because I honestly don’t think it needs it, you can add in your favorite nuts or even coconut flakes to add even more texture variety and a little bit of richness, but I would suggest adding them sparingly to keep this recipe low fat. And last, I do include two different types of sugar in this recipe, both of which I think are necessary to add sweetness and give you caramelization and give a little bit of that stuck-together texture, and the agave adds something but you could opt for a more whole foods, plant based option like maple syrup or date paste, or you could even try to make this recipe without those to see if the natural sugar from the dried fruit and baked oats is enough.

To make the granola, start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and then you are literally just mixing everything together in a bowl before baking it. Start with your dry ingredients, the mix of base grains you’ve chosen, your dried fruit, chopped nuts if you’re using them, cinnamon, and the optional brown sugar, and salt. Mix them well either with a spoon or even by popping a lid on your bowl and shaking it vigorously, making sure to break up any clumps of dried fruit. Which you may have to do with your hands. Next, add your wet ingredients; water or plant milk, vanilla, and optional agave or maple syrup. Mix everything again with your spoon or shake it all together with the lid before grabbing a non-stick or lined baking sheet and spreading your mixture out evenly. Keep in mind that I’m making two batches here, so my baking sheet is much fuller than yours would be with a single batch. All you have to do from here is bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring your granola and laying it flat again every 5-7 minutes or until the mixture has gone from being soggy and wet to dry, crispy and browned but not burnt. Once it’s all cooked, it’s ready to transfer to your storage containers to be enjoyed right away or kept around to snack on for as long as you’d like.

As you can tell by me munching on this granola as I’ve been making it, I really love it. It’s one of my recipes that quickly became a regular bake in my kitchen and now I’ve always got a jar of it in my pantry, which is why I made two batches of it while shooting this video. And next time, I’ll probably make four because it lasts in the pantry for months, so it’s nice to do in large batches and I’ve been eating it every day. I love throwing this on my morning oatmeal which I eat like cereal with rolled oats, some of this granola, fresh fruit, a little extra brown sugar and salt with a plant milk, but you could also eat it by itself as a grab an go snack. It’s a great combination of chewy, crunchy and sweet. And if you’re trying to stick to a whole food plant based diet, it’s just one more easy recipe you add to your collection. For how it stacks up against an alternative you can check out the full nutritional label on the blog that links out to Cronometer. This recipe, though, is the same as all my others – when comparing it to a non-vegan or processed vegan option, without specialty items or animal products it’s going to cost you less to make, with plant-based ingredients it’ll have more fiber, and without oil or butter you’ll get to eat more of it for the same number of calories.

So that’s it for today’s recipe. If you try it out, let me know in the comments. And if you’ve got a recipe idea, let me know that in the comments as well or just say hi. I love to hear from you and I would love to make something that you want me to make. You can also subscribe to my blog for recipes right to your inbox and connect with me on social media for day to day content. And don’t forget to subscribe, click the bell, give this video a thumbs up, and come back next time. Bye!