These Nut-free Granola Bars are vegan, gluten-free, and oil-free! These are loaded with delicious spices, have chewy and soft and crispy edges. They are healthy, made with sunflower seeds and allergy-friendly for kids as well and require just 8 ingredients!
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NUT-FREE GRANOLA BARS
I’m so incredibly excited about finally sharing this recipe with you all. I have been working on a nut-free granola bar recipe on and off for years. I’ve tried using tahini and sunbutter and both were just too overpowering and a gross aftertaste. I just want them to taste normal! Bottom line, they didn’t pass the kid-approved test with my daughter. Her school doesn’t allow nuts, and for her snack time, I really wanted her eating something homemade and nutritious. This has been SO important to me to finally get this recipe right. I finally came up with the perfect blend and ratio of ingredients and these are amazing and delicious.
Feels so good to finally have a vegan, gluten-free, oil-free and nut-free granola bar that tastes delicious! I personally love, love granola bars made with nuts, like these Almond Pulp Chocolate Chip Bars that are one of my all-time most popular recipes. However, it’s nice to have some delicious nut-free chocolate chip granola bars now. Are you a granola fanatic like I am? Then, be sure to check out these 12 Vegan Oil-free Granola Recipes!
WHY THESE NUT-FREE BARS ARE THE BEST
- Full of delicious spices and flavor that my daughter loves
- They contain flaxseed, an excellent source of Omega–3 essential fatty acids, the “good” fats
- Don’t fall apart
- Soft and chewy
- Nut-free, but not lacking in any delicious flavor
- Kid-approved
- Safe for her school
- Oil-free
- They have chocolate chips, duh. By the way, have you tried my Best Vegan Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies yet?
- Healthy vegan gluten-free granola bars
- Only 8 ingredients
HOW TO MAKE NUT-FREE GRANOLA BARS
To make these nut-free and oil-free granola bars, first, to a small bowl, mix the flaxseed and 6 tablespoons of water and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds. Whisk well and set aside.
To a food processor, add the sunflower kernels and process about 30-45 seconds until a fine flour forms. Be careful not to over process or it will start to turn into a paste.
To a large bowl, add all of the sunflower flour to it, along with the oats, oat flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt and chocolate chips.
To the bowl of reserved flaxseed mixture (it should be thick), whisk in the syrup well and then pour that over the dry ingredients. Stir everything together until it all comes together in a moist, sticky batter.
To the lined pan, add the batter and spread out evenly with the back of the spoon as best you can. Place a piece of parchment paper on top to smooth out the bars evenly and flat along the edges.
I wrap these nut-free granola bars up for my daughter’s snacks each day now. She loves them so much.
Other Vegan Bars to try:
- Almond Butter Chocolate Chunk Blondies
- Vegan Butterfinger Candy Bars
- Chocolate Pecan Granola Bars
- Vanilla Pecan Dream Bars (to die for!)
- Cinnamon Roll Granola Bars
- No-Bake Cinnamon Roll Spice Bars
- Vegan Nutella Chocolate Pie Bars
- No-Bake Mint Chocolate Bars
- Vegan Lemon Bars with Tahini Caramel
Nut-free Granola Bars (Vegan and Gluten-free)
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons (18g) ground flaxseed (I used golden) mixed with 6 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup (68g) raw, unsalted sunflower seed kernels, ground (without the shells)
- 1 cup (100g) QUICK/INSTANT cooking oats (NOT regular, see NOTE)
- 1/2 cup (64g) superfine oat flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger (see NOTE)
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (120g) pure maple syrup
- 1/3 cup (75g) dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips
NOTE
- Please don't sub the quick oats with regular, it will NOT work. Quick oats are much smaller and bake up completely different. Using whole oats will make them fall apart. You can find quick oats anywhere. Also, the ginger in these do NOT make them spicy whatsoever. My daughter absolutely LOVES these bars and has no clue there is ginger in them. You can taste the ginger a bit, but it's delicious. If you want it milder in ginger flavor, just reduce to 1 teaspoon, but I wouldn't omit it completely.
NOTE
- Always use a scale for accuracy when baking, following my gram weights listed. You never need cups, just the scale and bowl and make sure to hit zero before adding each ingredient.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a square baking dish with parchment paper cut to fit and lay both directions. My baking dish is is a little smaller than 8x8, more like 7 1/2, so if yours is a true 8x8, the bars just will be a bit thinner on the edges.
- In a small bowl, mix the flaxseed and 6 tablespoons of water and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds. Whisk well and set aside.
- To a food processor, add the sunflower kernels and process about 30-45 seconds until a fine flour forms (as in the photo). Be careful not to over process or it will start to turn into a paste.
- To a large bowl, add all of the sunflower flour to it, along with the oats, oat flour, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Stir really well. Add the chocolate chips.
- To the bowl of reserved flaxseed mixture, it should be thick, whisk in the syrup well. Make sure it is no longer warm before adding to the dry ingredients (so it doesn't melt the chocolate chips). Stir everything together for a good minute or so until it all comes together in a moist, sticky batter. The more you stir, the stickier it will get. This is good, as that flaxseed helps to bind the bars.
- To the lined pan, add the batter and spread out evenly with the back of the spoon as best you can. Now, take a square piece of parchment paper the size of the pan and place it on top. Press the mixture down flat and smooth out the top. Smooth your fingers along the edges and corners, making sure it's even. Really BE PATIENT with this step ensuring you are properly spreading it out to the corners and along the edges. Do not sloppily or quickly press it down or the bars will not form properly when baking.
- Once it's smooth, flat and even, top with extra chocolate chips if desired. Bake for 30-32 minutes until the edges are looking golden brown and the middle is firm to the touch. Refer to photo.
- Cool 1 hour. This is where they will firm up. Do NOT cut them before this unless you want crumbles! After an hour, lift them up with the parchment paper and cut desired shapes with a really sharp knife slowly. The crunchy edges may crack a bit but the bars should be firm and hold beautifully. They stay firm and moist for several days too. Keep stored in a sealed container or ziplock bag.
These are so easy and tasty! I made a couple of substitutions. I didn’t have any sunflower seeds on hand, so I used raw pumpkin seeds instead and added raisins instead of chocolate chips. They came out perfect and will be made frequently in my home!
So glad you loved them Cheryl!
These bars are fabulous! I followed your recipe diligently as I know how many times you must test to get the desired results! Wouldn’t change a thing!!!!!
Yay Gaynor, so glad to hear this!
I hate to be this person but…
I need something that is strictly nut free and sunflower seeds are often a “may contain” for other nuts. Is there any substitute that could be used for them?
Thanks!
Hi Laura! The only other thing I can think of is tigernut flour. It is nut-free, despite the name. It has basically the same texture as almond flour and should technically work. The flavor is a big strong and sweet though, so not sure how it will work, taste-wise.
Hi. I just made these as a snack for work where it’s a nut free environment and I’m gluten intolerant.
I warmed the flaxseed on the stove and used coconut flour instead of oat flour because I already had it. I also used one less tablespoon of maple syrup as I didn’t want it any sweeter and added 2 tablespoons of water and one of olive oil. It took a bit longer as I’d have liked but as the first time making that was ok. I’d like to say I really loved them and so did my fussy twelve year old! So thanks so much!!!! Will definitely make more again. I just have to worry I won’t too many.
So glad you enjoyed them and they worked out! Coconut flour is VERY different and highly absorbent and drying, making things crumble and sandy, so I’m surprised they worked out. But glad you made it work with the added oil and water.
I made these today subbing ingredients I had on hand including brown rice flour instead of the oat flour (I could have made some but I erred on the side of laziness lol); peanut flour in lieu of the seed flour; I topped the bars with Enjoy Life Chocolate Chunks instead of mixing them in because, you guessed it, that’s what I had on hand; and I omitted most of the spices because I added unsweetened cacao powder instead. Thankfully the finished product works! I’ve been wanting to make “portable oatmeal” without using the typical ingredients (oil, sugar, etc) and thanks to your recipe it worked!! Thank you so very much! P.S. I rarely make things the same way twice so I envision many future iterations. Cheers!! =^..^=
Hi can you substitute the sunflower kernels for something else or can you omit them from the recipe due to allergy? Thanks
No, you can’t just omit them since they make up the base and give the moisture and texture. You can make my regular bars if you can’t have sunflower kernels! https://thevegan8.com/chocolate-chip-granola-bars-vegan-gluten-free-oil-free/