This sugar-free granola has nuts, seeds, coconut flakes, and the high-protein grain amaranth, making it the perfect way to kick-start your morning with a nourishing, plant-based breakfast. With no added sugar, this granola is for those who want steady energy and good nutrition from wholefood ingredients at the start of the day. It is gluten-free too. What's more, you can make it in under 30 minutes. Enjoy with milk, yoghurt or just by the handful.
Why You'll Love the Sugar-Free Granola
- It's gluten-free, sugar-free, grain-free, high in protein and nutrient-dense.
- It takes 30 minutes to make - a simple, easy recipe.
- Amaranth has a nutty flavour and is packed with minerals and nutrients
- It's crunchy, wholesome and customisable. Add your favourite fruit, or make my apple fruit butter or medlar butter and add a dollop.
- It's a superfood and won't spike your blood sugar.
- It's homemade, so you know exactly what's inside.
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Key Ingredients & Notes
The seeds, nuts, and coconut together provide a nutrient-dense balance of complete plant proteins, healthy fats and essential minerals.
- Pistachios - contain unsaturated fat and plant protein (one of the higher-protein nuts per gram)
- Popped amaranth - complete plant protein and mineral-dense. Contains all nine essential amino acids. Popping makes them more digestible. You will find popped amaranth in wholefood/health food stores. See the FAQs if you need to pop it yourself.
- Almonds and Sunflower seeds - Rich natural source of vitamin E.
- Pumpkin seeds: a zinc and magnesium powerhouse.
- Coconut - contains fats that are more rapidly metabolised, providing readily available energy.
- Sesame seeds - are a good source of calcium.
- Olive oil - It helps bind the ingredients together and crisps them a bit.
- Cinnamon - Helps regulate blood sugar.
- Salt - to enhance the flavour of all other ingredients and balance sweetness.
- Apple juice - For its natural sweetness, to bind all the ingredients together.
See the recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Sugar-Free Granola
Begin by making your apple juice:
- Preheat the oven to 180ยบC.
- Wash the apples.
- Core and cut the apple into chunks.
- Add to a blender with 100ml of water and blend until smooth.
- Pass the blended apple through a fine-mesh sieve lined with muslin.
- Gather the edges of the muslin cloth together and squeeze out the juice. You should get 200ml of juice.
- Discard the pulp and set the juice aside.
- In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients along with the olive oil and almond essence.
- Add the apple juice.
- Mix thoroughly, ensuring you coat all the dry ingredients with the juice, olive oil and cinnamon.
- Spread out the granola mix onto a baking tray and bake at 180ยบC for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and use a spatula to toss the granola mix to ensure even cooking.
- Return to the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes.
- Again, remove from the oven and add the coconut flakes.
- Return to the oven and bake for a final 5 minutes.
- Remove the granola from the oven and let it cool.
- When cool, transfer to an airtight container and store in a cool, dry place.
- Serving suggestion.
Variations & Substitutions
Nut and Seed Variations
- Nut-free option: Omit the pistachios and almonds. Increase the amount of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and coconut flakes. You can also add tigernut in small quantities. Tiger nut is a tuber, not a nut.
- You can substitute the nuts and seeds with your favourite. Try hazelnuts and cashews, for instance.
- Seed-forward: Add extra seeds, such as flax or chia seeds, for omega-3s and fibre.
- If you find it challenging to source amaranth seeds, you can use popped quinoa seeds.
Texture Variations
- Oats and amaranth work well. You can also add millet flakes. Gives more traditional granola texture.
Flavour Variations
- You can also add dark chocolate to this recipe. Just add it in the last five minutes and mix well to incorporate.
- Instead of apple juice, you can add peach, mango or even pear juice.
- Instead of almond essence, you can use vanilla extract or coconut essence.
- Of course, you can use shop-bought fresh fruit juice. Read the label to look at the sugar content.
- Add some grated ginger or grated orange zest along with the cinnamon.
Sweetness Variations
- Add some sweetness with agave, date, or maple syrup to your taste.
Equipment
- Blender to make fresh apple juice.
- Baking trays for baking the granola in the oven.
Storage
The key is to store this granola in an airtight container. It will last for a month or even longer.
Chefs Tips
Here are some tips for success with this recipe and some suggestions you may like to experiment with:
- Make sure the granola mix is evenly spread on the baking trays and not too deep to ensure good toasting.
- Don't overbake the granola. Look for golden edges on the nuts, seeds, and coconut flakes. Trust colour, not time.
- Let the granola cool uncovered. If you let it cool covered, then the steam may soften the crunch.
FAQs
It is really hard to avoid lots of sugar in commercially available breakfast cereals, including granolas. This granola does not contain any refined sugars, such as white or brown sugar, or syrups. To bind the ingredients and add a little flavour, this granola uses apple juice made from freshly squeezed apple pulp, which contributes naturally occurring fruit sugars.
Many granolas use syrups or honey that often disqualifies them from being vegan. This granola uses apple juice squeezed from pulped apples as the binding agent and adds some sweetness from naturally occurring fruit sugars.
This sugar-free granola can help maintain stable blood sugar levels, unlike granolas that contain sugar, honey, or maple syrup, which can cause spikes. So this sugar-free granola can help avoid the mid-morning crash, instead providing steady energy throughout the morning. Also, being protein-rich, you will feel full for longer.
Yes, you can omit the pistachios, almonds, and almond essence, and bulk it up with extra seeds, possibly adding hemp, chia, or flax. Each offers nutritional benefits: hemp seeds are high in plant protein, and chia and flax seeds are good sources of omega-3s and fibre.
Serve with yoghurt or milk. I like to add fruit to introduce more sweetness without sugar. My favourites are raspberries and blueberries. Sometimes I want to grab a handful and eat it dry. Put a layer of the granola in a glass, followed by a layer of yoghurt, and finish with a layer of fruit, and eat it parfait-style!
Amaranth is a very healthy seed. It is a complete protein and is nutrient-dense, making this ingredient a really healthy addition to a nutrient-focused breakfast. It has a mild, nutty flavour, so it pairs well with other seeds and nuts. You can buy it popped. However, if you buy it unpopped, here are instructions on how to pop it:
Preheat a heavy-bottomed pan over a medium-high heat. The pan must be hot before the seeds go in. Add the amaranth one tablespoon at a time, stirring and popping in batches to avoid burning. Popping is almost instantaneous. Cover immediately and shake the pan; within 10 seconds, you will hear rapid popping. Remove from the heat when the popping slows and immediately transfer to a bowl; otherwise, it will scorch. Repeat this process in batches.
Related Recipes
Looking for other healthy breakfasts like this sugar-free granola? Try these:
๐ Recipe
Sugar Free Granola with Nuts & Seeds
Equipment
- Digital scales
- 2 Baking trays
- Food processor or blender optional
Ingredients
- 200 g Popped amaranth seeds
- 50 g Sliced almonds
- 50 g Pistachio
- 50 g Pumpkin seeds
- 50 g Sunflower seeds
- 25 g White sesame seeds
- 25 g Black sesame seeds
- 25 g Coconut flakes
- 1 teaspoon Sea salt
- 2 tablespoon Olive oil
- 1 tsp Almond essence
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon powder
- 200 g Apples to make 200ml of apple juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180ยบC (fan assisted)
- Wash, core and cut the apple into large chunks. Add to a blender along with 100 ml of water and puree the apples until smooth. Pass the apple puree through a fine sieve lined with muslin cloth. Extract all of the juice buy squeezing the muslin cloth. Discard the pulp and set the juice aside.
- In a bowl, add the amaranth, nuts, seeds, cinnamon powder, Salt, almond essence ,olive oil and apple juice. Mix to combine. Ensure that all the amaranth, seeds and nuts are coated with the juice, oil and cinnamon.
- Transfer the mixture onto baking trays. Spread evenly and bake in the oven for ten minutes. Then remove from the oven and using a spatula, toss the mixture around. Return tray to oven for five minutes. This is done to ensure even browning.
- Remove the baking trays from the oven and add the coconut flakes and return to the oven for five minutes. Keep an eye on the coconut, we don't want it to burn.
- Once done, remove the baking tray from oven and leave the granola to cool down completely.
- Once the granola has cooled down, transfer into an airtight container and store in a cool dry place.
Nutrition
Food Safety
- Wash your hands regularly while preparing, handling and cooking food.
- Wipe down countertops and high-contact points regularly.
- If you cook meat and fish, do not use the same utensils on cooked food that previously touched raw meat. Use separate chopping boards for meat and fish. Wash your chopping boards immediately after use.
- Thoroughly cook food to a minimum temperature of 165 ยฐF (74 ยฐC).
- Don't leave food at room temperature for extended periods (more than 2 hours).
- Store food correctly.
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