Crispy Oat-Free Granola Recipe (No Oil, Dairy, Gluten, or Refined Sugar!)

I can’t help it. Granola is the first food that comes to mind when Earth Day rolls around. But this isn’t your ordinary granola. What if I told you it was a naturally dairy-free, soy-free, oil-free, and gluten-free granola recipe? What if I said that you wouldn’t even need to buy gluten-free oats to make it gluten-free, and you could make it without any specialty ingredients? Yes, a simple crispy oat-free granola recipe that works for almost everyone. Well, what are you waiting for? Preheat that oven!

This Crispy Oat-Free Granola is the Ultimate Earth Day Breakfast

With just eight everyday earth-friendly ingredients (go for the organic crispy cereal people!), this easy gluten-free granola recipe begs to be customized to your personal tastes. Toss in some raisins or dried cranberries, sprinkle on some extra spices, use seeds instead of nuts, or eat it with a handful of mini chocolate chips.

Truthfully, I actually hesitated to call this recipe granola, since it is so light and crispy. In terms of texture, it is like a cross between cereal and granola, but we found it to be just filling enough to earn the granola label.

Special Diet Notes: Crispy Oat-Free Granola

By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, plant-based, and vegetarian.

For nut-free, oat-free granola, you can substitute your favorite seeds, or blend of seeds, for the cashews, and sunflower seed butter or pumpkin seed butter for the nut butter.
For coconut-free, simply omit the coconut. You can optionally add dried fruit in its place.

Crispy Oil-Free Oat-Free Granola

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

55 mins

In keeping with the earth-friendly theme, you can use purely organic ingredients to make this healthy granola. It's also free of oil, gluten, dairy-free, and soy. See the post above for nut-free suggestions.

Author: Alisa Fleming

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Serves: about 6 cups

Ingredients

3 cups crispy brown rice cereal (certified gluten-free, if needed)
2 cups cashews, chopped
⅓ cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons cashew butter or other nut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tablespoons flaxseeds

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 300ºF.
In a large bowl, stir together the cereal and nuts.
In a small pan, whisk together the maple syrup, nut butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Place the pan over medium-low heat, and bring the mixture to a low boil, while whisking. Simmer the mixture at a low boil, while whisking, for about a minute or two. Remove the pan from the heat.
Pour the maple mixture over the cereal and nuts in your bowl. Sprinkle on the coconut and flaxseeds, and then gently stir to combine and coat everything with the gooey mixture.
Spread the cereal mixture out on two cookie sheets (greased or lined with a silicone baking mat – I use the baking mat) or in two 9 x 13” glass baking pans. Keep in mind that metal (not lined with a silicone baking mat) will cook (and burn) the granola-cereal much faster than glass. You may want to reduce the oven temp to 275ºF if using metal.
Bake the cereal for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring it every 10 minutes for even cooking, or until it is browned and crispy to your liking.

Notes

For a sweeter cereal, swap honey or agave for the maple syrup, add a few drops of liquid stevia to the maple mixture, or simply add a tablespoon or two of coconut/palm sugar or brown sugar to the maple mixture before cooking.

Feel free to sub your favorite nut(s) and/or seed(s) for the cashews in this recipe (sunflower seeds and sunflower seed butter work great for nut-free). We just love the creaminess of cashews.

Not a fan of coconut? Go ahead and omit it … and maybe up the flaxseeds to ¼ cup if desired. Toss in some chocolate chips and make it a snack mix that your family will devour.

This recipe is Vegan, Vegetarian, Dairy free, Egg free, Gluten free, Peanut free, Soy free, Wheat free, Refined Sugar free, Oil free, optionally Tree Nut free

Nutrition Information

Serving size: about ½ cup Calories: 283 Fat: 18.4g Saturated fat: 6.9g Carbohydrates: 23.7g Sugar: 7.7g Sodium: 31mg Fiber: 2.7g Protein: 6.5g