Nut Free Granola is a honey sweetened, homemade granola packed with sunflower and pumpkin seeds, dried fruits, and rolled oats. It makes a great snack and is easy to customize.
Nut free granola is a simple granola recipe that comes together in less than an hour from start to finish. It’s a great alternative to store-bought granolas, because you control what ingredients are used.
I don’t want to jump on the allergy-free train, since we aren’t a health site. However, I do know how frustrating it is to suffer from food allergies and not be able to find common snacks and foods at the grocery store.
Granola is one of those foods that almost always contains nuts of some kind, so I started making my own nut free granola. It’s the same reason we make our own homemade pico de gallo, bread dipping oil, and lemon basil vinaigrette.
All of those things should be allergy free and should be able to be purchased from the grocery store without issue, but allergens still sneak in.
It’s all good, though, because homemade nut free granola is so much better than store bought. We like to mix and match the dried fruits and alternate between honey and maple syrup.
How to Make Nut Free Granola:
This recipe only takes about 10 minutes of prep, and it goes really fast if all the ingredients are ready to go ahead of time.
Start by grabbing a large baking sheet (non-stick is best), and preheating the oven.
Place the sunflower butter, honey, and vanilla in a small bowl, and give it a good whisk. Set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together the oats, dried fruits, sunflower seeds, pepitas, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger.
Add the sunflower butter mixture to the dry ingredients, and stir to combine. Ensure that the dry ingredients are evenly coated (I like to mix with my hands, but it’s very sticky).
After the ingredients are mixed, transfer them to a baking sheet, and spread them in an even layer. Bake for 15 minutes, use a spatula to flip the granola, then return to the oven for an additional 15 minutes.
Allow the homemade nut free granola to cool completely before placing it in an air tight container for storage.
What kind of dried fruit can you use in homemade nut free granola?
Use any dried fruit that you like. If the pieces are large, it may need to be broken or cut into smaller, bite-sized pieces. Some dried fruit ideas that come to mind are:
- Raisins
- Dried Cranberries
- Bananas
- Mangos
- Pineapple
- Coconut Flesh (if you aren’t allergic)
- Blueberries
- Apricots
- Apples
- Pitted Dates
Can you use quick oats for granola?
We recommend using old fashioned (rolled oats) for homemade granola. Quick oats are much smaller in size and don’t hold up as well to the wet ingredients and baking.
What can you use in place of sunflower butter?
We’ve never tried cookie butter but have heard it’s great in granola bars and energy bites, so that may be an option. Keep in mind that cookie butter is made from ground down cookie pieces, so it’s likely sweeter than sunflower butter.
If you use cookie butter, it may be necessary to adjust the amount of honey or maple syrup in the recipe. Depending on which nut(s) you want to omit from the recipe, cashew, almond, peanut, or walnut butter would work.
Can you change the spices in homemade nut free granola?
Yes, absolutely! Feel free to change up the spices or the amount of spice in the homemade nut free granola.
You can even use a pre-made blend or homemade spice like apple pie spice or pumpkin pie spice in place of the cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger.
Nut Free Granola
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Equipment
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- ½ cup maple syrup - or honey
- ½ cup sunflower butter
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients:
- 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 ½ cups dried fruit - *See note
- ½ cup sunflower seeds
- ½ cup pumpkin seeds - (pepitas)
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
Instructions
Wet Ingredients:
- In a small bowl, combine the honey or maple syrup, sunflower butter, and vanilla. Set aside.½ cup maple syrup½ cup sunflower butter1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients:
- Preheat the oven to 250°F. In a large mixing bowl combine the rolled oats, dried fruit, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats1 ½ cups dried fruit½ cup sunflower seeds½ cup pumpkin seeds1 tablespoon ground cinnamon½ teaspoon ground nutmeg½ teaspoon ground ginger
- Pour the wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and mix to combine ensuring all the dry ingredients are evenly coated.
- Transfer the granola to a large baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove it from the oven, flip, and place it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Remove the granola from the oven, and allow to cool completely before enjoying.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
Sarah
Friday 18th of March 2022
What can I use instead of sunflower butter?
Kim
Friday 18th of March 2022
Hi Sarah!
If you don't mind nut butter, any variety of peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, etc. would work. Sunflower butter is the only nut free option that I'm aware of unless you try cookie butter. I haven't used it in any recipe, so I'm not sure how it would work. Have a great weekend!