Gluten free, grain-free, refined sugar-free paleo granola. This simple recipe incorporates nuts and seeds, plus – bonus points – you end up with huge granola clusters!
Do you ever get such a massive hankering for something crunchy that it can’t be contained, quenched, or satisfied with anything other than granola?
This happens to me regularly.
I go about my business eating my veggies and rice and salmon on a weekly basis, then all of a sudden, BOOM!
Mega need for something hard to chew on.
When these savage cravings occur, I head to the bulk bins at the store and buy up all the nuts and seeds to make my own paleo granola that is free of refined sugar and grains.
I love making homemade paleo granola because I have the ultimate control of how much sugar goes in. Plus, I enjoy experimenting with various nuts, seeds, and flavors.
So here’s my go-to paleo granola.
It’s super straight-forward, incorporating ingredients you can buy in bulk from any grocery store.
I love eating it with a splash of almond milk and fresh seasonal fruit. If you’re fine with dairy, this paleo granola makes for an amazing topping to yogurt!
This granola has the perfect crispy crunch, plus you achieve huge granola clusters.
Largely-sized clusters are a major highlight of granola.
Tips For Preparing This Recipe
- Use a variety of nuts and seeds. Raw walnuts, cashews, almonds, macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seed…toss it all in!
- Use dried fruit and unsweetened coconut flakes. Both add natural sweetness and flavor without having to add processed sugar. Just be sure to use juice-sweetened dried fruit in order to keep this recipe paleo-friendly.
- Give your ingredients a good chop or run through the food processor. This will create itty bitty granola bits that make for great granola-ing.
- Use natural sweeteners. I used coconut sugar in my Walnut Granola Cluster recipe, honey in my Walnut & Date Granola recipe (and this one), and have also used pure maple syrup. Natural sweeteners a good granola make.
- Use an egg white and water. I know, it sounds strange. But it helps hold all of the ingredients together, and makes for a crispy granola with large clusters. We want the biggest clusters we can get.
How to Make Paleo Granola:
Whisk together the egg white and water in a bowl. Gather your paleo granola ingredients, you granola gathering fool 😉 .
Add the nutty and seedy ingredients to a blender or food processor (I use my Food Processor), and process for just a couple of seconds, grinding some of the nuts finely, and leaving many of the nuts chopped or whole.
Spread this granola mixture out on a parchment-lined baking sheet, creating an even layer, and bake.
Allow the granola to rest at least 30 minutes before breaking it into clusters using a spatula or wooden spoon. Be sure you let the granola sit when it’s out of the oven, as this is when the clustering magic happens.
You know the drill. It’s crunch time!
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If you make this gluten-free granola recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
More Healthy Gluten-Free Granola Recipes:
- Grain-Free Tahini Granola
- Cinnamon Raisin Paleo Granola
- Walnut Granola Clusters
- Pumpkin Spice Granola
- Cherry Maple Almond Granola
The BEST Paleo Granola
Ingredients
- 1 egg white lightly beaten, see note*
- 2 tablespoons water see note*
- 2 cups raw walnuts
- 2 cup raw cashews
- 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds pepitas
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 cup dried cranberries see note**
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil see note***
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup or honey****
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Whisk together the egg white with the water until bubbly and slightly foamy in a small bowl.
- Add all ingredients, including the egg white/water mixture EXCEPT for the cranberries to a food processor. Pulse until well chopped and combined, but leave mixture nice and chunky.
- Spread the granola mixture evenly on the parchment-lined baking sheet into an even layer and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden-brown and crispy.
- Remove granola from the oven and allow it to sit at least 20 minutes without stirring it – this is where the clustering happens, so be sure to not skip this step!!
- Use a spatula or wooden spoon to break the granola into clusters.
- Once cool, store the granola in a 2-quart sealable glass jar or zip lock bag.
- Eat granola with your favorite non-dairy milk or yogurt and fruit
Notes
Nutrition
I am always looking for ways to use up almond pulp leftover from making almond milk, so I started replacing 1 cup of the nuts in this recipe with 1 cup of almond pulp. I was finding that the granola would come out of the oven crunchy, but then get soft in my glass jars. I’ve found the solution! Now I bake it about 15 minutes at 350 degrees, stir and then reduce the heat to 170 (lowest my oven goes) and continue to dehydrate it in the oven, stirring every 20-30 minutes until done. This keeps it from burning/browning too much and turns out some serious crunch factor! Thanks for the great recipe.
I love the egg white idea and the blender to create those crunchy clusters. I think this is my new favourite granola recipe!
Thanks for the great post! 🙂
I’m going to try egg whites
This looks wonderful! About how many servings would you say this ends up making?
What could I use besides shredded coconut?
Thanks!
Hi James, you can eliminate the shredded coconut altogether 🙂
Thanks! I’m going to sub almonds for cashews and try some smoked Maine sea salt.
About 12 1/2-cup servings:)
my only issue with this granola is its through the roof calorie content. i made a batch and did the math. about a 1/3 cup (or 32 grams) has almost 200 calories and this recipe makes about thirty 1/3 cup servings. so if you’re using this granola as a topping for your whipped coconut cream or paleo banana pancakes, you’re easily pushing 400+ calories and i, personally, like to keep my breakfast below 400 calories, 300 to 350 is ideal. anyway, unless you are getting shredded in daily crossfit classes or workouts that burn a few hundred calories at a time it makes it hard to eat a satisfying amount of this stuff. perhaps my complaint stems from how delicious it is and how badly i want to eat it by the handful. i must restrain myself.
does anyone know the amount of carbs in this recipe? I’d like to make this for my son who is following the keto diet. Thank you
nuts and seeds are pretty low carb foods. you might want to sub out the honey, however. try is with stevia. i might actually try doing this in my next batch. but if you want to find out exactly how many carbs are in this just go to caloriecount.com, which give you a full nutritional breakdown for any and all foods. then you’ll have to add up the amounts and calculate the carbohydrates yourself.
This recipe looks lovely! However I was wondering how long it lasts if I were to store some and how would you recommend storing it? Thanks! X
Hi Sophie,
The granola keeps very well! I’d recommend storing it in a large glass jar and keep it sealed. You can also store it in a zip lock bag. I usually leave mine in the pantry, but if you’re concerned about the egg white in the recipe, you can definitely keep it in the refrigerator. Hope this helps! 🙂
Thank you for this recipe! This is soooooooo good! I have made it many many times now and it has also become my new go to as a hostess gift in a pretty jar. Everyone I have given it to has asked for the recipe and then has actually made it for themselves. I eat it everyday for breakfast with Greek yogurt and some fresh fruit.
I usually get lazy and leave out the egg whites, although they do make it crunchier. I always add sunflower seeds and a handful of sesame seeds and I use melted coconut oil and maple syrup. Have tried other nut combinations, but always come back to the ones in the recipe as the best. Dried cranberries are good and easy to find, but my favorite is dried wild blueberries but then added only right after the granola is out of the oven (not baked with it).
Thank you thank you!!!
Can I use oatmeal as I do not have all of the nuts. I have sunflower seeds some pecans.
Hi Patty, You can definitely use rolled oats to make granola, although I would suggest looking up a different recipe, as I’m not sure what would need to be adjusted based on the amount of oats you use. Best of luck!
What size is the pan you use?
I spread the entire mixture on a 14×16 cookie sheet and baked at 300ºF and ended up baking for 30 minutes. Only achieved great clusters around the outer edges. The inner portion had a layer of golden brown mixture with small clusters but underneath was not baked well at all.
I removed as many clusters as possible, spread the mixture more thinly and baked for another 10 minutes. Never really achieved more large clusters and had another layer of under-baked mixture beneath the golden brown. Seems obvious that I had far too much mixture for the size pan I used.
So again I ask. What size pan are you using?
Thanks for the recipe!
kr
Hi Kevin,
I use a parchment-lined 12″ x 18″ baking sheet which means I end up with a thick layer of granola, too. I find it works well to leave the granola in an evenly-spread thick layer on the sheet rather than to spread it out. The granola along the edges does get a little crispier than the granola in the center, but I haven’t gotten the same result as you with un-baked granola in the center. It makes sense that you didn’t get large clusters after spreading the granola out, since you need the thick layer for the granola to bind together and form the clusters. The key is to turn the granola once during the baking process and leave it un-touched for a while after it comes out of the oven. I’m a firm believer the “clustering” happens after the granola is out of the oven. Also, exact bake times and temperatures vary depending on elevation. I’ve found it takes my granola roughly twice as long to bake as those who live at sea level. Hope this helps!
Just made this granola and it is absolutely delicious! I used dried cherries because I had them on hand and used the coconut oil. I think it would be fun to try some different combination of nuts/dried fruits, as well! Excellent (and super easy) recipe.
OOH, dried cherries sound awesome! So happy you like the recipe and yup, I bet a variety of other nuts would be awesome, too! 😀
My granola stuck to the baking paper and was hard to get off, any suggestions?
We LOVE this! Its our new go to granola!
This granola is awesome! I’ve made many versions over the years but having recently switched to a paleo-ish diet this is great. And the best granola I’ve ever made 🙂 Thanks!
Yipppppy!!! Thanks, Alicia! xoxo
I’ve made this recipe twice. Only difference is substituting the pumpkin seeds for sunflower seeds. However, it never seems to come out crunchy like it was described. I’ve left it in longer.. let it sit longer.. and it ended up the same. Any clue?
Hi Alexandra, Did you make any other substitutions besides the pumpkin seeds?
Nope. Just the pumpkin seeds.
Were your cranberries sweetened? I can never find unsweetened dried cranberries except for Trader Joe’s freeze-dried cranberries, so not the right texture. I find that other dried fruit is easier to get unsweetened. If you’re really keeping a paleo diet, though, you should be aware of how sugar-laden those dried cranberries are. Otherwise, looks delicious!