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Healthy Granola

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This really is the best healthy granola recipe! It’s quick and easy to make, naturally sweetened with (just a little) maple syrup, and always so flavorful and delicious.

Healthy Granola Recipe

Alright, time to pin, print, save, tag, or bookmark this recipe however in the world you prefer. Because I’m telling you, this one is a total keeper.

Friends…meet my all-time favorite homemade granola recipe! ♡

As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, our little household has a borderline out-of-control granola obsession. We’re constantly whipping up various kinds of granola (or granola bars) to keep on hand for easy breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and — let’s be real — our fair share of lazy weeknight dinners cozied up on the couch with a bowl and a side of Netflix. We love it plain, we love it drowning in almond milk, we love mixing it with fresh fruit and Greek yogurt into parfaits, we love sprinkling it on everything from desserts to mashed potatoes to salads (<– yes, surprisingly good). We just freaking love granola.

And while I have shared over a dozen kinds of fun and quirky granola recipes here on the blog over the years, I will be the first to admit that the vast majority of the time, we usually keep things simple and default to this classic healthy granola recipe right here.

In my granola-obsessed opinion, it’s simply the best.

Partly because it’s super quick and easy to make, with ingredients you probably already keep in your pantry. Partly because it’s full of feel-good ingredients, including lots of protein and omega-3s. Partly because it isn’t overly sweet, just lightly tossed with a bit of honey or maple syrup. Partly because it’s perfectly crunchy, and easy to customize with whatever ingredients you love most. But mainly, I just love this granola recipe because it is downright delicious.

So if you’re on the search for a back-pocket, tried-and-true, perfectly-crunchy, all-kinds-of-flavorful, feel-good granola recipe of your own, I highly recommend giving this one a try. I think you’re going to love it!

The Best Healthy Granola Recipe | 1-Minute Video

Healthy Granola

Homemade Granola Ingredients:

To make this homemade granola recipe, you will need:

  • Old-fashioned oats: Also known as rolled oats. If making this recipe gluten-free, be sure to double-check that the brand you buy is certified GF.
  • Nuts: I almost always use slivered almonds in my granola. But feel free to replace them with your favorite nuts or seeds (like pepitas or sunflower seeds).
  • Chia seeds: I like sprinkling these in for extra omega-3s, but feel free to omit them if you prefer.
  • Melted coconut oil: Or your preferred kind of oil.
  • Honey: Or maple syrup.
  • Ground cinnamon, fine sea salt and vanilla extract: To flavor the granola.
  • Flaky coconut: Or you can use shredded coconut, or omit the coconut altogether.

How To Make Granola

How To Make Granola:

Alright, let’s talk about how to make granola! Simply:

  1. Toss together (most of) the dry ingredients. Oats, almonds, chia seeds, cinnamon and salt, that is. We’ll save the coconut and any extra add-ins for later.
  2. Add the wet ingredients. Whisk together the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla. Then drizzle it over the dry ingredients and give everything a good toss until it’s evenly mixed. Spread the mixture out evenly on a large parchment-covered baking sheet.
  3. Bake. Let the mixture bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. Then remove from the oven and give the mixture a thorough stir.
  4. Add coconut. Then sprinkle the coconut evenly on top of the granola. (We’re doing this so that it’s just lightly toasted and doesn’t overcook.)  And pop the baking sheet back in the oven for another 5 minutes, keeping a close eye on the coconut so that it doesn’t burn. Then remove the baking sheet from the oven and transfer it to a wire rack.
  5. Let the granola cool. Wait for about 20-30 minutes, or until the granola has completely cooled to room temperature. Then use a spoon (or your fingers) to break it up into your desired size of clumps.
  6. (Optional) Add your mix-ins. Then at this point, if you plan to add any chocolate chips, dried fruit, or other add-ins, go ahead and stir them in. And finally…
  7. Enjoy! You can either serve the granola right away. Or transfer it to a sealed container, and it should keep for up to 1 month.

Best Granola Recipe

Possible Variations:

Want to customize your granola a bit more? Feel free to add in extra:

  • Dried fruit: Any kind of chopped dried fruit would be delicious here.
  • Chocolate chips: As would, of course, your favorite kind of chocolate chips.
  • Peanut butter: Feel free to stir in 1/4 cup natural peanut butter (stir it into the melted coconut mixture) if you would like.
  • Warming spices: I’ve kept the recipe simple below with just using ground cinnamon. But feel free to add in any other additional warming spices that you love, such as ground nutmeg, cloves, ginger and/or allspice.

Healthy Granola Recipe with Almond Milk and Blueberries

More Favorite Granola Recipes:

Be sure to check out some of my other favorite granola recipes too!

The BEST Healthy Granola Recipe

Enjoy, everyone! ?

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Healthy Granola Recipe

The BEST Healthy Granola!

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.8 from 118 reviews
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 0 About 6 cups 1x

Description

This truly is the BEST healthy granola recipe!  It’s quick and easy to make, it’s naturally sweetened with (just a little) maple syrup, and so flavorful and delicious.  See above for more ideas on how to customize your granola too.


Ingredients

Scale

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 350°F.  Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together oats, almonds, chia seeds, cinnamon and sea salt until evenly combined.
  3. In a separate measuring cup, stir together the melted coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract until combined.  Pour the coconut oil mixture into the oats mixture, and stir until evenly combined.
  4. Spread the granola out evenly on the prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes, stirring once halfway through.  Then remove from the oven, add the coconut, and give the mixture a good stir.  Bake for 5 more minutes, until the granola is lightly toasted and golden.
  5. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire baking rack.  Let cool until the granola reaches room temperature.  Then stir in the dried fruit, chocolate chips or any other optional add-ins you might prefer.
  6. Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month.


Notes

Gluten-free option: If making this recipe gluten-free, be sure to use certified GF oats.

Fine sea salt: Note that if you use iodized (table) salt instead, you will need to use less salt.

The Best Healthy Granola Recipe

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217 comments on “Healthy Granola”

  1. Delicious! I followed the recipe (easy and quick!) added in pecans and cherries.






  2. So good!! I love that all the ingredients are already in the pantry. Thank you Ali for all the great recipes!






  3. Thank you for this great granola recipe. We all love it and I’ve been doubling the recipe and still have to make it every three weekor so. I do add some extra nuts, some wheat germ and lots of unsweetened flake coconut. So good!






  4. Delicious!!






  5. I’m health conscious and always need nutrition information and sadly, most recipes do not offer this. This would be very helpful to us that need this vital information. Recipe sound yummy!

    • Debbie,

      Check out My Fitness Pal. It’s free to use, and it has an amazing recipe calculator app. I calculated a 1/4 cup serving of this recipe, using honey instead of maple syrup, and no dried fruit, to have 174 calories and 4 grams of sugar.

      https://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/view/23783268043821

  6. I am about the make this granola for the third time. I am absolutely obsessed!






  7. This was my first time making granola and I LOVE this recipe. It smells wonderful and tastes even better. Thank you so much for sharing.






  8. mmm, this looks so good!!!!
    I can;t wait to try it!!

  9. Easy to make. Good flavour. It will be my go to granola.






  10. Love this simple recipe! I’ve been meaning to make my own granola for a while …what took me so long! When I googled granola and your site popped up I knew it would be a winner and again you are spot on! Keep those great recipes coming!






  11. Will you please provide the nutrition information for “The Best Healthy Granola” and the “Irresistible Peanut Butter Granola”? Thank you.






  12. Wanting to keep it relatively healthy, how much choc. chips would you add??

  13. What’s up with all the salt? I made this exactly as specified and it tasted like Chex Mix Party Snack. So here’s my advice to others….think about your salt tolerance and proceed with caution. I’ll try it again with less. Otherwise it looks good.






  14. Pretty good – though mine did not “clump” much.
    Why is parchment paper used? I didn’t have it, so I just used a naked pan. It was fine.
    Of course, I had to wash the pan, but that was no particular trouble.

    • Mine didn’t clump at all either, leaving the chia seeds at the bottom. I also found the parchment paper to just make a mess.

      But it is REALLY DELICIOUS! I will be making more this weekend. Love this recipe!

    • I think using parchment helps with clumping because the wet ingredients stick to the dry instead of sticking to the oan. Also after you pull it out of the oven to stir, mash the ingredients down with a spatula to help them stick together before you pop the pan back in. That should also help with clumping.

  15. Made this a few time with differt nuts always very good I also made it with honey instead of maple syrup. I wish I could make it with more clusters, any ideas?

  16. Wow! I added walnuts and a small amount of orange blossom water and it came out superb!






  17. this IS a keeper. Good with cashews and a mix of spices: I did ginger, cardamom, nutmeg and cinnamon.






    • Ali, I’d love to make this with a combination of warming spices. What is your recommendation for a combination of warming spices? How much should I add if each?

  18. Debbie– I’m pretty sure that there are websites or “apps” that can take your ingredients, do the computations and give you the nutrition information. They’re called recipe nutrition calculators or recipe analyzers….

    Yes!
    (Took 3 tries, but that ‘Siri’ feature finally) found a few: First of all, the blogger at Zip Recipes (dot net) did some of that legwork, rating 2 options for us (Happyforks and Verywell.) It seems to me the post seems written geared toward food bloggers, but does seem easy enough. A second blogger, One Ingredient Chef (dot) com is also happy using Verywell






  19. I love this recipe! I make it every week.






  20. So gooooooooood!

    My first homemade granola ever!
    I used dried figs!
    Just love it!
    Greetings from Austria






  21. Really good recipe! Although Id had to say I used butter instead of Coconut Oil because….I just love butter..:) I also added some toasted pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts! Just WONDERFUL!






  22. Excellent. Easy and so good. Used honey in place of syrup and added pecans. On my second batch?






  23. I can’t wait to try this with some variations from all the suggestions. Been wanting to make granola cereal for so long. I will let you know what happens.

  24. This recipe is great! I did take some liberties though, haha. I added more cinnamon, ground ginger, cardamom, and nutmeg. I omitted the coconut flakes and salt and added chopped cashews and pecans as well as sunflower seeds. I used grapeseed oil instead of coconut oil. Turned out awesome! Perfect with almond milk.






  25. I’m totally Obsessed with this granola.I bought some at grocery store….dark chocolate.. and almonds and sea salt…OMG. I am addicted.. I’m a CHOCOHOLIC..I found a GOOD CHOCOLATE RECIPE. THEN I came across
    This RECIPE. I will never buy granola AGAIN
    When this is so easy to make….Who knew..
    THANK YOU??






  26. I made the granola today. I used dates and walnuts. It is very good but way too salty for me. I will try again with no salt and see if I like it better.

  27. Mine’s in the oven right now and I can hardly wait to try it! I did switch to peanut oil for coconut oil due to the high saturated fat (so wanted to use coconut though).
    Yummy!

  28. You’re right! This IS the BEST granola, hands down! I made it last night, and it’s better than any granola I’ve ever made, and 200x better than any I’ve ever bought. Thank you!






  29. If I have some slivered almonds that are a little stale, can I use them in this recipe or do I need super fresh ones? Just trying not to waste the stale ones. ??‍♀️ Thanks!

  30. This is so insanely good! I was a little worried about the volume being a bit too much for me, but now I’m just eating it straight out of the storage jar. Thank you so much for this recipe!!!






  31. You will have to trust my workings out as I can’t post them here but for a 100g serving, I make the Nutritional Information to be:

    kcal: 457.2
    Carbohydrate: 41.3g
    of which sugars: 15.4g
    Fat: 27.9g
    of which saturates: 16.3
    Protein: 8.3

    Based on the following ingredients converted from cups to grams:
    Oats
    Flaked (sliced) Almonds
    Chia Seeds (black or white)
    Ground Cinnamon
    Sea Salt
    Coconut Oil
    Maple Syrup
    Vanilla Extract
    Unsweetened Desiccated Coconut (easier to source than flaked)
    Dried Mixed Fruit (raisins, golden raisins, cranberries)

    Obviously there will be variations depending on brand of ingredients etc.

  32. I tried a batch and loved it so much (the overlay of the coconut oil gives this recipe a deep flavor) that I proceeded to make 4 more batches to include a baggie full in each of my 12 Christmas gift boxes of home made goodies.






  33. Wow! So happy I found your recipe. I changed it up a bit and used pure honey from our bees instead of maple syrup and didn’t have chia seeds so I just left them out. I did 1/2 c slivered almonds and 1/2 c chopped pecans because I didn’t have enough to make a full cup of either (right after Christmas). Added some chopped dates I had left over from the holidays as well. Your recipe rocks. Thanks for sharing! It’s DARNED DELICIOUS!






  34. Great recipe! 350 was much too high, it was pretty dark at 16 minutes and the coconut was toasted in only one minute. I still ate it slightly burnt, but am making it again right now at 300. Already know it is going to work this time! I would recommend trying at a lower temp to see how it goes before setting at 350. I am sure I will make this many more times now that I have the temperature set.






  35. Amazing! Except now I can’t stop eating it!






  36. I haven’t made it yet but I assume the honey would be stickier than maple syrup. Anyone tried with maple and not had as successful results?






  37. Love it – affordable ingredients, easily customizable and incredibly forgiving recipe. Thank you for sharing. On my second week of DIY yogurt parfait






  38. We love this recipe

  39. I agree with the other posts about salt. I love saltiness but in this I would cut the salt in half.






  40. I want to try this, but I have a diabetic that can’t take sugar. I don’t guess a sugar substitute will give this the “sticky” it needs. Any suggestions?

  41. Sounds just what I was looking for, THANKS.






  42. I’d like to know how many grams would be a serving? Ty.

  43. This recipe had way too much salt for my family. I wish I had realized it before making it because it was pretty inedible. The other elements were good so it would have been fine had I reduced the salt.






    • Angela, I wish that I had read the reviews, because I am in total agreement..with you the salt should not even be in this recipe.. And the ingredients are not cheap either.. apart from the granola.

      It is pretty inedible..but I have to find a way to eat it..these ingredients and these times I feel really not great about throwing it in the garbage.. Which this author would refund me the money I spent!
      Salt!! who would think to put it.. and the chia seeds, added in when you put milk in it., looks like tiny bugs.. my kids were disgusted and horrified!






  44. I just made it easy recipe and delish . I put pecan and wild dried blueberries . Thanks !






  45. Just made it! Subbed sunflower seeds and pepitas for the almonds (due to a nut allergy). Delicious! I can see how this could be so customizable as well. Will be my go to for granola which I am excited to make again! Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe!






  46. I did a nutritional analysis for this recipe (without dried fruit)
    Serving size 1/4 cup
    Calories 124
    Total fat 7.3 g
    Sat fat 2.7g
    Cholesterol 0
    Sodium 108mg
    Total carbs 12.2
    Dietary fiber 2.3
    Total sugars 2.7
    Protein 2.9g






  47. So good! The flavor is great and the smell is out of this world! I also added 1/4c ground flax seeds and doubled the amount of almonds. It hasn’t even cooled yet, but I can’t stop myself from eating out of the pan!






  48. There appears to be a mistake in this recipe,
    It doesn’t say when to add the add ons or coconut flakes
    Sincerely Claire

  49. I made this granola yesterday. This is the perfect recipe, it makes a really nice amount and it is crunchy and sweet enough to have with Greek yoghurt but not too sweet, VERY highly reccomend this recipe.






  50. That sounds super yummy, but if I wanted to add flax seeds when should I? Thanks!