How to Make Healthy Granola

How to make the best granola following a simple formula with endless variations. Perfect for customizing to your flavor, texture, and dietary requirements and enjoying with yogurt, fruit, smoothies, and more!

Oats are the versatile breakfast staple of my dreams. When I want something warm and cozy, oatmeal is the perfect way to go. On the move? Try baked oatmeal bars. Dessert for breakfast? Chocolate baked oatmeal is a must try. Want something crunchy and sweet? Roll out the red carpet for this delicious healthy granola recipe!

Like most oaty breakfast recipes, this homemade granola makes for the perfect blank canvas. With a simple base of oats, nuts (or seeds), and sweetener, you can add to the simple granola recipe in a myriad of ways. I.e., add dried fruit, coconut, chocolate, and more.

Let’s not forget that preparing this healthy granola recipe will also have your kitchen smell wonderful. Plus, it requires minimal effort and clean-up, and even freezes wonderfully!

And if you aren’t yet entirely sold, I haven’t even gotten to the best part. Making homemade granola is also usually far most cost-effective than buying it. Especially if your pantry is stocked with most of the ingredients already. Best of all, it’s super versatile and customizable in taste, texture, and dietary requirements (i.e., gluten-free, refined sugar-free, vegan, etc.).

So, there’s no problem if you want it to be certified gluten-free, refined sugar-free, or vegan. Prefer flaky vs. clustered or chunky granola? That’s easy to do too! And all variations start with a simple formula, so it’s easy to create a delicious batch every time!

Is Granola Healthy?

Granola is, as a standard, both nutritious and filling. It includes essential vitamins and minerals like iron, folate, vitamin D, Vitamin A, sometimes B vitamins, etc. But many commercial versions are also loaded with sugar, and fat, and are ultimately very high in calories.

Unfortunately, those that are healthier (i.e., low sugar granola, low fat granola, low calorie granola) often come with a steep price premium, making them an unaffordable regular buy. Luckily, when making homemade granola, you can tweak and adjust the ingredients to fit your dietary goals. So you’ll make a healthier breakfast or snack you’ll adore!

It isn’t just regular granola you can make at home, either! You might also like these homemade almond butter granola bars or even granola butter (to spread over toast!).

What is Granola Made of

Most granola recipes follow a fairly basic ingredient formula (with just a handful of ingredients) and are just variations on that.

• Oats: Use rolled oats for this easy granola recipe and make sure they’re gluten-free certified for gluten-free granola.

Can I substitute oats? You should be able to use an alternative grain flake, like rye, spelt, barley or quinoa. Though I haven’t tried it. You could also use a combination of several.

• Nuts (or seeds): I used a combination of almonds and walnuts for flavor and texture variation. However, most nuts will work (cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, pistachios, etc.). For nut-free granola, you could use seeds instead, like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, or an omega seed combination.

Make sure to use raw and unsalted nuts or seeds. They won’t burn in the oven or overpower the oats and honey granola with saltiness.

• Dried fruit: For this version, I used dried cranberries. But chopped dates, raisins, dried apricots, blueberries, tropical fruits, cherries, banana chips, etc., also work.
• Sweetener: Maple syrup or honey are my favorite options, though any liquid sweetener should work (agave, brown rice syrup, etc.). This will add sweetness and help to bind the ingredients.

You could use a combination of one of the above natural sweeteners and a sugar-free syrup for low sugar granola. However, I haven’t tried using 100% sugar-free syrup as I think it would affect the clumping and texture.

• Coconut oil: Even if you aren’t a fan of oil, adding some fat is important when making granola. This gives it the correct flavor and consistency. Butter or another neutral cooking oil would also work.
• Vanilla extract: Use natural vanilla extract for the best flavor and adjust the amount to taste.
• Cinnamon: A dash of cinnamon is warming, delicious, and pairs with many types of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit.
• Salt: Just a pinch of salt enhances the flavor of anything oat-based.

Granola Variations

As you can probably tell, homemade granola is incredibly versatile. Of course, there are plenty of other ingredients you could add to the easy granola recipe to make it your own.

• Coconut: Unsweetened shredded coconut or coconut flakes can be added halfway through the baking process.
• Cacao nibs: A crunchy and antioxidant-rich addition to stir into the cooled granola.
• Chocolate: Add dark chocolate chips or chunks to the cooled mixture (to avoid melting).
• Citrus zest: Lemon or orange zest will add an aromatic, citrussy flavor to the easy granola recipe.
• Other spices: Like nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, cloves, etc.

You can also prepare a homemade version of your favorite store-bought flavors:

• Chocolate granola: Omit the dried fruit and stir in small chunks of dark chocolate once the granola has cooled. I also like to use hazelnuts for this version. Additionally, you could add a few tbsps of cocoa powder to the mixture (you may need to increase the liquid).
• Mixed berry granola: Use freeze-dried berries as your dried fruit of choice.
• Chocolate and berry granola: Combine the two above.
• Tropical granola: Omit cinnamon and use tropical dried fruits, banana chips, & coconut flakes.
• Pumpkin spice granola: Use maple syrup, pecans, and pumpkin pie spice.
• Cinnamon apple: Swap the dried cranberries with dried apple added at the end.
• Christmas granola: (Gingerbread granola) As a sweetener, I love to use a combination of brown sugar and molasses. Keep the base recipe the same but also add 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger (or some candied ginger) and the zest of one orange. This version is perfect for giving as a Christmas gift, too!

No matter how you add to or adapt this recipe, the general rule is to keep the ratio of wet-to-dry ingredients roughly the same.

How to Make Granola

First, preheat the oven to 385ºF/195ºC (or to 350ºF/175ºC fan-assisted). Then roughly chop the nuts, and blend 1/3 of the rolled oats into a floury consistency.

Then, mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

I added the dried fruit as well this time. However, you may prefer to mix that in after the granola has baked and cooled to avoid it burning or becoming too dry/chewy.

Meanwhile, melt the coconut oil and combine it with maple syrup and vanilla extract. Then pour that over the dry ingredients. Mix well!

Line a large baking tray with parchment paper. Then add the oat and nut mixture to the prepared baking sheet, pressing it down well into an even layer.

This is important to create an even layer but also helps form granola clumps/ clusters.

Bake the homemade granola in the oven for 20 minutes, stirring it halfway. Then, remove the tray from the oven. Allow it to cool completely before gently breaking it into clumps (this will happen fairly naturally).

Top Tips for the Best Homemade Granola

• Don’t under or overcrowd the pan: The mixture needs to be crowded enough to form clumps. But not too much that it doesn’t toast evenly/become crunchy evenly.
• For maximum granola clusters: Press down on the mixture with a spatula after stirring it while it bakes. The more you stir, the smaller the clusters.
• Be careful not to overbake it: It should be slightly golden on top and may not even look ready. However, it will continue to firm up and become crunchier as it cools.
• Allow it to cool completely. Always allow the homemade granola to cool entirely before breaking it into smaller clumps, so it’s sturdy and won’t fall apart. This can take several hours (or even overnight).

How to Eat Granola

To say there are plenty of ways to enjoy this homemade granola would be an understatement. Here are just a few of my favorites.

• Enjoy in a yogurt bowl.
• Serve with milk (dairy or dairy-free) and fresh fruit, like granola cereal.
• Add to a healthy fruit and yogurt parfait.
• Sprinkle over smoothie bowls and acai bowls.
• Enjoy with ice cream.
• Sprinkle over grilled or baked fruit.
• Use it to make other recipes (like granola bars, etc.).

FAQs

More Oaty Breakfast Recipes

• How to make overnight oats
• How to make oatmeal on the stove (porridge)
• Simple savory oatmeal
• Mango chia bowl with crisp oats
• Healthy oatmeal spinach pancakes
• Strawberry baked oatmeal
• Healthy Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits

If you try this quick and simple homemade granola recipe, I’d love to hear your thoughts/questions below. Also, I’d appreciate a recipe card rating below, and tag me in your recipe recreations on Instagram @Alphafoodie!