Do you know how dangerous it is to have freshly baked granola sitting on the counter during a long winter evening? And by dangerous, I mean it totally feels healthy enough (vegan, oil-free, buckwheat!) to keep picking away at all night long. You can be sure we did. Each time one of us left the kitchen with a couple clusters in hand, we’d say, “OK, this is the last piece of the night!” only to be tempted back into the kitchen during the next commercial break.
This granola stands apart from the crowd with its lightly sweet, oil-free clusters of crunchy cinnamon-coated buckwheat and sunflower seeds. There isn’t an oat in sight, but we hardly noticed or even cared. For those of you who were pleading for a recipe using almond pulp, you’ll be happy to know that I threw my leftover almond pulp into this batch and it blended seamlessly. I’m sure it also works just fine without it though.
Added on top of a Green Monster for breakfast, I couldn’t take those pictures fast enough! Snap, snap, slurp, slurp.
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Blissfull Buckwheat Granola Clusters
Yield
12 Servings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This granola stands apart from the crowd with its lightly sweet, oil-free clusters of crunchy cinnamon-coated buckwheat and sunflower seeds. There isn’t an oat in sight, but we hardly noticed. It's not very sweet and a bit earthy, so if this isn't you thing you might want to add more granulated sweetener to taste.
Ingredients
For the dry ingredients
- 1.5 cups raw buckwheat groats (not Kasha)
- Leftover almond pulp (I had about 1/2 cup or so)
- 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar (or other granulated sugar of choice)
For the wet ingredients
- 2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup coconut nectar syrup (or brown rice syrup)
- 3 tbsp sunflower seed butter (or almond or peanut butter)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. If using almond pulp, it will remain a bit chunky, but not to worry.
- In a smaller bowl, mix the wet ingredients until combined. Add wet mixture to dry ingredients and stir until the dry ingredients are thoroughly coated and wet.
- Spread granola onto baking sheet in a uniform layer. Bake at 300°F for 20 minutes, roughly flip granola, and bake for another 18-20 minutes, watching closely so it doesn’t burn. Granola will be lightly golden on the bottom and will harden a lot during the cooling process.
- Cool completely on the pan and then store in a glass container on the counter for up to 3-4 weeks (just an estimate).
Tip:
I assume this recipe also works without the almond pulp, so if you don’t have any still give it a shot.
If you don’t have coconut nectar, feel free to use brown rice syrup. Honey would work too if that’s part of your diet. These sticky sweeteners help the granola clump together. You can also use maple syrup or agave, but I don’t think the clusters would hold together as much.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
PS- If you are looking for an oil-free oat-based granola, check out my Lightened Up Summer Granola. It’s probably the most popular granola recipe on the site.
Happy crunching!
AMAZING! I am the same way. When there is granola and freshly made too- I have no self control. :)
I would love to try this! Plus I love that you added it to a green monster!!
My kinda of power snack!
Hi Angela, I just wanted to thank you for your amazing recipes. I think you are a vegan genius. I wanted to tell you that I made your Triple Almond Cherry Crumble Squares this week and it was a HIT! I made a few adjustments: I substituted coconut flour for the rice flour, and I added more than 1/2 a cup of expeller pressed organic coconut oil to the crust base. Organic Coconut oil is supposed to be really good for you. These kept me and my vegan husband full for long periods – making a great breakfast. Thank you!
Also, that recipe turned me on to grinding up raw almonds. I’ve made your vegan overnight oatmeal, but in place of bananas (which I find usually turn brown overnight!) I put ground up raw almonds. Also very sustaining!
I was very sorry to hear about your rash and allergic reaction/skin issues. I have a few suggestions: try eliminating RICE and rice products (rice flour, rice syrup etc.) Many studies have noted that North America rice is contaminated with arsenic, and arsenic is especially concentrated in rice syrup and brown rice etc. Arsenic is a known carcinogen. So we’ve cut rice products out of our diet for the most part, substituting with kamut, spelt berries, wheat berries etc. (using our pressure cooker – so it is quick!)
Anyway, thanks so much for all your amazing recipes! Good luck with the rash and take care!
Juliet (from Chicago)
I honestly JUST bought my first buckwheat groats earlier today! What a surprise to see this recipe up. I’m excited to start using them =)
First off, I have enjoyed your blog for over a year now and love how you encourage others to live a healthy, balanced diet. With that balance in mind, I was curious what your perspective is on sustainability and local agriculture. Many recipes call for ingredients that aren’t grown in North America–such as coconut sugar in this recipe. Just curious how/if you incorporate local foods in your diet.
This looks AMAZING! So excited to try this and even have all the ingredients on hand! I’ve been putting some almond pulp in our smoothies and so far no one has seemed to notice :) It is great to have another way to use it!
Oh my goodness! I made this granola today and am totally identifying with your problem staying away from it. I subbed a little almond flour for the pulp and used pepitas, since they were what I had on hand. YUM!
ah buckwheat…so good and so healthy!
Angela, somehow you are able to make everything beautiful through your photography. I find your artwork truly inspiring.
Next week I’m doing a post on food photography and I’ll make sure to send my readers over to you to check out what you can do with some food and a camera.
Hi! Just made this and it was SO deliciously crunchy! Thanks for the great recipe! (didnt have almond pulp so substituted with a GF flour)
Yum these look great! I love granola in general but have a problem eating a whole bag in one sitting ;)
I just made this using wheat germ instead of almond pulp and it turned out Ah-mazing!! I shouldn’t have made it when hungry, now I can’t keep my paws off it. Thanks for a great, healthy recipe :)
I Love that you have added nutritional info. Yay! It’s the ONLY thing I think would improve your recipes. I love every single thing I have made from your blog. You are amazing!
Just finishing up a batch of this right now – mine didn’t stay in nice clumps though, there are many little crumbly bits, delicious but not grab by the handful eat-able… maybe because I used homemade sunflower seed butter? Or honey instead of coconut nectar? I’m not sure but it’s still delicious! Thanks for the recipe :)
Yum looks delicious! Where do you purchase the raw buckwheat from? Oh and do you know of a good and cheap source to purchase oats (I live in Milton, ON)?
Thanks for sharing this recipe! It’s calling for me to put on top of a frozen banana “ice cream”, anyone else? haha
Just made this and it turned out great! I soaked the buckwheat for about 30 minutes and used agave. The pieces stuck together perfectly. Even my super-picky, omnivorous, teenage son liked it. Thank you :)
Yummm! Angela! This sounds so good!!
Hi Angela,
Could I make this with oats? I want my 3 year old to eat it and he may not try it if he does not recognize the buckwheat groats…and I could send it to his nut-free school!
Hey Tracy, I’m sure it would work fine – just add the oats gradually to make sure it doesn’t dry out (I’m not sure how much you’d have to use) Let me know how it goes!
So I made it with 1 1/4 cups of oats and threw in an 1/8 cup of raw quinoa because I had it and baked it for the same amount of time and it worked perfectly. And…I sent it to school today. Thanks for the recipe.
This looks awesome! I love how you incorporated the buckwheat!
These look amazing! What a perfect healthy breakfast option.