Naturally Sweet: Vegan Granola Without Refined Sugar

Chocolate chip granola, Cupful of Kale

Granola is a blend of rolled oats, nuts, seeds and sweeteners, which is  then baked until crisp. Packed with fibre and protein, it’s high in calories and sugars, and is not recommended for people who get things stuck in their teeth!

Avoid granola for children and people with swallowing difficulties.

Keep granola away from pets, due to nuts and chocolate.

Most granolas contain honey, so for vegans the easiest option is to simply bake your own. You can store leftovers in airtight containers for a few weeks. Then just pour yourself out a bowl in the morning, and add some fresh fruits and plant milk, for a nutritious and filling start to the day.

Making your own granola is also good, as you get to choose the oils used (most commercial brands use refined oils that are high in omega 6 fatty acids, the ones we don’t want too much of).

Ingredients in homemade granola

• Rolled oats are high in fibres and good for your heart. They kind of ‘sweep all the rubbish’ out of your system, so are good for heart health.
• Nuts are high in protein and calcium. If buying almonds, look for organic ones grown locally, to avoid versions that use migratory bee-keeping. Read more on bee-friendly almonds.
• Seeds are also high in protein and calcium, along with omega 3 fatty acids (ideal if you don’t eat fish). Again, avoid them for choking hazards, and always mix chia seeds in liquid, before use.

How to sweeten granola without honey

There are many vegan honey alternatives. You could use a commercial vegan honee, but there are other options like maple syrup or fruit-based syrups. Another option is agave nectar, a natural sweetener that is related to cactus.

Again making your own granola not only avoids honey, but refined white sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, which is used in most commercial brands.

Granola is a favourite breakfast and snack for many. But many brands on sale contain honey and lots of refined sugar. You can make up a batch yourself and keep in an airtight container, or find better brands to buy.

Read up on food safety for people and pets (many foods are unsafe near animal friends). For storebought, recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if kerbside does not recycle. 

Before recycling tins, rinse/remove lids (or pop ring-pulls over holes) then step on the can to ‘pinch’ inner rims together, to stop wildlife getting trapped.

Although it’s good to compost food scraps, unless you have a food waste bin (turned into biogas), just bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallot, chives), citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps and tea/coffee grounds. To avoid too much acid/caffeine affecting compost creatures.

Reasons to choose vegan granola

• Natural sweeteners – vegan versions use maple syrup, agave or date syrup over honey
• Rich in plant proteins – packed with nuts, hemp hearts, pumpkin seeds, for a protein boost to power your morning
• High in fibre – built on a base of whole grain rolled oats, these are good for your heart, keep you full and supports healthy digestion
• Lower environmental footprint – granola without butter lowers carbon emissions, saves water and reduces land use.

Cheeky Nibble (granola that tastes like cake!)

Cheeky Nibble (UK) is a wonderful little food brand, which creates large chunks of granola (good to just eat out of the compostable packs) that are naturally flavoured to taste like your favourite desserts.

The ingredients are pretty good, like oat and rice flour, puffed rice, and natural sweeteners like golden syrup or molasses. These contain chocolate and cocoa butter, so keep them away from pets.

At time of writing, all items are also gluten-free and nut-free (the ‘almond taste’ is not from almonds, but from a plant that tastes like almonds). And all packaging is easily recycled.

The range includes:

• Cherry Bakewell (almond-flavoured clusters with sour dried cherries).
• Vanilla Latte (coffee and vanilla clusters, topped with vegan white chocolate chips).
• Victoria Sponge (strawberry clusters and freeze-dried strawberry pieces, topped with creamy vegan white chocolate chips).
• Banoffee Pie (banana and caramel flavoured clusters with vegan white chocolate chips, mixed with crunchy dried banana chips).

You can find this granola in many shops. Or order online (subscribe for savings).

Deliciously Ella (tasty nutty granolas)

Deliciously Ella offers a nice line of granolas, again in easy to recycle packaging. Find in stores or order in boxes of six online:

Blackberry & Pecan Deluxe Granola is packed with wild blackberries, red apple, crunchy whole almonds and pecans, with toasted coconut and flame raisins.

Almond, Apple & Raisin Granola contains almonds, pumpkins and sunflower seeds, with coconut chips, raisins and oats.

Spoon Granolas (made with regenerative oats)

Spoon Cereals is a quality brand of granola that’s made in the company’s own factory in Yorkshire, in easy to recycle packaging.

This brand is not certified organic, but it does use organic oats and is moving towards using regenerativel-grown oats for all its non-gluten-free granolas. Sweetened with maple sugar and date syrup, the Low Sugar version is sweetened with chicory fibre (a natural dietery fibre from chicory root).

Sold in grocery stores or online, flavours (some gluten-free) include:

• Cinnamon & Pecan
• Peanut Butter
• Apple & Almond Butter

Holie’s (low-sugar granola from The Netherlands

Holies (The Netherlands) is high in protein and prebiotic fibre.  The only sugars are freeze-dried fruits (like strawberry and apple pieces) and chicory root fibre. What started out as a crazy experiment is now a European-wide brand sold in most grocery stores.

There are also gluten-free and low-carb granolas. The main range includes:

• Peanut Chocolate
• Protein Peanut Butter
• Protein Chocolate