5-Ingredient Grain-Free Granola (Paleo & Vegan)
This 5-Ingredient Grain-Free Granola is the perfect simple granola recipe, minus the grains! It uses nuts and coconut in place of the oats to make a filling and delicious vegan & paleo granola.

I’ve shared a Paleo Granola recipe before and it is delicious. However – it had a few limitations, like that it uses egg whites, so it’s not vegan, and it uses a bundle of ingredients that are all great, but not totally necessary.
So I decided to simplify the paleo granola and make a grain-free granola recipe that only uses 5 ingredients !!!
It’s simple but that doesn’t mean it’s boring. It’s a delightful treat that got rave reviews all around and works just as well as a snack as it does for breakfast, sprinkled over yogurt or topped with nut milk.

Only 5 Ingredients?! What are they??
- Nuts of your choice: I tested this grain-free granola recipe with all sorts of nuts and nut combinations and they all work well. I especially love using sliced almonds as part of the mix for extra texture. Use whatever you have on hand, and you could also use seeds (like pumpkin or sunflower seeds) as part of this mix.
- Flaked Coconut: once the flaked coconut is chopped up a bit, it resembles oats very closely in texture when baked up in granola, so it works perfectly here.
- Maple Syrup: this is where our sweetness comes from and also helps it stick together
- Coconut Oil: acts as a binder and helps crunch everything up
- Nut Butter: this *star* ingredient! I usually use almond butter but any nut butter or flavor of nut butter would work. It provides a delicious buttery, rich flavor and texture to the granola.

I also provide a few options for ~jazzing it up~ a little bit if you feel like going a little above and beyond the 5 ingredients. Not necessary, but if you have any of these and want to toss them in for extra flavor, they’re delicious additions to this grain-free granola.
Add these to your Grain-Free Granola for extra flavor:
- Vanilla extract
- Sea salt
- Cinnamon
- Any sweet spice mixes you like, like pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice, chai spice, etc.
You can also toss in things at the end, like chocolate chips, raisins, or dried cranberries.

This Grain-Free Granola is as simple or as decadent as you want it to be. However you have it, it will be delicious! I hope you love this simple recipe as much as I do.
Want more granola recipes?
- Easy Chocolate Granola
- Gingerbread Cookie Granola
- Coconut Pecan Granola
- Chunky Chocolate Grain-Free Granola

5-Ingredient Grain-Free Granola (Paleo & Vegan)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This 5-Ingredient Grain-Free Granola is the perfect simple granola recipe, minus the grains! It uses nuts and coconut in place of the oats to make a filling and delicious vegan & paleo granola.
Ingredients
For the granola
- 2½ cups chopped nuts and/or seeds of choice – pecans, sliced almonds, pepitas, sunflower seeds, and walnuts are just a few options!
- 1 cup flaked coconut
- ⅓ cup (64g) creamy almond butter or nut butter of choice
- ¼ cup (84g) pure maple syrup or honey
- ¼ cup (50g) coconut oil
Optional add-ins
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, or sweet spice mix, like chai spice or pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
-
In a large bowl, combine the chopped nuts and chopped flaked coconut. In a measuring cup, whisk together the almond butter, coconut oil, and maple syrup. If using, stir in the vanilla, spices, and/or salt.
-
Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients mixture and stir until all of the dry ingredients are coated. Spread the granola in an even layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet and press down with a spatula or your hands.
-
Bake for 30 to 45 minutes. When it is browned and feels dry to the touch, remove from the oven. Let the granola cool completely without disturbing to help chunks form. Once cooled, break up the granola.
-
Store at room temperature in an airtight container for a few weeks, or for up to 2 months in the refrigerator.
Keywords: grain-free granola, paleo granola, oat free granola
This definitely filled the granola void in my life! I forgot my first batch in the oven and burnt it to a crisp…but the second turned out great! I love the versatility of this recipe to switch up the flavors a bit each time
★★★★★
Sorry to hear the first batch was lost to the oven, but glad the second batch was a hit!! Have fun experimenting with this recipe, Shelby :)
Hi! Could you give me a sense of how much this makes? (Either by volume or grams?) thank you!
It makes about 4 to 5 cups of granola!!
So happy to finally find a granola recipe where I didn’t have to use nuts (I don’t like them) but although I left them too long & they kinda burnt which I wouldn’t mind, they never crisped. They remained soggyish.
Hi Maria, is it possible your oven runs a little hot, or it was set to too high a temperature? This recipe requires baking low and slow to dry the granola out – if it’s baked at too high a temperature, the nuts will burn before it all gets crunchy, which it sounds like is what happened to you! Maybe try baking on 275F to see if that works better for you/your oven :)
For the coconut oil did you use refined and did you melt it first?
Hi, yes I generally use refined but you can use virgin if you love the coconut flavor! Yes it’s melted first.
Do you have the macros for this recipe?
Hi Shea, it depends on the nuts/seeds that are used so I don’t provide them because they wouldn’t be fully accurate. If you’d like to calculate the macros, I recommend calculating yourself on a website like MyFitnessPal or something similar with the nuts/seeds/sweeteners you’ll be using for the most accurate results!
This is so easy to make! I did pulse my nuts in a food processor so they aren’t as big. I have a small mouth and I need more bite sized almonds and walnuts. I added the cinnamon and it was great. For my husband who loves nuts, he is very excited to have this granola around.
★★★★★
Glad you’re loving this one – so smart to pulse the nuts a bit to make it more manageable for you!! Thanks for sharing, Brenna :)