Chocolate Strawberry Granola (Gluten Free, Vegan + Refined Sugar Free)

Name: Chocolate Strawberry Granola
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 4 cups gluten-free rolled oats; 1 cup sliced almonds; 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted; ½ cup maple syrup; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 3 tablespoons cocoa powder; ½ teaspoon kosher salt; ½ cup dark chocolate chips; 1 cup freeze-dried strawberries

by Rachel Conners on May 19, 2017 (updated Feb 26, 2021) 37 comments »

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Chocolate Strawberry Granola is healthy enough to eat for breakfast, but it’s so delicious you’ll want to have it for dessert too! This simple and easy granola recipe is gluten-free, vegan, and refined sugar-free, and it’s loaded with chocolate & strawberry flavor.

***2017 Update*** You guys have probably noticed I’ve been updating a lot of older recipes with new photos! This is another one of those – this Chocolate Strawberry Granola was posted last year and has become a major favorite of mine and for lots of you. It’s beyond easy and always satisfying. I love it with yogurt or almond milk and berries, or just as a snack.

As usual, I’ve left the words in the post the same as when it was originally posted for nostalgia’s sake…even though it was a little brutal reliving my LASIK experience in this post 😂 thank goodness that was over a year ago! Scroll down for the recipe, and enjoy! :)

Chocolate and strawberries can always make me feel better. The richness of the chocolate paired with the fruity sweetness of strawberries…I can never get enough of it, and it’s definitely one of my favorite flavor combinations.

I’ve been a little off my game the past few days. I don’t want to get into it too much, because this is a food blog designed to make you hungry, not a place for me to complain about medical problems. But, I figured you deserve an explanation for my absence.

I got LASIK eye surgery this past Friday! And it’s sort of incredible, because I can see right when I wake up in the morning. Dealing with contacts every day is now a thing of the past. BUT, my process didn’t go as smoothly as I expected. Without getting into too many details, the suction on one of the machines didn’t work quite right on my left eye the first two times they tried. They had to restart the machine to get it to finally work.

After the doctors sorted the machine issue out, the surgery went smoothly and just as expected. Having to repeat the suction process three times on one of my eyes really did a number on that eye though, and made my recovery more painful than most people’s. This is a totally uncommon thing that the nurse told me she had never seen happen in her four years of doing the procedure. And it happened to my eye twice. Lucky me!

But, because of that, I haven’t been baking, or on my computer really at all. But, I have been snacking on this chocolate strawberry granola. I know I just posted this chai spice granola recipe not too long ago, but I couldn’t hold on to this recipe and not share it with you guys!

Since these chocolate-dipped strawberry chocolate chip cookies and these chocolate covered strawberry brownies, I’ve been sort of obsessing over chocolate + strawberry everything. When the idea for chocolate strawberry granola came into my head, it wouldn’t leave until it had been made. I’ve been snacking on freeze-dried strawberries all the time lately. So, I knew they would be the perfect addition to the granola. They have the fruity taste I want but without the moisture from fresh strawberries.

This Chocolate Strawberry Granola, like all of my granola recipes, is simple to put together and can be in your oven in less than ten minutes. It’s got all the chocolate goodness you could want because we’ve got chocolate two ways!

We mix cocoa powder into the wet ingredients and then bake the granola until nice and crispy. While the granola is still warm from the oven, we sprinkle dark chocolate to melt on top and then stir it in to coat the granola. Once the granola cools, you’ll have big, gorgeous chunks of chocolatey granola. And once we add the freeze-dried strawberries, it’s bursting with strawberry flavor!

This chocolate strawberry granola is both gluten-free and vegan. I love eating it on top of some yogurt with fresh berries for breakfast. But it’s also a perfect snack just on its own. You may even find yourself having a handful as a guilt-free dessert treat. Enjoy!

Get more granola goodness…

Chocolate Strawberry Granola

Author: Rachel Conners
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 6 cups 1x

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Description

Ingredients

Scale

4 cups gluten-free rolled oats
1 cup sliced almonds
3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
½ cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup freeze-dried strawberries

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats and sliced almonds. In a measuring cup, whisk together the coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract, cocoa powder, and kosher salt. Pour over the granola 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 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through to help the granola bake evenly. When it is browned and feels dry to the touch, remove from the oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Let sit for about 2 minutes until chocolate chips have melted, and stir in the chocolate chips to coat the granola (your hands are the best tool to get all the granola covered). Add in the freeze dried strawberries and stir to combine. Let the granola cool completely.
Store at room temperature in an airtight container.