Homemade Honey & Oats Granola

This homemade granola recipe with honey and rolled oats is healthy, vegan and refined sugar-free. Oats and honey combined with chopped nuts, seeds and dried fruits give you the very best granola for a quick breakfast. Here I will give you the ultimate granola recipe with tonnes of alternates and variations so that you can make your own granola with whatever you have in your pantry!

This easy homemade granola recipe with honey and instant oats is perfect for a nutritious breakfast or a midday snack. Top a bowl of fresh yoghurt or milk with a handful of this crunchy granola, and you will have a delicious yet filling meal for yourself. Plus, homemade granola instead of buying means saving a boatload of money! Once you start making granola at home, you will realise that it is easy to make a week’s worth in no time and why you haven’t started making it already!

Why should you try this granola recipe at home?

Contrary to the perception of a few, including granola in your daily diet includes certain benefits. Of course, you need to keep a check on several factors here. Since it is naturally sweetened using honey, skip adding sugar to your milk or yoghurt. Also, if you like to top your breakfast bowl with loads of fresh fruits, then that might also need a check. Weight watchers should use low-fat milk or yoghurt to go with their granola.

Buying granola from the supermarket is like offering yourself for a daylight robbery! I am not kidding. Once you see the ingredients and how easily you can put them together to make your own homemade granola, you will be surprised. All it takes is some rolled instant oats, a handful of chopped nuts, seeds and dried fruits mixed with a sweetener and some fat.

Every element of a granola recipe is completely customisable. Here, I will list out the ingredients I have used to make this crunchy homemade honey & oats granola with dried fruits, berries and seeds. Plus, I will give you all the possible alternates and variations that you can bring to this simple granola recipe.

Eating granola made at home gives you another major advantage, and that is having control over all the ingredients that go into your breakfast bowl. Store-bought granola is often laden with a tonne of sugar, which often makes it unhealthy.

Ingredients for homemade granola

Every granola recipe, more or less, follows a standard formula. If you stick to it, then you will get a perfectly balanced and delicious homemade granola for yourself. Here’s how I roughly sum it:

3 parts Oats + 1 part Chopped Nuts + 1 part Dried Fruits + 1/2 part Seeds + 1/2 part Sweetener + 1/2 part Fat

This gives you a rough estimate of what goes into the making of a classic granola. You can substitute the word ‘part’ with any standard measurement of your choice. The only thing to keep in mind is to stick to it for measuring all the elements of the granola recipe. Let’s check out what I used here to make my version of Honey and Oats Vegan Granola.

• Instant Oats
• Nuts like Almonds, Cashews, Walnuts, etc.
• Seeds like Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Flax Seeds, etc.
• Dried Fruits & Berries like Raisins, Cranberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, and Strawberries
• Honey
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt
• Spices like Nutmeg, Cinnamon, etc.

As you can see, this is a no-sugar granola recipe using EVOO as a fat, thus making it a vegan sugar-free granola recipe. Oats are naturally occurring gluten-free and extremely rich in terms of protein, iron and dietary fibres. When combined with nuts, seeds and dried fruits, it gives us nutrient-packed granola.

Recipe alternatives

• Oats – This forms the base of most of the granola recipes you see out there. So, here you can add to oats or totally replace it with corn flakes, rice flakes, wheat flakes, etc.
  Oats are gluten-free; however, during processing, they might come into contact with gluten allergens, which might cause trouble to those who are intolerant to gluten. So, make sure that you use certified gluten-free oats for a gluten-free granola recipe.
• Nuts – They pack a punch with a tonne of nutrients in this granola recipe with honey and other ingredients. You can use any combination of nuts here, such as almonds, cashews, walnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pistachios, etc. Those who are allergic to nuts can totally skip adding them and go for seeds and dried fruits instead.
• Seeds – Again, the sky is the limit when it comes to adding seeds to your homemade granola recipe. You can use any combination of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, melon seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, cacao nibs, etc.
• Dried Fruits – You can use raisins, dried berries, dried mango, dates, dried orange or orange peel, etc. It is best to add the dried fruits after baking the granola while it is still warm.
• Sweetener – The best part of making granola at home is that you can avoid refined sugar completely. You can adjust the level of sweetness as per your taste. So, using healthy alternatives is our priority here. For that, we can use honey, maple syrup & agave syrup. Brown sugar is another alternative here.
• Fat – Again, we can skip using butter here and instead use neutral-flavoured oil, such as extra virgin olive oil, sunflower oil, rice bran oil, canola oil, etc.
• Spices – This is totally up to you to add or skip a little touch of spice into your homemade crunchy granola recipe. I am a big fan of nutmeg in baking, so I have added that along with a pinch of cinnamon.
• Salt – Again, a must in every baking recipe. It brings out all other flavours and kind of balances the sweetness.

Recipe instructions to make homemade granola

• Preheat the oven to 180
• Combine the oats, chopped nuts, seeds, olive oil and honey in a big mixing bowl. Give everything a good mix so that everything gets coated with oil and honey evenly.
  Pro tip – measure the oil first and then the honey so that the honey comes out completely without sticking to the cup!
• Line your baking tray with parchment paper and spread the mix evenly. You can bake it in two batches if you think it’s too much for one go!
• Bake it for 25-30 minutes while giving it a stir midway, say at 15 minutes from the start. It should turn golden-brown once it is ready.
• Once done, add the dried fruits to the warm baked oats and nuts and stir everything. Allow it to cool down completely before storing it in an airtight container.
• You can have it with some milk or yoghurt. In case you would like to know how to make yoghurt at home, there is a detailed blog post here.

Make-Ahead or Storing Options

This recipe for honey & oats mixed berries granola with dried fruits will give you enough to serve a week for 2 people or somewhere around 8-10 servings. Top your bowl of yoghurt or milk with this for a super healthy meal. Use an airtight container to store the crunchy granola to preserve its texture and flavour.

You can make this a couple of days ahead and give it away as edible gifts over the holidays. This can be an amazing party return gift favour. Make sure to use airtight packaging material.

Ready to cook? Pin this recipe, share it with friends, and explore more Bengali classics on our blog. Happy cooking!

Follow me or Subscribe to my Channel

This post was first published on March 5, 2021, and later republished with a more elaborate description of the recipe.

Share it with your Friends & Family!