Healthy Pumpkin Granola (nut + gluten free!)

Healthy + delicious pumpkin granola that’s nut + gluten free! Easy to make for breakfast, snacks, & more. Top 14 allergy free. 

An easy and delicious granola recipe that is based on my popular simple granola! Filled with pumpkin and spices, this fall themed granola is just as simple to make and so good! Perfect for topping yogurt, smoothies, ice cream, or snacking on right out of the bowl. 

Free from: wheat/gluten, dairy, casein, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, coconut, corn, soy, fish, shellfish, sesame, lupin, mustard, dyes

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Making Pumpkin Granola

A good granola recipe should be simple to make and filled with simple ingredients. I wanted to keep them free from the top allergens as well because everyone deserves a delicious mix for the season. 

Oats 

The oats are the foundation of any granola. Heart healthy and full of fiber, they are a great food to include in your diet. You want them to be gluten free certified if you are avoiding gluten. The two brands I trust and currently use are Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Old Fashioned Oats and Trader Joe’s Oats.

Pumpkin

The star of this show! Make sure you use 100% pure pumpkin puree in this recipe and not pumpkin pie mix. The mix has spices already added and could include other unknown allergens. By making sure you have pure pumpkin you are making sure your granola is 100% safe to enjoy. 

The recipe only calls for a few tablespoons of pumpkin, leaving you with a lot left over. You can save pumpkin in the fridge for a week, in the freezer for a month, or make some other recipes that use pumpkin! Here are some ideas. 

Pumpkin Muffins with Streusel Topping (gluten free, top 8 free, vegan)

Pumpkin Chai Ice Cream (gluten free, egg free, no churn)

 

OIL

Oils are what make the granola crispy and delicious. I like to use a neutral flavored oil like canola when making mine. Other options could be olive oil for a more savory type of granola or coconut oil (if not allergic).

SWEETENER

This granola recipe can be made with the sweetener of your choice: maple syrup or brown sugar. These provide a depth of flavor, a crispy sweetness as it cools, and subtle hint of warmth. Other options include brown rice syrup, date nectar, or corn syrup for the liquid, and coconut sugar or date sugar for the brown sugar replacement.

It’s best not to use honey in a granola recipe. Honey in its raw form is filled with delicate enzymes that get destroyed by the heat. You can always add honey to your granola after it is baked and cooled; perhaps drizzling honey over each serving of granola right before eating.

SALT + SPICES

Here is where the magic happens in this recipe! The warm spices are what really make it feel autumnal. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves are all combined to give the granola a depth and sweetness. You can add all these ingredients separately or you can add pumpkin pie spice blend which has them already mixed up! 

For the best tasting granola, don’t skip the salt! Salt helps to enhance flavors, especially sweet things. This is because the sodium particles zero in on the bitter elements of a dish (even if they are so small you can’t consciously taste them) and block them! Sweet things now seem sweeter because of salt. So, you can add less sugar to this recipe if you include salt.

VANILLA

Do NOT skip on this! Using good vanilla extract helps to make things sweet, something you’ll really appreciate since this recipe uses less sugar than other granola recipes.

Customizing Your Pumpkin Granola

The best part of making your own granola is how you can customize the flavors so you get exactly what you want! Now, this is a totally optional step and you don’t have to add any of these. You can make the recipe as written and it will be amazing! Here are some ideas when you are looking to jazz it up a bit! 

Nuts and Seeds

If you can safely enjoy nuts, tree nuts, coconut, or other seeds (such as sunflower), feel free to add them! 

Chocolate Chips

I think white chocolate chips would be AMAZING in this recipe! Regular chocolate chips would be super good, too. Just make sure to add these after the granola is fully cooked and cooled. 

Dried Fruit

While the recipe calls for cranberries, feel free to experiment with other dried fruits. Dehydrated blueberries, apricots, figs, cranberries, cherries, or raisins. Again, add after baking. Make sure that you find dried fruit that is sun-dried and unsulfured if possible – sulfur is not only a big allergen but it also unnaturally colors the fruit and extends the shelf life.

Pumpkin Granola Tips 

To get the best results from baking your granola, aka those delicious clusters of granola that I seek out, here are the steps you need to make that happen.

Make sure you bake your granola on parchment paper or a non-stick slip mat. You want to make sure that you can easily remove your granola from the pan and not have to break it up!

Let your granola cool completely before touching it! You want the sugar crystals to re-crystalize so that you can break it apart into those delicious chunks.

To store your gluten free and nut free granola, keep it in an airtight container in your pantry. This should keep for up to 4 weeks in a cool and dark place. If you want to freeze your granola, it can be frozen after baking and should keep for up to 4 months.

Want more Allergy Free Breakfast Ideas? Check out these recipes!

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