Coconut Walnut Sunflower Seed Paleo Granola is grain-free, refined sugar-free, and vegan! This healthy granola recipe results in huge clusters and is an amazing breakfast or snack!
Extra lumpy coconut walnut cashew sunflower seed granola that happens to be paleo and vegan!
Get a load of this cluster!
Ain’t no skirting the issue, my granola comes with a little junk in the trunk. As in, it’s got a lil’ sumthin’ sumthin’. You guys, it’s super chunky! I’m of the opinion that the bigger the cluster, the better, and I have a feeling you share my cluster of sentiments.
Almost a year ago, I posted a recipe for Paleo Granola, and you all took it viral. In point of fact, it continues to be one of my most popular recipes on this site.
Turns out, you not only LOVE granola, but you enjoy it grain-free and naturally sweetened (paleo-style). How could you not? The fungry monster’s all about nutty nuggets of crunchy bliss.
Anyhoo, Saturday morning, I woke up all hot to trot with a massive craving for granola, so I figured I’d shake out Paleo Granola v. 2.0. And lemmejussayrightnow: bueno.
If you made my first paleo granola recipe, you know my secret to making HUGE granola clusters is using an egg white and honey. Being cognizant of my vegan readers, I changed the recipe up and used a flax “egg” (ground flax seed mixed with water) instead of an egg white, and replaced the honey with pure maple syrup.
BOOM: vegan paleo granola!
The flax “egg” worked magically, and I ended up with clusters the size of my palm!
“My granola clusters are too big,” said no body ever.
There are plenty of substitutions you can make in order to customize this sunflower seed paleo granola.
You can use almonds instead of cashews, pumpkin seeds instead of sunflower seeds, raisins instead of dried cranberries, etc., etc., etc., amen. Shoot, I bet you can even use molasses instead of maple syrup and turn this into a gingerbread flavored granola! I make my granola only mildly sweet, so for a sweeter granola, simply add more maple.
My favorite way of consuming granola is with almond milk and fresh fruit, but you can also take the yogurt route, or munch on the dang thing dry. So much crunch, so many options.
More Healthy Granola Recipes:
- Pumpkin Spice Granola
- Cinnamon Raisin Paleo Granola
- Coconut Lovers Paleo Granola
- Cherry Maple Almond Granola
Here’s what you need for all the granola lumps:
Coconut Walnut Sunflower Seed Paleo Granola
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seed
- 3 tablespoons water
- 2 cups raw walnuts
- 2 cups raw cashews
- 1 cup raw sunflower seeds
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted and cooled
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the ground flax seed and water. Allow it to stand for 10 minutes, or until mixture is thick and egg-like.
- Add the walnuts and cashews to a blender or food processor and pulse a few times to chop the nuts - avoid grinding the nuts into a flour.
- Add flax mixture to a large mixing bowl, along with the coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, and salt. Whisk together until well combined.
- Add the chopped nuts, sunflower seeds, shredded coconut, and cranberries to the bowl with the wet mixture and stir well until everything is coated.
- Spread the granola mixture over one large baking sheet, and place in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes, stirring once after 20 minutes. (My granola took 35 minutes on the dot. Do be sure to keep an eye on the granola, as it burns very easily).
- Remove the granola from the oven and do not stir! Allow it to sit for 10 minutes before touching it.
- Using a spatula or wooden spoon, break up the granola into desired chunk sizes.
- Serve granola with yogurt, almond milk, berries, and/or banana.
I LOVE a good chunky granola, heck yes! Also, sometimes I realllly want granola but have no oats, sooo this is perfect for my lazy-don’t want to go to the grocery store self : )
Oh girl. Nut the crap out of your granola! You won’t regret it! 😀
Oh wow. I LOVE granola! Whether you mix it in with yogurt, fruit, oatmeal, or just grab a handful to snack on… I am hooked. This looks amazing!
So glad you like it, Jenn! Yup, granola’s definitely a great on-the-go snack.
YES YES YES! Muy Bueno, Senorita!
I love that you can use flax eggs to get it nice and chunky. That’s how I like it!
And when you said BOOM it totally made me think of Conan O’Brian’s show. Haha! I love him.
These are the times I wish I owned a TV. I love me some Conan too, but don’t know the BOOM reference. Headed to YouTube to edumukae myself 😉 Wait, is this what you’re talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l01GPWopWk? Oh Conan. No body makes me wish cable upon myself like you…
Yay for clusters the size of your palm! If you can’t measure your clusters in terms of palms, they’re probably not big enough. But seriously, I love that you veganified this with a flax egg. I eat eggs, but I’d rather save them for an occasion when I can have drippy egg yolks all over everything.
Cheers to runny yolks! I feel the same way about eggs – I always feel guilty about just using an egg white, and I’ll end up saving the yolk but it always gets thrown out cause I always forget to use the dang thing. So happy you love otherwordly-sized granola too! 😀
How much maple syrup? It just has a ? for the quantity.
I love making my own granola. It is easy and so much better than store bought because you can control everything in it and customize it to your liking. I love the coconut and dried cranberries in this along with the maple syrup. Sounds like a wonderful combination.
Mmm lovely granola lumps!!! That’s an homage to Fergie BTW. Hahaha! I love clumpy granola. I hate when you get just little bits of oats that’s the worst. I’m making this over the weekend. I have to make sure I have enough flax meal.
High five/chest bump for the Fergie reference! Doesn’t take much flax at all – just a tablespoon. Lemme know if you make it!
Chunky granola is seriously where it’s at! When I make granola, I’m always wary of tossing it too much, because I’ve gotta have those clumps of goodness 🙂
Seriously, I’m the same way. Large lumps are just.so.gratifying!
Whoa yum town, granola clusters the size of the milky way is my kinda clusters, yesssssss please!
MMMMMMMHMMMMM Get it, sista!
Yummos! Loves me some chunky granola chock full of nut and clean eating goodness. A must make in my house.
Hope you enjoy, Lynn!
I can’t even lie I totally pick the giant clusters out of the granola when I make it and leave the rest for my boyfriend. Flax eggs are my go-to so I’m so happy to see it used here. This granola looks insanely good, pinning now!
I go for the hunks first, too! When I’m done picking through it, my granola looks like sawdust. But I still eat it, oooof course!
This looks wonderful! I love big clusters in my granola. The photos with the berries are gorgeous!
Thanks, Kelly! Lemme know if you try the granola – you can totally sub out the cashews since I know your little guy’s allergic!
I don’t think anyone has ever hated on a giant granola cluster. Um, the chunkier the better, in my opinion. This is gonna happen…and soon. Pinned.
Sing it, girl!
“the bigger the cluster the better” <–TOTALLY how I roll!! And these are HUGE. So in love.
How much maple syrup do you add in? I only see ? next to the cup.
My apologies, Marie! Sometimes when I copy my recipes over from google docs, the fractions disappear 🙁 It’s 1/3 cup. I went ahead and changed it in the recipe. Thanks so much for catching this and let me know if you try the granola!
Made your granola yesterday and I love it so much! That smell when I open the jar full of nice crunchy granola, mhhhh!
So happy to hear it, Denise! It’s seriously a winning munch fest in my book 😉 Hope you had a great weekend!