This vegan granola bar recipe was designed for my Mom who, like many of us, would rather spend her precious, pre-work morning moments surfing Facebook than cooking breakfast. She was looking for something that wouldn’t spike/crash her sugar levels, that would be easy to take to go, and that would tide her over until lunch.
Flax seed meal often stands in for eggs in vegan baking, and I believe that the flax/soy milk/heat combo is what helps these bars to stay together. For future reference, if you ever need to replace an egg in a muffin, bar or bread, try using 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons water for each egg.
This is no skimpy granola bar. It’s hearty. It’s full of whole grains, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and peanut butter. Feel free to experiment with the nuts and fruits you use, as well as the oil and nut butter. My only recommendation is to use a natural nut butter, one that only has one ingredient on the ingredients list; the nut. If possible, try to avoid commercial peanut butters with all the added sugar, salt, and hydrogenated oils.
Nina Bars! Vegan granola bars
Yields 9 to 12 bars
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups rolled oats
- ½ cup flax seed meal
- ½ cup whole wheat flour – substitue buckwheat/quinoa or other flour if you want a gluten free version
- ½ t salt
- 1 T cinnamon
- 1 T ginger
- 1/2 cup agave (or maple syrup!)
- 4 T olive or coconut oil
- 1 t vanilla
- ¼ cup natural nut butter
- ½ cup unsweetened soy milk
- 1 cup dried fruit: ½ cup loosely packed raisins + ½ cup chopped, dried figs
- ½ cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9X9 baking pan.
- In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: oats, flax, flour, and spices.
- For ease of measuring, add all of the liquid ingredients into a 2 cup liquid measuring cup, along with the peanut butter, and mix well.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until incorporated, then fold in your additions; nuts, seeds, dried fruits.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes – until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges.
- Cool, turn out, and cut.
- Save in an airtight container for up to a week, or throw a few in the freezer.
*** Hind Sight Note: Adding 2 t of baking soda powder to the dry ingredients adds a little fluff and a makes for a cakey-er bar.
Nina, by the way, is the name given to my mom by her eldest granddaughter, Madeline. Madeline is 11 which means we’ve now been calling Mom “Nina” for about 9 years. Myla, the little one, calls her Nona (nah-nah), which would be an equally good name for the bars.
This picture was sent in by my friend Jen.
Her substitutions are in the comments below.
Thanks Jen!
[…] folks. This is a remix of the Nina Bar recipe from a while back. I’ve had a lot of positive feedback on the Raspberry Buckwheat […]
Jen this is wonderful! I'm so happy to see that you gave these a shot and even better – that you made them your own. Improvisation is what it's all about. Thanks for posting the picture on Facebook, I hope Cody liked them 🙂 Metta!
Hey Lacey! It's Jen from India 🙂 I'm LOVING your blog, great job! I decided to try you Nina bar recipe today. Hoping for some quick yummy nutrition in the morning for Cody on his way to work, I'm crossing my fingers he will like these bars. I tend to try and hide the flax seed, wheat germ, chia seeds behind things like pb, maple surup, coconut milk, and Earth Balance. Hey a wife's gotta do what a wife's gotta do. Anyway, I had to substitute a lot because we didn't have many of the ingredients and I've been too sick to drive (blood clot in my brain-but hey at least I'm strong enough to bake 🙂 So here are my substitutions:
Round 1
Rolled oats-Quick Oats
Whole Wheat-Quinoa
Agave-1/2 Agave and 1/2 Maple (Want to save what I have, who know when I'll get to store next)
Olive Oil-Forgot-brain confusion
Vanilla-oops forgot that too 🙂
Nut butter-Whole Food Honey PB 1/2
Soy Milk-Silk Coconut Milk a little extra then called for
Just Raisins
No pumpkin seeds
left over Ezekel Food for Life cereal 1/4
Granola a friend brought to me in hospital 1/3
Arabon protien powder vanilla 1T
Yes it was a bit of this and that but it was flippin delicious, despite a few forgotten ingredients. So much so, I made a second batch an hour later!
Round 2:
Gluten Free for my friend Karen who took such good care of me while I was sick.
Substitutions:
Quick Oats
Quinoa
Chia Seeds
Agave/Maple mix
Coconut Oil
Coconut Milk
Remembered the Vanilla!
Sun Butter
Forgot the raisins 🙁
Added Mixed nuts
I also made half this batch for me who can't have nuts anymore, so I used coconuts and seeds instead of nut butters and soy milk. They were also very yummy but crunchier and "healthier" tasting then the first batch. Next time I try I'm going to make sure I have pumpkin seeds.
Hope you enjoyed making these as much as I did! Thanks for the recipe and keep up the good work darling! I have a picture, I wonder how I post it?
Jen Gardner