This delicious paleo low carb granola recipe whips up in less than 30 minutes. Dairy-free and grain-free. See just how easy it is to make this healthy keto breakfast with my new how-to video!
Cereal. It’s what we all grew up eating for breakfast, right? And when you decide to follow a low carb, paleo or keto diet, you find yourself stumped. You wake up, bleary-eyed, and head downstairs. You pour yourself a cup of coffee, take a few sips and reach for the cupboard. You open it and you suddenly pull up short. Where are the boxes of cereal? They’re not there! Your tired brain can’t quite handle this information so early in the morning. It refuses to believe that you could be so silly as to let yourself run out of that ultimate breakfast food. Why on earth didn’t you put it on the grocery list last time? Oh wait…that’s right. Because cereal and grains aren’t paleo or keto approved. Oh damn. Now what?
Easy Low Carb Granola Recipe
I think you know what I am going to say here. Make your own! Let’s face it, if you are on specialized diet, you can’t just head to the store and pick up convenience foods like cereal and bread. You can sometimes order them online but I always look at the ingredients and think “Well, gee. I could make that!”. I absolutely HATE spending money on something I know I could make easily enough at home. “Easily” being the operative word here. And when it comes to homemade cereal, you can indeed easily make it at home. This low carb Paleo Granola recipe whips up in less than half an hour. So even if you just got up, all bleary-eyed and in need of caffeine, you could have your cereal. Better yet, if you make a big batch, you can store it in the fridge for several weeks.
I’ve made a few different kinds of low carb granola and cereal, and I had one reader thank me for making it without coconut. Guess he wasn’t a coconut fan, but I sure am and it got me pondering a tasty version with some large flaked coconut. And some coconut oil, to really play up that flavour, because I adore it. Then some cacao nibs to add a hint of chocolatey flavour, which pairs so well with coconut. If you haven’t tried cacao nibs (also called cocoa nibs) yet, I think you should. They are chocolatey but not sweet and make a great addition to cookies and cakes, and of course, granola. And they are virtually all fiber, so they make a great low carb food. Just don’t buy them at discount places like Marshalls. I bought a bag that tasted burnt and were just awful. If I hadn’t known what real cacao nibs tasted like, I would have written them off altogether. It’s worth paying a little more for a quality bag if you really want the cacao nib experience!
Paleo Coconut Cacao Nib Granola
Ingredients
- 2 cups nuts almonds, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, etc
- 1 cup mixed seeds sunflower, pepitas, hemp, etc
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
- ⅓ cup Swerve Sweetener
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup coconut oil melted
- 1 egg
- ½ cup cacao nibs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300F and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine almonds and other nuts or seeds. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some bigger pieces in there too.
- Transfer to a large bowl and add almond flour, flaked coconut, sweetener of choice, and salt. Drizzle with coconut oil and stir to combine.
- Add egg, and toss until mixture begins to clump together. Stir in cacao nibs
- Spread mixture evenly on prepared baking sheet and bake 20 to 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden brown.
- Remove and let cool.
Suzy says
This is my absolute favorite granola recipe and is always on hand. Not a fan of seeds so I use 3 cups of mixed nuts (typically almonds, pecans, walnuts). I grind the erythritol (my sweetener of choice) into a powder to avoid the re-crystallization problem. Powdered BochaSweet is also a good choice, and is a bit sweeter than erythritol. I like Lori’s suggestion of adding SF chocolate chips.
Susan says
Could you please tell me a volume measurement for a serving? Knowing it is 15 servings is too vague for me. Based on the amounts of ingredients it looks like it might be between ¼ and ⅓ cup? Thank you.
Suzy says
Susan, my calculations put a serving at approximately 40 grams.
Janet says
What’s the best way to store this?
Carolyn says
In a covered container on the counter.
Lori says
I made this YEARS ago, when I was strictly low carb. It was all I ever ate for breakfast (with blueberries and almond milk) and I ate it for snacks. I only make one change. Cacao nibs taste very bitter to me, so instead, I add low carb chocolate chips when it cools.
Ivy says
I used to make this a lot. I haven’t made it in awhile and I see that the flaxseed is gone and almond flour is there instead. Would you tell me why you changed it? Thanks.
Lindsey M. says
This granola is amazing! It will go perfectly with dairy-free yogurt and fresh fruit for breakfast. I substituted 1/4 c. maple syrup and a pinch of pure stevia powder, since I’m not keto and can’t have sugar alcohols. Thank you, Carolyn, for another great recipe!
Ruth Ward says
I made this yummy recipe! I had trouble getting the granola to crisp up in 20-30 minutes. It seemed like my granola was heaped pretty high in the pan, about an inch deep. If might be a good idea to use two large pans and rotate their levels every 10 minutes. The problem could be my oven, but it definitely seems that Carolyn’s pan picture has a lower height of granola in it. Stirring the granola alot broke up the clumps a bit too much because I baked it almost 50 minutes and flipped five times. I used 2 T of chia seeds, perhaps they contributed to the crumblyness. I might take one of the pans and press it down to compact it keep more chunks. Also note this calls for flaked coconut; I had shredded but I think flaked would have looked better. I had sliced blanched almonds. I think whole almonds is what Carolyn used and I think that is better also. This was a delicious cereal, tastes just like my favorite coconut one. I will definitely make it again! Thank you so much!
Carolyn says
I’m thinking your pan is smaller than mine? Maybe by a lot!
Kanoe says
Hi, this sounds like a yummy recipe. Are the servings based on 1 cup of the mix?
Carolyn says
As is typical for any granola, it’s about 1/3 cup per serving. This is even more filling and rich than traditional granola because it’s high fat.
Angie says
We LOVE this recipe. I’m making it again right now and trying the addition of another egg as mentioned in the comments to try to get larger clusters. My husband talked about the granola every day this week…and he’s only low-carb/Keto 80% of the time. Thanks for being my go-to for recipes. You’re awesome!
Jill says
Fabulous basic cereal recipe. I replaced a portion of the seeds with protein powder, added 1 TBL cinnamon, and replaced the coconut oil with egg whites and upped the amount to 1/2 cup in an attempt to lighten up a bit of the fat content. Bless you for your recipes. They make low carb eating a treat!
Nathan says
Can coconut flour be used in place of almond flour?
Carolyn says
No, not in this recipe.
Sarah Skaggs says
I love granola! Trying this recipe next!
Kristyn says
I love granola! I could snack on it all day! I love the ingredients in this recipe!