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
- 1/3 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 egg
- 1/2 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.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
Free Bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
Sign up for your favorite recipes delivered straight to your inbox plus get our FREE bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
This is one of my favorite recipes Carolyn!!
So perfect for travelling. Just pop it in the fridge whenever you get a chance and it will last for several weeks. Ate this every morning on a 5 week Botswana and Namibia self-drive camping trip and never tired of it!!
Wow, that is a wonderful testimonial to the cereal! 🙂
Oh! I should add, I used Sukrin brown sugar substitute, as I’m out of Swerve. Think it added an extra layer of yummy.
This was so delicious, thank you! My kids were begging for cereal (I think they’re getting tired of eggs every day! 😉 ) and this completely hit the spot. I didn’t have cocoa nibs so omitted those and added some cinnamon. Yum!
Hi, do you beat the egg first, or just add it directly to the mixture? This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try it tomorrow!
Just add it in!
Thanks!! Love your blog. Thank you so much for sharing these wonderful recipes.
Just finished making this almost exactly as given…maybe a little different variety of nuts and seeds….I bought a nut mix that was already chopped up a bit…seemed cheaper than buying each one separately…raw…no salt. May experiment with some different nuts for my next batch and vanilla/cinnamon. But wanted to try the original first. I like it! Topped some coconut “yogurt ” I wanted to try with 1/3 cup of the “nut-ola! Yum! I am a cereal gal again! Thank you! It is very flexible…oh, and some wild blueberries on top!
Glad you like it!
I made this over the weekend and I am in LOVE with this stuff! I miss cereal so much! This is tasty dry as a snack, but this morning I had it with just a little bit of coconut milk. YUM! I made it exactly as written using Pecans, Almonds and Walnuts equally. Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
I’ve made this several times now and it’s excellent! I only have two modifications: 2 eggs rather than one. When I did 2 eggs I got larger clusters of granola. I also added two teaspoons of cinnamon. I really want to try using the zest of an orange next time. Thank you for this recipe! It’s great on yogurt, as a cereal or a snack!!
I have made it 🙂 used a combination of Almonds,Macadamias, Pecans, Sunflower,Pumpkin and Hemp seeds. I am adding it to my Chia Pudding in the morning and enjoying it. Used all Xylitol as the sweetener will use the combination with Stevia when I make the recipe again. Thank you it is delicious.
I made it this morning. I added a bit of almond extract and vanilla to the coconut oil. I also got my hands on a big bag of high end cocoa nibs. Delicious! I like the idea of adding some spices to it, like other people suggested. This will be a staple in my house! Thanks again, Carolyn! You’re a genius!
So glad you are enjoying it!
I have been reading the comments and I keep seeing reference to ground flax seed but I cant see it listed in the recipe or am I going nuts. Going to get the fixings tomorrow and try this out it sounds delicious.
That’s because I swapped it for almond flour when I updated the recipe, although you can use a cup of flax if you prefer.
Thanks Carolyn, thought that must have been the case, think I will stick with the Coconut flour will let you know how it turns out.
Don’t use coconut flour. Definitely almond.
Oh whoops it had been a long hard day will definitely use Almond Flour
If someone had told me a year ago that I would be making my own granola, I would have told them to “Get out of town!”. I just cooked up a batch and it’s yum. Who knew making your own could be this easy. Sugar quantity on the recipe was just right. I’d do a taste comparision soon to see how homemade is vs store bought. Homemade will win hands down for sure, but I like to taste the difference and compare. Thanks for another amazing recipe 🙂
So glad you feel that way. I do too!
I just cannot handle coconut. Any suggestions of a substitute or is that ingredient kind of a must for this recipe?
Just add more nuts.
This is a great recipe. I use it as a Banting recipe. I started making this shortly after it was originally published; I now make about 1 – 1.25 kg at a time, packing into 3 containers, and keeping it in fridge. I have added to your recipe: pecan, walnuts, macadamia nuts; flax, chia, pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, poppy, raw hemp seeds; Psyllium raw husk; cacao nuts, Stevia liquid; vanilla, fresh ginger, Ceylon cinnamon, cardamom pods, lime/lemon pith & flaked coconut. I left egg out. I don’t worry too much about quantities or leaving items out if I haven’t got.
I’ve just taken mine out of the oven and it’s made the house smell amazing! I changed the almonds out for cashews because I’m allergic and mixed with pecans as my other nut. The rest of the ingredients were the same + some organic cocoa powder and cinnamon powder. I couldn’t wait for it to cool down before I tried some, so I just tried some with non-gmo unsweetened soy milk and it tastes AMAZING! This is exactly what I was missing with keto until now, something to have for breakfast aside from the usual meat, cheese, avocado etc. Thank you, great recipe!
Just a questions on this as I haven’t made it yet. Will the coconut oil cause this to remain moist or does the flaxseed and egg take care of that when it’s baked? I ask because this looks like an excellent addition to my pack for a long backpacking trip coming up. Just trying to avoid the “greasy on the hands” thing. Love your recipes and the help you give us.
It’s dryish when it’s baked. You shouldn’t find it to be greasy!
How many calories are in a serving?
240 calories per serving.
How much per serving? According to my calculations 75g in the nuts and seeds alone and that’s not much of a serving for anyone. Why do you not include the serving size on the nutritional data?
As for most granola recipes, it’s about 1/3 cup – this is standard, even for commercial granolas. Why would you rate a recipe poorly when you haven’t even tried it?
Sounds great. Defenitly gonna try this. One question: you use flaxseed meal. I can’t seem to find that here (Netherlands). At least not by that name. Can I use broken flaxseed also?
Sure, that should be fine.