These easy healthy Vegan Banana Nut Granola Bars are packed with deep caramelized banana flavor & are made with only a handful of ingredients. No refined sugar! Pack them for an amazing plant-based office snack, sweet breakfast on the go, or for road trips with hungry kids. Jump to Recipe
Bananas – aren’t they just an amazing fruit? Eaten alone they are a satisfying snack, nature’s candy. But they also do wonders when added into baked goods. They can take the place of sugar, eggs, and fat in many healthy vegan treats.
And then there is the whole world of caramelized bananas. Lately, I have been on a caramelized banana kick. Have you tried my Chia Pudding with Caramelized Bananas or my French Toast with Caramelized Bananas? So good!
In this granola bar recipe, we are taking full advantage of all banana superpowers – we use it for texture, flavor, AND sweetness.
Caramelized Banana & Nut Granola Bars – your new favorite vegan snack:
The caramelized banana gives these vegan granola bars a deep banana flavor and a delightful sweetness and acts as a binding agent at the same time – no need for butter or eggs.
Despite the fancy-sounding name, these are super easy to make. To caramelize the bananas all you do is bake them on a sheet pan until they get golden and gooey.
Then you process all that caramelized goodness with some healthy oats, nuts, dates and a pinch of cinnamon in a food processor, mix it all up, and press the mix into a pan. Then bake for a few minutes, and you’ve got yourself a tray of freshly baked vegan banana granola bars! You’ll have a hard time not devouring all of them in one day.
These vegan banana nut granola bars get their sweetness from baked caramelized bananas and dates! So they have no added sugar, plus you can whip them up in just a few minutes. They’ll take care of your grab-and-go breakfasts, healthy after-school snacks, and sneaky dessert.
Unlike most store-bought granola bars, the sweetness in these bars is not overpowering and there is just enough to satisfy a mid-afternoon craving.
Ingredients for making Vegan Banana Nut Granola Bars:
- I use a mix of nuts – walnuts, cashews, almonds, pecans. Use whatever you have in your pantry.
- Gluten-free oats – Old fashioned rolled oats. Use certified gluten free if needed.
- Bananas – ripe or very ripe. The baked caramelized bananas help to hold everything together and combined with the dates they give these vegan granola bars that divine chewy sweetness.
- Dates act as a glue and provide some natural sweetness without having to add any refined sugar.
- Ground cinnamon adds some warming spice to these bars.
- Don’t skip that quintessential pinch of salt that brings out the sweetness and makes these just taste so much better.
Tips and Substitutions for making Vegan Granola Bars:
- You could add some vanilla essence and maybe some freshly grated nutmeg to add a little extra dimension.
- Make sure you allow for them to cool completely before you cut into them, otherwise the bars may fall apart.
- These would taste pretty great with shredded coconut or pistachios as well.
- If you are a fan of dried fruit, feel free to add some raisins, cranberries, dried cherries or apricots.
- If you find yourself craving a little more sweetness you could press a handful of vegan chocolate chips into the dough right before baking.
- For a nut-free version, you can simply use a mix of seeds instead of the nuts and add in some dried fruit for variety.
- I baked the bananas in the oven but you can also cook the bananas in a skillet with 2-3 tbsp non-dairy milk until they are starting to caramelize.
How to make Vegan Banana Granola Bars
Bake the sliced banana at 375 F for 15 mins, reduce temperature to 350 F.
Now add the nuts and oats to a casserole dish and put in the oven to toast for another 15 mins. Let cool and dial down the oven to 300F.
Pulse the nuts and half of the oats first.
Like so!
Then add dates along with the caramelized banana and pulse to break down the bananas a bit.
Add cinnamon, salt, the other half of the oats and pulse.
Press this mix into a parchment paper-lined lined brownie pan using wet hands or a spatula.
Bake at 300 F for 20 mins.
Cool, slice and store them (see tips below).
Make a batch and keep these babies handy, I know you and your family will love them!
How to store these Vegan Banana Granola Bars?
More healthy vegan grab-and-go snacks:
- Banana Snack Bars
- Vegan Snickerdoodle Bars
- Sunbutter Granola Bars
- Ginger Chocolate No Bake Granola Bars
More healthy vegan banana recipes from the blog:
- Vegan Banana Oat Pancakes
- Banana Streusel Muffins
- Baked Banana Oatmeal
- Banana Chia Pudding with Caramelized Banana
- Banana Oatmeal Cookies
Vegan Caramelized Banana Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 4 bananas , sliced into 1/2 cm thick slices
- 1.5 cup (216 g) nuts , mix of walnuts cashews, almonds, pecans
- 1 cup (81 g) oats
- 6 (6 ) dates
- 1/4 tsp salt
- cinnamon
Instructions
- Place sliced bananas on a parchment lined baking sheet. Add oats and nuts to another baking dish. Bake the sliced banana at 375 deg F (190 C) for 15 mins, Reduce temperature to 350 deg f (180 C) then add the nuts and oats to the oven and bake for another 15 mins. Let cool.
- Alternatively, you can cook the bananas in a skillet with 2-3 tbsp non-dairy milk until caramelizing.
- Add the toasted nuts and half of the oats to a food processor. Pulse to break the nuts into a coarse meal, then add dates along with the caramelized banana, and pulse to break down the bananas a bit. Add cinnamon, salt, the other half of the oats and pulse again until a dough like state. (If your dates are not very soft, process with the banana to break them down before this step)
- Press this mix into a parchment lined brownie pan and bake at 300 F (150 C) for 20 mins.
- Cool, slice and store refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.
Video
Notes
- You could add some vanilla essence and maybe some freshly grated nutmeg to add a little extra dimension.
- Make sure you allow for them to cool completely before you cut into them, otherwise the bars may fall apart.
- These would taste pretty great with coconut or pistachios as well.
- If you are a fan of dried fruit, feel free to add some raisins, cranberries, dried cherries or apricots.
- If you find yourself craving a little more sweetness you could add a handful of vegan chocolate chips.
- For a nut-free version, you can simply use a mix of seeds instead of the nuts and add in some dried fruit for variety.
Wendy
My husband loves these granola bars and want me to make them every day! Thanks
Ps – I did add a few chocolate chips because he has a sweet tooth 😍
Richa Shukla
Hi! Is it possible to make this using a vitamix? I don’t have a food processor 🙂
Vegan Richa Support
Yes, you might have to scrape down the sides more often and use the tamper to get things moving but should be ok!
Becky
Made last night, gone by today. Fantastic recipe! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Vegan Richa Support
wow! thanks!
Kristy McCarthy
Baked these last night and they were fab! I didn’t have one and a half cup of nuts so used what I had and added Flax, chia, sesame seeds and some spelt puffs. They’re suprisingly not as sweet as I thought they might be and I was delighted to make something other than banana bread with my ripe bananas. Thanks for the lovely recipe!
Richa
awesome
aileen
The carmalized bananas gave the bars and great new flavour treat,
Shasha
Can I replace the dates, with say, agave nectar or maple syrup? if yes, may i know the amounts?
Richa
2 tbsp maple syrup, you might need to add a bit more oats if its too sticky
Leigh
In the process of transitioning from vegetarian to vegan-this recipe turned out really well and is quite tasted. The pics and alternatives to add in are a great help.
Emily
Is it supposed to be 1.5 cup of raw nuts?
Richa
yes raw nuts
Maiteeny
Made this tonight and they were delicious. The caramelized banana flavor really came through. I baked them an extra 5 minutes to see if they would get crispy, but they remained chewy – wasn’t entirely surprised given how many gooey ingredients there are. They are more “Larabar” style, which is fine by me. Wondering if it’s really necessary to separately bake the bananas and the oats/nuts and different temperatures? Would be nice to be able to do them all at the same temp to cut down prep time, but perhaps you tested this? Thanks for a great snack I feel good eating!
Richa
Nuts will burn in that much time. Banana needs longer time to cook. Even if you made the temperature same, you would still need to bake the nuts for shorter time.
Eve
Thanks Richa!
Eve
I made the recipe exactly as stated and love the flavor but I was wondering if these are supposed to be crispy? Mine came out to be a soft chewy bar. I was hoping for crisp so would appreciate tips on how to achieve that. Thanks!
Richa
They are going to be Chewy because of caramelized bananas. Bake them longer for extra crispiness.
Maneesha
So hearty and delish! My bars turned out soft but still held together well, is that how they’re supposed to be? I pressed pepipas onto the top of the bars before baking them, and they turned out beautifully, thanks Richa!
Richa
yes, supposed to be chewy. Bake them longer if you want.
Maneesha
ok perfect! Then these soft chewy bars turned out exactly how you had planned for them to turn out! Love them! Thanks, Richa!
Darshna
made last night and turned out really good!
Richa
Awesome!
Liese
Very nice tho my go at this today was using this recipe as inspiration. I’m a bit low in nuts so with 1 c of raw almonds I also toasted .25 c each of chia and flax seeds and added .25 of flaked coconut. I added these midway thru so not to scorch. Also used a combo of date paste and raisins soaked in a bit of water, then drained. Carmelizing the bananas worked well, especially for just getting brown spot semi ripe bananas, used my cast iron skillet rather than paper. Next time I’ll amp up the spices, I think I was too light handed this time. They are holding together very well after cooling a bit even tho mine a twice as thick. This recipe will be fun to play with, so many thanks!
Richa
awsome
Leticia
These were really good!! I soaked the dates first and added hemp protein powder and a little bit of the date soaking water. Next time, I would process the dates and bananas before the nuts and oats for more texture.
Richa
great!