Banana Granola Recipe
This clean eating banana granola is perfect for your morning breakfast bowl!
You won’t have to worry about tons of added sugar with this recipe. It’s fast, easy, and healthy.
This recipe was one I made for a trip we took to Santa Cruz during the holidays. We stayed at the Mission Inn and hopped on the Holiday Lights Train with Santa and his elves. The next morning we played Pirate-style mini golf and had a wonderful time!
I’m all for bringing food on trips, so I made this granola for my son’s breakfast. He ended up never eating it on the trip, but at least we have granola for busy school mornings, and he loves the dehydrated bananas!
How To Make This Vegan
Simply switch the honey for maple syrup.
Can You Make This Sugar-Free?
You can! Simply omit the honey. There will still be natural sugars, of course, but it removes all added sugars.
Can This Be Made Dairy-Free?
Surprise! It already is! Simply use non-dairy milk or yogurt when you serve it.
How To Dehydrate Bananas
If you’d like to see how I dehydrate my own bananas, check out this video here.
About Healthy Fats
This recipe is formulated to be on the lower fat side of things. But if you want to add extra fats, coconut oil is a great option here. Simply add it to the oats before applying the apple sauce. You can also do this with nut butter, such as peanut butter or almond butter.
How To Serve Banana Granola
This is delicious served with yogurt or with milk. You can even use it in parfaits if you wish. That said, this is a great snack on the go if you don’t mind eating it plain.
Recipe Variations
Want to round out this granola even further? Try one of these additions:
- Pumpkin seeds
- Sunflower seeds
- Walnuts – I like raw walnuts!
- Pecans
- Cashews
- Chocolate chips
- A pinch of salt to help bring out the sweetness
- Vanilla extract – 2 tsp vanilla extract should do the trick.
About The Ingredients
Traditional oats – Gluten-free oats if needed.
Unsweetened apple sauce
Honey – Or maple syrup.
Ground cinnamon
Ground nutmeg
Dehydrated bananas – You can use store-bought banana chips, but make sure they have no added sugar.
How To Make Banana Granola
Preheat oven to 325 F.
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir well to coat the oats thoroughly with the apple sauce, honey, and spices.
Spread the oats out evenly over an ungreased cookie sheet or baking sheet. Do NOT use parchment paper.
Break apart any clumps you see and try to get it in a single layer as much as possible. Clumps make it harder to bake it evenly.
Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the oats have a nice golden color to them and “sound dry” when you stir them on the sheet.
Make sure you stir at least twice during the baking process to ensure even baking. I forgot and ended up with a portion of them burnt. Stirring is important.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
Transfer to an air-tight storage container and keep in the fridge for the freezer for up to 2 months.
Store bananas separately and add as needed. You can stir them in with the granola before storing, but if there is any moisture at all left in the granola, your bananas could get moldy and yucky. So it’s best to store them separately.
Eat with a little milk poured over the top!
Storage
Store this in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Freezing
If packed properly, this will freeze fine for up to 9 months.
Recipe Supplies
More Healthy Granola Recipes
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Banana Granola Recipe Card
Clean Eating Banana Granola Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 cups traditional oats (gluten free oats if needed)
- 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- ½ cup honey (or maple syrup)
- 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 2 cups dehydrated bananas
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 325 F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir well to coat the oats thoroughly with the apple sauce, honey and spices.
- Spread the oats out evenly over an ungreased cookie sheet.
- Break apart any clumps you see and try to get it in a single layer as much as possible. Clumps make it harder to bake it evenly.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the oats have a nice golden color to them and “sound dry” when you stir them on the sheet.
- Make sure you stir at least twice during the baking process to ensure even baking. I forgot and ended up with a portion of them burnt. Stirring is important.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
- Transfer to an air-tight storage container and keep in the fridge for freezer for up to 2 months.
- Store bananas separately and add as needed. You can stir them in with the granola before storing, but if there is any moisture at all left in the granola, your bananas could get moldy and yucky. So it’s best to store them separately.
- Eat with a little milk poured over the top!
Awesome granola flavor! I love making homemade granola, it’s much better than store-bought 🙂
June – It really is! Food manufacturer’s just can’t recreate the flavor of the homemade stuff!
totally love this recipe .. i majorly heart dehydrated banana chips! Can’t wait to try!
Krista – Ya, I love them. I don’t eat them much, but they are delicious!!!
Are traditional oats the same thing as steel cut oats?
Chava – No. They are the sort of oval, flat oats.
I have a question about the dehydrated bananas when you say to add them separately do you mean not to cook them with the the other ingredients?
Brenda – Correct. Mix them in after you have made the granola. You can also store them separately if you prefer that.