This delicious Oil-Free Granola has zero added fats, sugars, or preservatives, and yet it’s the perfect crunchy and lightly sweet addition to homemade soy yogurt and more. Make up a batch of this magic fat-free granola and enjoy it all week long for breakfast, snacks, and even dessert.

A portrait-style side angle photo of two small glasses filled with homemade soy yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, and homemade oil-free granola.

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Potential Gilmore Girls Spoiler Alert:
If you’re a Gilmore Girls fan and you’ve seen A Year in the Life, then you might recognize my reference to “fat-free magic granola” in a scene with Sookie and Michel (that doesn’t count as a spoiler, does it?). Ever since seeing that, I’ve been obsessed with recreating it, even though granola is never actually shown.

So I made my own oil-free granola that is virtually fat free (less than 2 grams of fat per serving). You can’t easily make it totally fat free, since oats (the main ingredient) have just a little fat in them (many plants do)!

Most oil-free granola recipes on the internet substitute nut butter for the oil. And sure, nut butter is better for you than oil. But nut butter isn’t really something that I eat, and I wanted to make a granola that fit better with the way I like to eat (low fat).

This oil-free granola also has zero added sugar (it’s sweetened naturally with fruit), no salt, and no preservatives. Yes, that does mean it won’t last months in your cupboard, but it lasts a few days on the counter or a week in the fridge. And it’s absolutely delicious AND good for you!

It’s also super easy to make and goes great on anything, such as homemade soy yogurt!

Ingredients

A white bowl filled with rolled oats, wheat germ, cinnamon, and a big pool of blended applesauce, dates, vanilla extract, and soy milk.

See the recipe card below for the full ingredients list (with amounts) and instructions.

Rolled Oats: I personally only use One Degree Organics Sprouted Rolled Oats to make overnight oats. This brand is certified glyphosate-free, gluten-free, non-GMO, and organic. I buy a 5 pound bag at Costco for a really good deal and for some reason, I feel like these rolled oats are thicker than other brands and I enjoy the texture a lot. Sprouted grains have more available nutrients too!
Wheat Germ: This is a ground substance you can buy in the breakfast cereal aisle of your grocery store (it’s near the oatmeal) and it has a slightly nutty, toasty flavor. Wheat germ has a lot of important nutrients and dietary fiber.
Ground Ceylon Cinnamon: So there are different types of cinnamon, the most common three are Saigon, Cassia, and Ceylon. Only Ceylon cinnamon is regarded as anti-inflammatory, and I think it tastes better! So that’s the only kind of cinnamon I use. Plus it tastes great!
Unsweetened Soy Milk: I almost exclusively use soy milk in my kitchen and I only use the kind that comes in a shelf stable carton. This is because I can find organic non-GMO soy milk that’s literally made from just organic soybeans and water. I love to use this type of soy milk for sauces, my morning tea, and making my homemade soy yogurt.
Medjool Dates, Pitted: Try to get Medjool dates that are plump and moist (sorry). Dry dates can be revived with hot water by letting pitted dates sit in just boiled water for about 30 minutes (then drain them before adding to the blender).
Unsweetened Applesauce: This is part of the liquid we pour into the oats mixture to make it clump together.
Vanilla Extract: You can use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or or use ¼ to ½ teaspoon vanilla bean powder here.
Freeze-Dried Strawberries: This is optional, but it adds a little fruity flavor to our granola.

Substitutions

Rolled Oats: Any rolled oats should work here. Quick oats might work, but I haven’t tried it. Make sure to by certified gluten-free oats if you cannot have gluten. Some other possibilities: puffed brown rice cereal or puffed quinoa (no idea if this might change the baking time though, so check on it often).
Wheat Germ: Oat bran will also work. The point of this addition is not only for extra fiber and nutrients, but to help encourage everything to cluster together. If you don’t care about that, you can omit it altogether.
Ground Ceylon Cinnamon: If you only have Saigon or Cassia cinnamon, you can just use those.
Unsweetened Soy Milk: Any unsweetened, unflavored plant-based milk should work. Note that if your non-dairy milk is vanilla flavored, you may want to skip adding vanilla extract or powder to the recipe.
Medjool Dates: You can swap homemade date paste, date syrup, or pure maple syrup instead, however you may need less (or no) plant-based milk then, as the liquid sweeteners will change the ratio of the wet to dry ingredients. If the mixed raw granola turns out too wet or soupy (or won’t come together) add more of the rolled oats and wheat germ until it does. At that point, you may need to spread the mixture between two pans, because a thicker layer of granola will take much longer to cook/dry out.
Unsweetened Applesauce: You can use a similar amount of well-mashed ripe bananas (bananas that have brown spots or coloration to them, not just solid yellow). This will make your fat-free granola a little sweeter, too.
Freeze-Dried Strawberries: You can use any other freeze-dried fruit if you’d like. If using normal dried fruit (such as raisins), I’d recommend waiting to add them until after the oil-free granola comes out of the oven.

A portrait-style photo of mixed uncooked oil-free granola with a big pile of slightly crushed freeze-dried strawberries on top.

How to Make Oil-Free Granola

Prep: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit (150 degrees Celsius) and line a half sheet baking tray with parchment paper. I find that oil-free granola gets a little crisper on parchment paper as opposed to a silicone baking mat which is what I usually use. I like to crumple up the parchment paper then smooth it out again, which makes it lie flatter on the baking pan.
Mix the dry ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, use a fork to mix the rolled oats, wheat germ, and ground Ceylon cinnamon together. Set aside.
Blend the wet ingredients: Add the unsweetened soy milk (or other plant milk), pitted Medjool dates, unsweetened applesauce (or mashed banana), and vanilla extract to a blender and blend until smooth. If your blender complains about the lack of volume (mine did), you can add a splash more non-dairy milk. Don’t worry if there are still specks of date in the blended mixture, though, because those will blend right into our fat free granola.
Combine the dry and wet ingredients: Use a blender spatula (or just a regular spatula) to scrape out the contents of the blender straight into your bowl of mixed dry ingredients. Mix with a spatula or fork until very well combined. Everything should more or less come together and there should be a lot of dry ingredients left out of the mix. If it won’t come together, add a tablespoon or two of non-dairy milk and stir again.
Fold in the strawberries: If your freeze-dried strawberries come in sliced/whole form, place them on a plate or in a bowl and lightly crush them so you have smaller pieces. Add to the oat mixture and fold them in with your spatula.
Add the mixture to the baking pan: Use a spatula to scrape out the bowl onto the prepared baking tray. Then use the spatula to smooth it out, making the fat-free granola into one even layer across the tray. You don’t want any big clumps because those will take longer to bake than the rest.
Bake: Place the tray of uncooked granola in the oven on the center rack and bake for 15 minutes. Using oven mitts, carefully remove the tray from the oven and use a cooking spatula to stir the fat-free granola well. Return to the oven and bake for 15 more minutes. Carefully remove and stir again. It should seem fairly dry but not completely yet. Place it bake in the oven and turn the oven off. Let the granola dry out in the oven for 1 hour. Then remove it from the oven and allow it to cool to room temperature on the counter.
Store: Store completely dried oil-free granola in an airtight container on the counter for 3-4 days or in the refrigerator for 1 week.

A portrait-style photo of a parchment lined baking tray of spread out uncooked oil-free granola with specks of freeze-dried strawberries.

Expert Tips

Dry Granola Fully: If your oil-free granola seems AT ALL moist (sorry) or just not dry, try baking it at an even lower temperature for 20-30 more minutes. If it’s at all wet when you place it into your containers, it will start to form mold. That happened to me until I fixed the ratios (less wet stuff!) AND when I let it dry out in the oven for an hour after baking.
Freeze-Dried Strawberries: You have two options here, you can add them into the wet uncooked oat mixture and they’ll bake (they’ll turn dark, but they’ll integrate into the granola clusters) or leave them out and add them after the granola is cooked (they’ll be loose but still bright red). Either way, they’re a delicious addition!
Other Fruit: Any other freeze-dried fruit would be delicious, such as apples (crush them a little) or blueberries. If using traditional dried fruit (such as raisins), add it after baking.
Other Ingredients: Play around with other additions such as nuts (like chopped walnuts or pecans), seeds (such as raw pumpkin seeds or raw sunflower seeds), or chocolate (unsweetened chocolate chips or cacao nibs). This will make it less of a fat-free granola, but it all depends on what your goals are and how much other fat you’re eating during the day. I eat a low fat diet but I still eat flax and pumpkin seeds/sesame seeds every day, and some days I eat a few walnuts (usually when I have a salad).

Serving Suggestions

My favorite way to eat this oil-free granola in a little vegan parfait with my homemade soy yogurt and fresh berries. It’s also great on frozen berries if you let them thaw a bit.

You can top your green smoothie (or any other smoothie) with a little of this fat-free granola for crunch, or it would be great on top of a smoothie bowl like this beautiful blue smoothie bowl.

It’s also a great topping for nice cream (banana ice cream) like mango nice cream, lavender nice cream, or toasted coconut nice cream; or homemade fruit sorbet (a bunch of those recipes are coming soon in time for the warmer months!). Or put it on top of chia pudding, such as lemon blueberry chia pudding, apple pie chia pudding, pumpkin chia pudding, or chocolate peanut butter chia pudding.

More Healthy Plant-Based Recipes to Try

Oil-Free Granola Recipe