The BEST crunchy, paleo, grain-free granola that is a delicious, versatile topping for your smoothie bowls, on top of yogurt, as breakfast cereal, or by the handful! Filled with walnuts, almonds, pecans, and coconut, you definitely won’t be missing the oats in this homemade granola recipe.

I can’t believe it’s been so long since we’ve last had a grain-free granola recipe around here! This recipe was inspired by this chocolate almond joy granola that was among the first recipes posted on my blog! While I love that version (and now that I’m talking about it….I seriously need to make it again soon!), I was wanting a recipe that is the perfect, versatile topping for fruit smoothie bowls and yogurt. I already have a versatile granola recipe using oats, but hadn’t made a grain-free version yet. So this recipe is a mash-up of these two recipes!

If you haven’t tried grain-free granolas yet, you are missing out! I have absolutely nothing against granolas using oats (as evidenced by here and here). BUT I adore the taste and texture of granolas made up 100% of using nuts and coconut as the base!

Ingredients and Substitution Ideas

The base of this grain-free recipe is made up of:

• Walnuts
• Pecans
• Almonds
• Coconut flakes (shredded + unsweetened)

As long as you follow the basic amounts/ratios for this recipe, feel free to mix and match the nuts used based on your preferences and what you have on hand! I used a mixture of walnuts, pecans, and almonds…but I also think cashews would be delicious in this granola. The coconut is delicious once toasted, and it adds to a great texture and taste!

The wet ingredients to bind everything and create an irresistibly crunchy, deliciously addictive granola:

• Almond butter
• Maple syrup
• Coconut oil

Any nut butter would work! If not using almond, I’d recommend using cashew or Sunbutter (sunflower seed butter). However, if peanut butter is all you have, you can use that too! I much prefer using maple syrup in granola as it doesn’t seem to burn as honey tends to do. You can use any type of oil in this granola! Canola, vegetable, or try  melted butter.

Serving Suggestions

I love using this recipe as a topping for smoothie bowls or with fresh fruit and Greek yogurt for a quick and easy weekday breakfast! It lasts for many weeks at room temperature, and it’s also freezer-friendly for longer storage for a couple months.

I chose to not add dried fruit or many add-ins to this recipe, but this would be a perfect recipe to add raisins, dried apple, chopped dates, apricots, dried peaches, prunes, etc. etc. to this recipe!