Paleo Pumpkin Cranberry Granola makes a great grain-free breakfast or healthy snack. This festive fall granola recipe is made with just 8 ingredients –almonds, macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds, cranberries, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and a touch of honey, and it is darn delicious!
This Paleo Pumpkin Cranberry Granola recipe calls for a 10 hour baking time at 170° –that is not a typo. Baking low and slow, rather than at a high temperature for a shorter time preserves more of the live (or raw) enzymes in a food. Technically, for a food to be raw, it needs to be cooked at 118° or less. However, cooking just above that temperature still preserves more nutrients than cooking at 350°. If you do decide you want to cook this fast and high, feel free. I would recommend starting at around 250° degrees for somewhere in the neighborhood of 1-3 hours, though I haven’t tried that, so I’m not sure what the baking time would be.
You can also experiment with this Paleo Pumpkin Cranberry Granola recipe and make it in a dehydrator. I don’t have one, as in my opinion they take up too much cabinet space. If you use that method, please stop back by and leave a comment to let us know how it goes!
To make this a low-carb granola recipe that works as a special treat for the Keto Diet, simply leave out the dried cranberries. Or if you want to buy your own keto cereal, try our all-time favorite Magic Spoon.
Paleo Pumpkin Cranberry Granola
Ingredients
- 1 cup almonds
- 1 cup macadamia nuts
- 1 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup roasted pumpkin or canned pumpkin puree
- 2-4 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ½ cup dried cranberries, juice sweetened
Instructions
- Place nuts and seeds in a large bowl
- Cover with water and soak overnight
- Drain and rinse the nuts and seeds, discarding soaking water
- Pulse nuts and seeds in food processor
- Pulse until coarsely chopped almost to the consistency of granola
- Very briefly pulse in pumpkin puree, honey, cinnamon, and salt
- Spread mixture onto 2 baking sheets
- Bake at 170°F for 10 hours, then leave in oven with temperature off, but light on, until crispy
- Remove from oven and stir in dried cranberries
- Serve with Almond Milk
Equipment
In other news, lately I’ve received a veritable deluge of substitution questions. I wish I had the time to try every permutation of every recipe, with every ingredient! However, unfortunately, I do not. The only way I can know if a recipe will work with the substitution of a different ingredient is to test it. I don’t know the answers intuitively, although it seems like I should! That’s the fun of recipe creation, the only way to know if something works is to test it for yourself.
I often test the recipes that I post on this site a dozen times, sometimes more. After I perfect them I pay someone else to test them again, to make sure they work for someone other than me! You get the idea. It is a long process to make a recipe for you, and I do it for no charge. So please, understand that I cannot test your substitution questions, nor can I afford to provide nutrition information for free recipes. If you’d like that, check out My Fitness Pal. And please be sure if you try a new formula to stop back by and leave a comment on the recipe you re-jiggered to let us know if it worked!
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I did in fact, test this Paleo Pumpkin Cranberry Granola recipe a couple of different ways and I can report that it is fantastic with anywhere from 2 to 4 tablespoons of honey. Adjust the amount of this sweetener according to your palate. If you’re craving a crunchy, healthy snack you’ll love it! I also tested it with both freshly baked and canned pumpkin. I prefer it with the freshly baked, but it still tastes quite nice with the canned pumpkin.
If you are looking for easy breakfast recipes or healthy snack ideas I’ve got you covered with this Paleo Pumpkin Cranberry Granola recipe.
Here are some of my other easy paleo breakfast recipes:
Susan says
Hi Elana,
My pepitas I buy pre-sprouted with sea salt and I believe that the macadamias are pre-roasted. Would you still do a pre-soak them or just with the almonds (since they are raw)?
Thank you!
Elana says
Susan, a tough one since I haven’t tried that. If you experiment I hope you’ll let me know how it goes!
Krys says
This is my favorite granola recipe. Susan, I also use the sprouted pumpkin seeds and have not been soaking them and they seem fine. I found a link on the question of using roasted nuts–they said don’t do it because they will end up tasting burnt. I’ve not used the pre-roasted nuts so just relaying what I read.
Ps, on edits to the recipe: I add 1 c shredded/flaked dried unsweetened coconut (not soaked), and 1/2 c ground flax seeds to the wet mixture. Turns out great!
Elana says
Thanks Krys!
Marilyn says
Instead of honey, what low glycemic sweetener can you use and what amount?
Elana says
Marilyn, thanks for your comment! I haven’t tried that so not sure :-)
Beth Ferguson says
Elana – I’d love to see a video of this recipe! I lack Vitamix skills and I think I ground my nuts and seeds too fine. Do you do those 3 cups in batches? How do you get the pumpkin, honey, etc to incorporate without making mush of the nuts? Can you help a novice?
Elana says
Beth, thanks for your comment! I use a food processor in this recipe and it’s perfect. I hope you’ll try it in that :-)
Judy says
Oops. I just left a comment wondering what to replace broccoli with in a recipe. And then I found this post. Sorry Elana ! I completely understand you can’t come with substitute recipes.
Elana says
Judy, no problem! I wish I could answer each and every substitution question that I get here, but then I’d need to clone myself. I hope you love this recipe as much as we do :-)
Sharon Haymond says
Since I don’t want the oven on for such a long time, I am trying this in my crock pot on warm setting. Just stir it once & awhile. I will let you know how it turns out.
Elana says
Thanks Sharon!
Sharon Haymond says
I cooked this for 2 days on warm in the crockpot and it turned out great! I had it with some yogurt for breakfast.
Elana says
Thanks Sharon!
Julie says
This is great ! I put in the dehydrator and it got nice and crispy! Love your recipes !! I’ll test them for you anytime, I love to cook!!
Elana says
Thanks so much Julie!
Nathan says
I am not a cook. I love to eat. My wife went paleo about two weeks ago, so I am trying this to do my part. I love how easy this was even for those not kitchen inclined! Can’t wait to pull it out of the oven!
Elana says
Nathan, glad to hear this was easy! That’s the name of the game over here :-)
Eibhlín O'Callaghan says
When you give the temperature for oven cooking is it Fahrenheit or Celsius. Living in Europe our ovens tend to be Celsius? Thank you so much for all your wonderful information and recipes. Kindest regards Eibhlin
Elana says
Hi Eibhlin, all of the baking temperatures are Farenheit. Thanks for your kind words about my info and recipes :-)
Amanda says
I can’t wait to try this! We are about to go out of town, so if I do this tomorrow and raise the temperature and watch closely, do you think it could bake faster than 10 hours?
Elana says
Amanda, I haven’t tried that so not sure.