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
The recipe says to cook for 10 hours. Wanted to make sure that is not a typo… 10 not 1 hr? Guess if it is 10, we do so overnight? Thanks!
Elana says
Susan, yes! This recipe cooks low and slow :-)
Gwen says
This recipe is awesome. Followed instructions and worked out perfect. I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin, but it wasn’t overwhelming. Best grain free granola and I’ve tried many of them out there. Easy to make too. Going to make some more tomorrow. Thanks.
Elana says
Gwen, so nice to hear that this was the best grain-free granola!
Paul says
Can I bake this on parchment paper on the two trays?
Elana says
Paul, I haven’t tried that so not sure.
Dorothy says
Yes! Better than aluminum or teflon coming into contact. Imho. Works great. Elana is like a doctor- if she doesn’t know for sure, she won’t hazard a guess! That’s why she is so good at what she does!
Elana says
Dorothy, I LOVE your comment! Thanks so much :-)
Michelle @ Vitamin Sunshine says
I love this recipe– the ingredients are perfect. I am going to try this out tonight– 12 hours is perfect to bake overnight.
I’m loving all your lower sugar options! Your options have always been low sugar, but I’ve always lowered it again– so these new recipes are just perfect for me!
Elana says
Michelle, thanks so much! Here’s a link to my Keto Diet recipes page for you:
https://elanaspantry.com/diets/keto/
Enjoy!
Elana
Meg says
Do I have to soak the nuts overnight? Would a few hours be sufficient?
Elana says
Meg, I haven’t tried that so not sure.
andrea says
Fiber and more fiber. A good recipe to try this week. I can’t wait. Oats just have too many benefits you can name of. Keep you away from a number of health risks and conditions. This recipe is the bomb!
Karalee says
I made this recipe using my excalibur dehydrator and it turned out perfect. I spread the mixture on 2 trays using non-stick mats and dehydrated it for 12 hours on 105. What a great recipe Elana!
Aimee @ Like mother like daughter says
Ooh this granola looks so tasty! I love the combo idea of cranberry and pumpkin! And glad you liked our food styling idea – your pic turned out so pretty!
alisonlewis says
love this!
Christine says
Sorry if this is obvious but are the pumpkin seeds raw or roasted? So fresh? Or no. lol
Kim says
Can you tell me why you don’t use ghee in your recipes? I noticed that it is a lot of Coconut oil but I was wondering why you chose that over ghee. Thank you for your recipes.
Kim
Elana Amsterdam says
Hi Kim,
I love ghee and have been making it from scratch for over 2 decades. However, I mostly use coconut oil in my recipes so that folks don’t have to go to the extra trouble of making ghee on top of making the recipe. Also, although the milk solids and other allergenic items are not in ghee, many people who have severe allergies cannot eat it. Ghee is great though and I love it on my grain-free toast!
Elana