Healthy Honey Nut Bars | MWM (2024)

, Dessert · September 8, 2020

Introducing chewy and crunchy honey nut bars. Think almonds, hazelnuts and rice cereal mixed with creamy sweet peanutty syrup. Topped off with a generous layer of chocolate. These honey nut bars are truly the ultimate vegan snack.

Let me set the scene for you. It’s late afternoon, past lunch and waaay before dinner and you’re hungry. You need a snack. Instead of reaching for some processed junk food in the pantry, you grab one of these nut cereal bars from the fridge. These are basically copycat kind bars made healthier, easier and vegan!

Navigation Menu

Trying to find a section in this post quickly? Simple click on one of the following phrases to jump to sections.

• Jump to Recipe
• How to Make these Honey Nut Bars
• Variations
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Why These Bars are Healthy

How to Make Healthy Honey Nut Bars

These crunchy nut bars are so easy to make thanks to being a vegan no-bake recipe. Yep, these are no-bake nut bars. They’re ready in just under 20 minutes.

1. In a pot, add in the sunflower butter, honey, vanilla extract, salt and cinnamon. Place the pot on the stove and cook on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Once the syrup begins to bubble, stir and turn off the heat. Pour the syrup into a mixing bowl.
3. Next, in a blender, add in the nuts and quickly blitz in the blender for 10-20 seconds to break up the nuts into smaller pieces. You don’t want them to turn into flour – you just want the nuts to be smaller little chunks. You can also chop up the nuts manually with a knife, although it does take longer.
4. Add the blitzed nuts into the mixing bowl with the syrup, along with the rice crispy cereal. Stir the mixture well, ensuring that everything is thoroughly combined and coated with the syrup mixture.
5. Press the nut bar mixture into the prepared pan, using the bottom of a cup to flatten out the top.
6. Then, melt the chocolate, either in a double boiler or microwave, and pour over the nut bars. Spread the chocolate out evenly.
7. Place the bars in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours, if not overnight. The following day, cut the bars into squares and enjoy!
8. Store in an airtight glass container in the fridge – these will keep for up to 1 week.

Honey Nut Bar Variations

There are a ton of variations you can make with these healthy nut bars. The first swap you can make is the sunflower butter. Some of my favorite options are:

• Peanut Butter
• Almond Butter
• Cashew Butter
• Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
• Or any nut butter of choice

Another way to change up this recipe’s flavors is by adding mix-ins. One quick note, I would stick to limiting the mix-in’s to a maximum of ½ cup otherwise you’ll have to adjust the wet ingredients. Here are some of my favorites:

• Cacao nibs
• Puffed Quinoa
• Shredded coconut
• Chopped dried fruit

Ingredient Substitutions

• Almonds and Hazelnuts: Feel free to use any nuts you like or have on hand. Peanuts, pecans, walnuts etc.
• Sunflower Butter: as stated above, feel free to swap it out for any nut butter of choice.
• Honey: Of course if you swapped out the honey they would no longer be honey nut bars. But, you can totally swap it out for date syrup instead if you want to make these completely vegan.

Why These Honey Nut Bars are Healthy

You may be thinking that sweet peanut syrup, rice cereal and chocolate doesn’t sounds all that healthy. Well, I’m here to tell you that these nut bars with honey are packed with nutrients. They’re seriously so healthy, plus you’ll actually feel good eating this snack! I’ll list out a few benefits of the main ingredients below:

Health Benefits

• Peanut butter/Sunflower butter:I’m going to group these both together, as they have similar health benefits. They both have a host of vitamins and minerals, with high concentrations of Vitamin E. Just 1 tbsp provides 37% of the RDI. Several studies have linked Vitamin E intake with lower risk of heart disease, cancer and Alzheimers. They are also a great source of healthy fats (Omega 3’s), manganese and magnesium, which are all great for reducing blood pressure levels.
• Almonds:have a host of vitamins and minerals, with high concentrations of Vitamin E. Just 1 ounce of almonds provides 37% of the RDI. Several studies have linked Vitamin E intake with lower risk of heart disease, cancer and Alzheimers. They are also a great source of healthy fats, manganese and magnesium, which are all great for reducing blood pressure levels.
• Honey:is widely known to be amazing for it’s healing properties and vitamins. However, the one aspect of honey I like to highlight is the host of phytonutrients this natural “syrup” contains. Phytonutrients are powerhouses in plants that protect it from harm and help heal any wounds. These phytonutrients are responsible for the antioxidants and antibacterial properties that honey has. Which is why when we ingest honey it has been shown to have immune boosting and anti-cancerous properties.

Bottom line, you can’t go wrong with these crunchy nut cereal bars as a quick snack. Or dessert, your choice! They’re packed with so many nutrients, fiber and tons of healthy fats and protein! You’ll definitely feel satisfied after this snack.

More Delicious Snacks and Desserts

• Single-Serve Matcha Cookie
• Fudgy Chocolate Zucchini Bread
• 5-ingredient Bounty Bites
• Early Grey Snacking Cake

Print