You’re never going to believe these foods are grain-free.
From granola to bread to cupcakes, they’re totally legit representations of the original foods and are as (or more) delicious.
For the record, we’re not saying you’ve got to go against the grain. There are plenty of nutritious whole grains—like quinoa, farro, and buckwheat—that can play a major role in a healthy diet.
RELATED: Are Sprouted Grains Healthier Than Whole Grains?
Lately, though, many people have been trying out styles of eating that ditch grains, like Whole30 or the Ketogenic Diet, or just cutting back on the amount of grains they’re eating in proportion to other healthy foods like veggies. If you fall into any of those camps (or just want to try a new simple, healthy recipe!), these seven grain-free recipes will totally come in handy.
7 Grain-Free Versions of Popular Foods
-
Lavender Honey Granola
Most granolas contain a grain—like oats—as the main ingredient. If you buy them bagged, they’re also often loaded with sugar and unhealthy oils. But if you make your own, you can choose nutritious, delicious ingredients, like nuts, honey, coconut oil, and lavender.
-
Sweet Potato Pie Cookies
These cookies are grain-free and refined-sugar free. So what the heck do they have that makes them so sweet, healthy, and amazing? Real mashed sweet potatoes, healthy fat from coconut oil, antioxidants and warming flavors from ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, protein from hemp seeds…We could keep going, but you should probably just bake them and find out for yourself.
-
Morning Glory Muffins
How many fruits and vegetables can you fit into one muffin? Five, if you’re talking about one of these upgraded Morning Glory Muffins. And that’s without even considering the other healthy plant-based ingredients, like pecans, cinnamon, and chia seeds. They’re also totally grain-free thanks to the use of almond flour and are sweetened with maple syrup instead of white sugar.
-
Fudgy Chocolate Chickpea Brownies
Aside from the obvious nutrition benefits of not using white flour, substituting pureed chickpeas for flour in brownies is an amazing technique because of the texture. Good brownies are gooey and fudgy (not cakey!), which garbanzos are great for. These babies are dense, decadent, and satisfying. They’re the perfect conscious indulgence for a birthday, potluck, or a Friday Netflix night (after a long week).
-
Nut and Seed Bread
You’ll be able to eat the finished product like bread, even though it’s totally gluten- and grain-free. And while baking bread normally takes forever and is super labor intensive, making this loaf entails mixing some nuts and seeds together and baking. Just think about how pretty it’ll look topped with avocado.
-
Chocolate Sweet Potato Cupcakes
Sweet potatoes are a healthy staple that land on your grocery list regularly. You’ve roasted, mashed, and baked them, but have you used them in…cupcakes? Enter Chocolate Sweet Potato Cupcakes, which are all moist chocolate cake and rich chocolate icing—no grains or white sugar needed.
-
Protein Cookie Dough
The main reason you’re not supposed to eat raw cookie dough is salmonella, but there’s also all of that flour. Don’t worry. We figured out a way to make eating it good for you (and we expect the thank you letters to start piling up in the mail, shortly). This version is grain-free and contains plenty of protein and healthy fats (and definitely no raw eggs).
