I juice on a daily basis. Not only for myself, but for my husband, whom frequently request’s carrot juice.
Each day I stare at all of my veggie pulp and try to figure out what to do with it. We live in an apartment, therefore I do not have a compost bin. It bothers me just throwing it in the trash or down the garbage disposal, such a waste!
This recipe is my solution. A really, really delicious solution. I turned my carrot pulp into a breakfast of champions. Granola that is high in protein, has very little sugar and of course is free of all grains!
Carrot Cake Granola
- 3 Cups Nuts or Seeds (any combo. I used Walnuts, Almonds & Sunflower Seeds)
- 1/2 cup- 2 cups raisins (This is to your preference. Feel free to leave them out all together if their sugar content is too high).
- 1/2 Cup Nut or Seed Flour (For Example: Almond, Cashew, Peanut or Sunflower Seed Flour- check out Nuts.com)
- 1.5- 2 Cups semi dry Carrot Pulp (Grated carrots may work too- the baking time may just increase).
- 3 Tbs Cinnamon
- 1/2 Tsp Salt
- 1/2 Cup Applesauce (no sugar added).
- 1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
- 1- 1 1/2 Tsp Nunaturals Liquid Stevia to taste.
- In a food processor pulse nuts/seeds until they resemble the size of oats. Pour them into a bowl and mix with the raisins, Nut Flour, Carrots, Cinnamon and salt.
- Mix in the wet ingredients (Applesauce, Vanilla Extract and Stevia). Allow the mixture to remain clumpy.
- Place on a large rimmed cookie sheet and spread out, leaving the mixture in clumps. Bake at 210 degrees until dehydrated. If you want to keep your granola clumps large limit how much you stir the granola in the pan while it bakes. This process will take anywhere from 6-8 hours. If you are short on time the heat can be bumped up to 220 degrees, just be cautious to avoid the nuts toasting too much. This low temperature is important to keep the nuts from burning.
Recipe notes:
- This recipe can be made raw for those that have a dehydrator, The nuts can also be soaked a day in advance as well.
- Though not essential I like to add an additional cup or so of carrot pulp to the baking sheet roughly an hour before its done as much of the pulp placed in the oven with the first batch will shrink down while its drying out.
- For those not concerned with avoiding sugar, instead of using applesauce you can try agave, coconut nectar or honey . If you use any of these options omit the stevia.
- Take note that the unbaked version of this granola will be much more sweet than the baked version. I noticed that the sweetness and other flavors mellowed immensely during baking. So when you are flavoring your granola- use more stevia than you would think you need and by the time it finished in the oven the granola will taste perfect.
- Try adding in Coconut Flakes, or any other dried fruit that strikes your fancy!
-Brittany-
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Looks delicious. I don’t juice, so I may well try this with grated carrots.
Granola is one of my favorites and this looks so nice, i love it.
I LOVE THIS!! I just made traditional style granola the other day with gluten-free oats and I was trying to come up with a way to make it grain-free, looks like I don’t have to now since you did!
I also LOVE the idea of using carrot pulp from juicing. I hate throwing it out, so this is perfect! Thanks for another beautiful recipe Brittany.
This looks incredible. What are the directions for dehydrating it if using previously soaked and dehydrated nuts? Can you please clarify the “6-8 hours” mentioned in the original post. Thank you!!!!
Hi Brittany
This looks great! Just wondering what you think might be a good substitute for the apple sauce. I have fructose malabsorption so can’t have apples or pears (amongst other things!) so wondering what else might be suitable?
Thanks!
I’m not really familiar with what types of sugar would be safe for you? Did you see my comment on replacing the applesauce with honey, agave of coconut nectar? Any of those options work for you?
I’m always looking for new juice pulp recipes. This one looks great!
Cooking times may vary greatly!!! I made this the other day and probably should’ve taken it out at hour 4 or 5. I have a small oven and didn’t consider this beforehand. I didn’t completely ruin it, but I can’t help but believe it would taste better if I had pulled it out earlier than the 6 hour mark. Not that that my overcooked version has stopped us from munching on it, lol. But it did make my house smell absolutely delicious!
Yes! The key to this is checking on it every so often to see how it’s progressing. Once it’s dried out its done
Hi Brittany
Are you sure you mean 3 tablespoons of cinnamon in the carrot cake granola. I thought maybe it was a typo and should have been 3 teaspoons.
I used 3 Tbs
but feel free to scale back the amount if you want.
Okay. If you used 3T I’ll use 3T. It just surprised me. I look forward to making this. It looks gorgeous in the picture. Thanks for your help. cindi
The flavors mellow quite a but during the baking. I started with less cinnamon and ended up adding more while the granola was in the oven as I thought it needed a flavor boost
Do you think I could use coconut flour instead of other nut flours? I have almond but I like the flavor that coconut flour imparts.
Brittany – I made this today – just subbed agave nectar for the stevia and it is AMAZING! Thank you!!!
Hi Brittany, I am making this now and have some leftover carrot pulp. What do you do to store it? Do you freeze it? Does it unthaw ok and can you use thawed carrot pulp in this recipe? I tasted the raw “batter” and it’s sooooo yummy. Cant wait until it’s done! I’m dehydrating it now.
Wendee
You might as well go ahead and dehydrate all the pulp
it will taste good in the granola.
Well too late LOL! I already am dehydrating them and have some leftover. Do you ever freeze it? I did – we’ll see how that works… I am curious why you would soak the nuts?
I haven’t tried freezing.
You could soak the nuts – but of course that will make the dehydrating process take longer.