These Healthy Strawberry Oat Bars are vegan, gluten-free, easy to make, and highly addicting. They are soft, juicy, bursting with strawberries, and minimally sweetened. Delicious as a dessert, treat, or breakfast, these strawberry oat bars are snacking chameleons. It’s probably easiest to just say they’re AH-mazing any time of the day.
I love to make these bars for dessert because they’re one of the healthiest desserts we ever eat. They usually don’t last that long though. Smelling them fresh out of the oven, they’re too good to resist! And we usually eat them up while they’re still warm in the pan. We scoop them out in a crumbly mess before they’ve even had a chance to set and be sliced into bars. They’re that good.
Are they easy to make?
Bars with layers can seem a little complicated or time-consuming at first glance. But, let me dispel those fears right now. These bars are EASY PEASY. A big reason why is that the top and bottom layers are simply the same delicious oat and banana-based mixture. Then, all that’s left is the strawberries in the middle. Those are tossed in just a bit of sugar, lemon juice, and starch before being laid out over the bottom oat layer. After that, all that’s left is to pat down the other half of the oat mixture over the strawberries and bake it all together. Pretty easy, right?
These Healthy Strawberry Oat Bars are
- Juicy
- Full of fruit
- Whole grain
- Minimally sweetened
- Easy to make
- Versatile
- Delicious!
More delicious vegan recipes
- Flourless Chocolate Peanut Cookies
- Vegan Pumpkin Spice Pancakes
- Perfect Vegan Aquafaba Waffles
- Double Chocolate Granola
If you make these Healthy Strawberry Oat Bars, let us know what you think! Leave a comment or rating below, and check us out on Instagram #plantednoshery. However you found our little slice of the vegan food blog world, we’re so glad you’re here. Enjoy!
Healthy Strawberry Oat Bars – Vegan, GF
Ingredients
Oat Crust and Topping
- 5 cups Rolled oats 500g
- 4 Ripe, spotty bananas (mashed) ~420g
- ½ cup Coconut oil (melted) 110g
- 4 tsp Baking powder
- ¾ tsp Sea salt
- 2 tsp Cinnamon optional
Strawberry Filling
- 5 cups Frozen strawberries 560g
- ¼ cup Organic cane sugar or coconut sugar
- 2 tbsp Lemon juice
- 2 tbsp Arrowroot powder can sub cornstarch or tapioca starch
- ½ tsp Sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a 9×9 Square Baking Pan with parchment paper.
- Mash your bananas in a large mixing bowl until they are runny with only small chunks remaining. Add your melted coconut oil to the bananas and stir to combine.
- Add the oats, baking powder, cinnamon and sea salt on top of the banana mixture, and give the dry ingredients a stir on top to spread out the baking powder and salt. Then fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, until evenly combined.
- Spread half of the oat crust mixture evenly over the bottom of the lined baking pan. Pack it down with the back of your spatula, and push it into the corners evenly.
- Prepare your filling by combining all of your "Strawberry Filling" ingredients into a bowl. Stir well and then scrape the filling out onto the bottom oat crust layer in the lined baking pan. Spread out the strawberries to cover the oat crust in an even layer.
- Then, scrape out the remainder of the oat crust topping over the strawberries. Use the back of your spatula again to pack it down tightly over top of the strawberries.
- Place the baking pan into your preheated oven and bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven when the middle of the bars looks set, but slightly more moist than the edges. Do not overbake, or the oats will dry out quickly. The bars will set as they cool.
- Let the bars cool completely to set firmly if you want to be able to pick them up and eat on the go. Or dig in while they're still warm for a comforting treat. Enjoy!
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