Homemade Protein Bars (Low Calorie & Vegan)
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Protein bars are a great, delicious, high-protein snack. However, the store-bought ones are often full of sugar, processed ingredients, artificial flavorings, and in general, aren’t the healthiest.
Fortunately, when you make your homemade version, you can make healthy, nutritious & low-calorie protein bars!
This homemade protein bar recipe I will share with you is peanut butter-free, low-sugar, and easy to make. (no blender & no-bake)
If you cut them into bigger protein bars, each will have 20g of protein! Let’s take a quick look at the ingredients you’ll need.
Ingredients for the Healthy Homemade Protein Bars:
- Oat flour – It is satiating, and it is rich in fiber. Plus, you can make it yourself (grind oats!), and it is easy to find plastic-free.
- Peanut flour – You can find plastic-free peanut flour from Bulk.com, in bulk from Nuts.com, or locally in bulk stores.
- Protein powder -I use Form Nutrition for most of my protein sweets. For this recipe, you can use their Vanilla & Chocolate Salted Caramel flavor. If you are based in the US, you can order it from here, or get it here for the UK & Europe.
- Tahini – The tahini I used was very runny, so don’t use anything too thick.
- Date syrup – A fantastic natural sweetener. You can find date syrup in glass jars on Amazon.
- Plant milk – For this recipe, I used plain soy milk.
- Cacao butter – Solid at room temperature, and it will keep the protein bars firm. Buy plastic-free from Zerowastebulk.com (US) or Realplasticfree.com (UK).
Reasons to make these vegan Homemade Protein Bars:
- High protein – 10 grams per serving of protein powder and peanut flour! (or 20g of protein, if you cut it into bigger bars!)
- Low calorie – Each protein bar has only 120 calories (or 240, if you cut them into bigger ones). Nutrient balance is essential as unbalanced protein, fat, and carbs can drive hunger and cravings.
- Gluten-free – All the ingredients in this recipe are gluten-free (if you want to be 100% sure, get certified gluten-free oat flour).
- Healthy fats – Healthy fats are essential to keep you satisfied & full for longer.
- Two-layered – The protein bars are covered with a peanut caramel top layer, which is super delicious!
- Plastic-free & sustainable– By making homemade protein bars, you can save a lot of plastic packaging from store-bought protein bars. Plus, the vegan protein powder we’ll use is also plastic-free!
Storing tips for the Homemade Protein Bars
You can keep them in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
You shouldn’t keep them at room temperature for more than a day. Then, you can eat them right out of the refrigerator.
If you store them in the freezer, you will need 20 or so minutes to unfreeze them.
Substitutions for the Homemade Protein Bars:
Switching any ingredient or adding extras will change both the nutritional value of the bars and the final result.
I can’t promise that it will be as good as the original recipe, but in case you are missing some of the ingredients, you can use the substitutions:
- Tahini – Instead of tahini, you can use peanut butter, sunflower seed butter, or almond butter.
- Plant milk – Soy, almond, oat, or hazelnut plant milk should work well, too.
- Date syrup – If you can’t find it, you can use agave. The consistency of both is quite different, so it might change the final result.
- Other protein powder flavor – I used Chocolate Salted caramel for this recipe, but you can try different flavors.
Homemade Protein Bars
High in protein & vegan homemade protein bars!
Ingredients
- 95g Form nutrition protein powder (Chocolate Salted Caramel)
- 45g oat flour
- 25g peanut flour
- 25g date syrup
- 25g tahini
- 150ml soy milk
- 10ml melted cacao butter
- For the peanut caramel:
- 80ml soy milk
- 60g peanut flour
- 50ml date syrup
- 10ml melted cacao butter
Instructions
- Combine 95g protein powder, 25g peanut flour, and 25g oat flour in a bowl.
- Then, add 25ml of date syrup, 25g tahini, and 150ml of plant-based milk.
- Add 12 ml of melted cocoa butter and 20 more grams of oat flour. Mix until everything is well combined. The mixture shouldn’t be too sticky and shouldn’t get all over your fingers.
- Once everything is combined, transfer it to a small container.
- For the Peanut Caramel, add 80 ml of plant milk to a glass, and then add 60g of peanut flour, 10 ml of melted cocoa butter, and 50 ml of date syrup. Mix everything until you have a thick caramel-like sauce.
- Add it to the protein bars and put it in the freezer for 3-4 hours.
- After that, cut in 12 bars. Each of them will have about 10 grams of protein and 120 calories.
Notes
If you cut them into 6 big bars instead of 12, each will have 20g of protein & 240 calories.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 small barAmount Per Serving: Calories: 120Total Fat: 4,2gSaturated Fat: 1,4gCarbohydrates: 9,7gSugar: 4,9gProtein: 10,4g
FAQ:
Which protein powder is the best?
There are many protein powder options on the market, and a lot of them are filled with chemicals and unnecessary additives.
I recommend Form Nutrition. It contains all 9 essential amino acids, 20g of plant protein, and 7g of fiber per serving. If you are based in the US, you can order it from here, or you can also get it within the UK, and Europe.
Is the protein powder necessary?
Protein powder is a crucial ingredient for this recipe, so you can’t skip it. Adding protein powder to the recipe will make it nutritionally superior, and each bar will have over 10g of plant protein. I’m planning to create a recipe for protein bars, that require no protein powder soon, so stay tuned.
Sum up
I hope you love these Homemade Protein Bars as much as I do! Let me know if you have any questions or comments about the recipe.
