Maple Sesame Quinoa Bars {Vegan}

These Maple Sesame Quinoa Bars make a delicious vegan breakfast bar or energy bar. A combo of maple, sesame seed, gluten free oats, sunflower seed butter, and quinoa create a sweet and nutty taste without nuts. A whole grain quinoa bar packed with plant based protein and nutrients.

ALOHA! Oh wait no. We’re not in Hawaii anymore. Although I still wouldn’t mind some more of those fish tacos and papaya taro smoothie we ate on the beach, literally 2 days ago. *Sigh* Anyway, these quinoa bars were totally meant to be shared pre vacation but then I Island time set in. You get that right?

Focus Lindsay, focus. It’s almost FALL! Maple quinoa bars, apple cider recipes, pumpkin treats, yes! Ha ha. Can you tell I need a 180 degree mind shift?

Well, even with vacation brain, I’m still feeling refreshed (work wise) and ready to rock and roll the Fall season to come. I’m actually SUPER duper excited for the Fall colors to shine here in Utah and all things cozy. Cozy Slow cooker meals, cozy soups, cozy pumpkin spice snacks will be DOMINATED.

But first, maple. Let’s just start there. Maple is lovely. Don’t you think? It’s flavor that almost everyone adores. So you can see my eagerness to share these maple sesame quinoa bars. Think of them a little fun twist on your regular maple muesli or no bake oat bars, just a little nuttier in taste.

My goal for these maple quinoa bars were really quite simple.

1. Create a bar using leftover whole grains (resourcefulness). Okay ya, got that covered with both quinoa and gluten free oats! For some reason I always make a more than enough quinoa. That’s not really a bad thing. It just means I can either make a leftover quinoa salad wrap or quinoa bars for breakfast meal prep. Done!
2. Create a bar that is vegan and nut free friendly. I get a lot of recipe requests for nut free, egg free, and of course gluten free. It can be tricky, right? So many of us have food allergies, intolerances, or have friends/family that have allergies. Trying to accommodate to them all can be overwhelming. Which is why I LOVE to help. Quinoa, sesame, and maple make a great flavor combo and macronutrient combo. Ohh, that’s my number 3. I better not dive too deep into that quite yet.
3. Create a vegan bar BALANCED in macronutrients but without protein powder. GOAL complete! These quinoa bars are loaded with plant based complete protein (from the quinoa), minerals from the maple, and healthy fats from the sesame seeds. The topping is a must as well. You are welcome to use a nut butter or sunflower seed butter to make the shell coating. Either way, you’re going to get a creamy nutty flavored shell topping. I’ll explain more on that in a minute. It’s my number 4 GOAL.
4. Create a snack or breakfast bar that tastes like my favorite honey sesame bars I used to buy at Whole Foods. Have you seen those? They are thin, crispy, lightly sweet, and delicious. Okay this is where I should be honest. These quinoa bars are just kinda like those. They taste so similar, yes! But missing is the crispy part. That is unless you add extra shell coating. Oh and of course store them in the fridge, which you will need to. Quinoa definitely needs a a few extra binders if you are trying to make vegan bars with it. Not a bad dilemma for crispier bars, right?

All goals complete. Phew! Now let me walk you through the recipe below. You’ll see just how to easy these MAPLE SESAME QUINOA BARS! Plus there’s a wee little trick to get them to stick. Haha, see what I did there?

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I love quinoa in savory dishes, but it’s a total game changer for taste and texture when it comes to sweet dishes. This combo of maple, sesame, oats, sunflower seed, and quinoa create an earthy, nutty, but still sweet taste. That being said, I think you should try them. Like ASAP. Mmm k?

If you had an abundance of quinoa, what would you make. Besides salad of course. Have you ever made quinoa bars?

Here’s my list for sweet quinoa snacks so far. Blackberry Quinoa cakes, quinoa Banana Bread, quinoa bars (these), quinoa mug cake and quinoa porridge. Wow, I guess I really do like quinoa. 😉

Cheers to Fall-ish Flavors!