White Bean Muesli Bars
These White Bean Muesli Bars are a delicious high protein breakfast option. With beans, cashews, oats and bananas, these bars are a great on the go breakfast or healthy snack.
My 3 year old loves taking this to school in his lunchbox (luckily he doesn’t have nut restrictions at his school) and my older son often has it in the mornings in the car for breakfast. I love to have something healthy on hand for school mornings, because they can be so hectic! This way if things go pear shaped in the morning and we’re running late, at least we can all have a healthy breakfast on the way in the car.
To Make White Bean Muesli Bars:
I make these bars in a food processor. It allows me to process the nuts and beans so that they’re a smooth binder for the oats.
Process the cashews until they are a crumble.
Add the rinsed beans, bananas, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla. Process until smooth.
Add the oats and chocolate chips. Process until just combined.
Pour into a lined baking tray, and smooth the top. This needs to be cooked in a larger baking dish, so that the slice is quite thin. it also needs to cook in a lower temperature oven. This allows it to cook the whole way through without burning.
When I make this these White Bean Muesli Bars, I don’t overprocess the oats, to give the bar some texture. If you’re making this for very young children or toddlers, you could process the oats with the cashews at the start. This will make a smoother bar once cooked.
Substitutions in White Bean Muesli Bars:
Gluten Free: To make this recipe gluten free, make sure you use certified gluten free oats, or replace the oats with quinoa flakes. Quinoa flakes have a stronger flavour than oats, so may change the final taste of the bar.
Nut Free: To make the recipe nut free, you can replace the cashews with pumpkin seeds. I find sunflower seeds have quite a bitter taste, so they would not work as well in the recipe.
This recipe requires ground nuts to keep the right consistency. You can replace the cashews with almond meal, or grind up other nuts or seeds, but a nut butter will make the mix too wet to cook properly.
This recipe is quite sweet, to hide the taste of the beans. If you wish to reduce the amount of sweetener, it is important to reduce both the powdered sugar and the maple syrup, otherwise the consistency will be different and it may not cook through as well.
If you’re looking for another Breakfast Bar recipe, try my Kids Breakfast Slice. You could also try my Nut Free Muesli Bar for a great nut free school option.
White Bean Muesli Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup cashews
- 1 400g tin cannellini beans drained and rinsed
- 2 bananas very ripe
- ⅓ cup coconut sugar
- 3 TBS maple syrup
- 1 tspn vanilla
- 2 cups oats
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius (160 degrees fanforced). Line a baking dish with baking paper.
- Add cashews to a food processor and process until they become a fine crumb. (Process the oats at this step if you are after a smooth bar, otherwise leave them to the end).
- Add bananas, beans, sugar, syrup and vanilla to the processor. Process until smooth.
- Add the oats and process until just combined.
- Pour the mix into the prepared baking dish and smooth the surface. You want the bar to be quite thin for it to cook though.
- Cook for approximately 30 minutes until lightly browned on top.
- Remove the cooked bars from the dish and allow to cool. Cut into bars or squares.
- Store the muesli bars in a sealed container in the fridge. These bars can be frozen.
