No-Bake Vegan Protein Bars (4 Ingredients!)

Loved these bars so much! They were so much fun to make too! My 3 year old had a blast popping the grains! We didn’t have protein powder, looking forward of buying some and making them with it. This will be a regular in our hose for sure!

I just made this! :) I used vanilla protein powder & these remind me of the cereals I ate when I was young. Delicious! Like everyone else, I had trouble popping the amaranth at first. I was using a large saucepan. It took forever to heat up & the bottom surface wasn’t large enough to pop a tablespoon so I switched to a light cast iron coated skillet (with lid) & that worked perfectly! These bars are wonderful, as are all your recipes. Thank you!

Fun recipe! Like others, it took me a few tries to get the amaranth to pop. Best to wait 3-4 min for the pan to really heat up and use tiny bits of grain at a time. I replaced part of the nut butter with pumpkin for some fun flavor and lightening it up. I used Orgain vegan vanilla protein powder. Turned out delicious and a perfect work snack! Will double the recipe next time!

Tasty and nice texture alternative to my regular protein bars with flax and oats. The hardest part was popping the amaranth. Like mentioned in the description, it took me about 4 tries to get it, but I don’t think it was technique…the first 3-4 times, it was just burning (even though I was lightly shaking pan), or 1/100 would pop and it was so tiny…I tried adding a little oil, but they just glom together and it didn’t help…I tried using a nonstick pan instead of stainless steel, but that didn’t change the outcome. I honestly don’t think I personally improved on my technique- I think you just have to let the pan stay heated for like 3-5minutes and double check that the water bubbles up and balls together. The water thing happened pretty quickly…like within the first minute, so that shouldn’t be your cue…but after about 3-5minutes, (which is how long it took me to fail 3-4 times), once it was hot for that long, as soon as I put in 2 tbsp, they immediately started popping and you lightly shake the pan with its lid on and when you don’t see/hear the popping (roughly 10sec), take it off the burner, put contents in a sieve and separate the popped from the burnt or unpopped. Hope that helps you! I enjoy these for breakfast or snacks.

Have made this recipe a few times, substituting One Degree Brown Rice Cereal Crisps for the amaranth, as mentioned in the comments. I also opted out of the chocolate drizzle, though I’m not sure why I would pass on chocolate. 🤔 Very easy to make, simply delicious! It’s a lovely go-to snack when reading in the evening. Much thanks for posting this recipe, but for also taking the time to include nutritional information – it is greatly appreciated!

I’m going to try the 3-Ingredient Chocolate Fudge next.

I made this today subbing puffed quinoa for the amaranth. They came out amazing! Wrapped them and popped them in the freezer for a quick snack/bfast option. They’re so good, I doubt they’ll last the week!

This recipe is my favourite of all protein bar recipes!!! So easy!! We just moved to Finland, and couldn’t find amaranth in the store, so I decided to make it with oats. I didn’t pop them, but it turned out perfect! Since then I made it like four times. Can’t stop… We just found an organic shop where they sell amaranth. Can’t wait to try it!

Great recipe which can be customised! Used puff rice cereal instead of amaranth which makes this low fodmap friendly.

YUM I’ve made these a few times now. So simple and delish. The first time I added the choccy but it’s not essential I find them sweet enough on their own. I use tropeka vanilla protein powder. Vegan and all natural

These are amazing! I used quinoa instead of amaranth. I did 3/4 cup sun butter and 1/4 cush cashew butter. They needed to spend a little more time in the freezer for me to be able to cut them. Love this recipe!

I just tried this recipe with vanilla essence instead of any protein powder (didn’t have any in) and with golden syrup instead of maple syrup. I’m really pleased with the results! Very tasty. I’ve never cooked with aramanth before but it was quite fun, like many people have said. We used very chunky peanut butter though, I think the structural integrity suffered a bit because of it. Looking forward to trying again with some protein powder and some less chunky peanut butter. I think it would be nice with tahini, too. Thanks so much!

Tried out this recipe, I wish the link to buying popped Amaranth online was included in the recipe to begin with, as popping it was time consuming, too inconsistent and frankly just frustrating. I ended up having to toss almost more than a third of it and at $9/bag that’s just too much waste. I ended up making these into balls as it did not provide enough to push into an 8×8 pan for bars. The taste is ok, though I find the vanilla protein powder flavor a bit overwhelming.

this is legit one of my fave protein bars. so easy to make. i just wish i could pack them for hiking but since theyre no bake thats what i get ! regardless, i eat these before the gym if i’m in a hurry and dont have time to have a proper breakfast. i also eat them as a snack. but ive eaten them after the gym too. basically i just eat them whenever ! =)

ive tried it both with amaranth and rice cereal. both are good but i def prefer the amaranth crunch you get.

Just made these today — so good! I ate a few spoonfuls before putting them in the fridge!! :) I think they’ll be great to take camping — if they can make it out the door before we eat them all hahaha!

I love the idea of this recipe but I don’t think I would do the amaranth again. It does not work well on the inconsistent heat of a glass stovetop. I think I literally did it over 12 times before it was okay. There were still lots of unpopped grain but they just wouldn’t pop. I found it worked best for me if I turned the stove up really high and didn’t shake the pot and let they all pop like crazy for about 1-2 seconds and then shook the pot so the other ones would get popped. If I just kept them on the heat (even low heat) for too long shaking they would just burn and not popped. at $6.65 a kg it just seemed like I ended up with a lot of waste… I also used wow butter so my 6 year old could bring these to school and I didn’t like the taste all that much. I hope she does. I would try them again with peanut or almond butter but I think I might hesitate because of the amaranth ordeal! LOL!

These turned out pretty well and a little more practice for me will make them even better! It did take me a few batches of amaranth to figure out the best popping method (I ended up tipping the next unpopped batch and taking the pan off the stove for several seconds – a technique I use for popcorn – and that seemed to yield the best popped to not-popped ratio without burning)! Next time I will add a little less amaranth as mine did turn out a little too crumbly. But, the whole family loves the flavor so will definitely make again…after this batch is gone. Thanks for sharing the recipe! I used the Garden of Life vanilla protein powder – final product is deliciously flavored!

I used this as a base and expounded, based upon what I had in the pantry. Used ground flaxseed instead of amaranth. I used pea protein and a scoop of whey protein that I am trying to get rid of, so it’s not too vegan. I also used cocoa powder for the chocolate. It did well, and I will tinker more with it, but it came out to have a good balance of calories to protein once I worked the recipe out in MyFitnesspal. Once I am rid of my whey protein, I will double the scoops from the pea protein. Thanks for giving me a starting point; many of the protein bars in the stores give my belly problems.

I’ve never popped amaranth myself, but when I was in India we would eat popped amaranth drizzled with honey and yogurt. I was excited to see this recipe and try popping it on my own. Popping was a little more frustrating than I thought it would be. It might be easier with a gas stove where you can control the heat better. It took awhile for my pan to warm up, maybe 8-10 minutes before the amaranth started popping right when I put it in. After that it was a cinch and the bars came together beautifully. I did have to use my hands to get everything together. I added some Maca powder and used Amazing Grass protein powder. I might add a touch of vanilla next time. They are delicious!

Love it! I had never used amaranth before, so it took a few tries to pop, but after some practice it turned out great. I used Garden of Life vanilla flavored protein powder, sunflower butter, and the dark chocolate, and it was delicious. The bars are pretty soft, but they aren’t too messy thanks to the powder and amaranth taking away the stickiness of the sunbutter. I needed a good protein and calorie packed easy to eat snack, so these will definitely be a regular!

My husband ate these. Enough said. I will definitely be making them again to keep in the fridge for when he is creeping around looking for a snack. Great recipe! Thanks :)

I found a package of Amaranth Grain in my pantry and had no idea what to do with it – came across this recipe and decided to try it! It was fun learning how to pop it – thank you for teaching me to do something new! After a couple of tries, it was pretty easy and was fairly quick to accumulate the cup and a half.
Love how simple and easy this is and can easily be the start of a base to add other ingredients.

Just made these and I can’t wait to eat them!! I couldn’t find amaranth so I subbed puffed brown rice. I also added a little less than 1/2 cup rolled oats, a couple tbsp chia seeds, a couple tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut, and only used 1 tbsp of maple syrup. I wanted these to be more of a small meal replacement for when I’m starving at work, or a really calorie dense breakfast.
I tasted the “batter” before putting it in the freezer and I think it’s gonna be great :)

Great use of amaranth. I bought a bunch and don’t really like the flavor by itself. With the nut butters its great. I didn’t use protein powder (don’t have any and don’t really “believe” in it), still worked out well. I added more amaranth to make up for the protein powder (1 1/2 cups). I also only used 1 tbsp of maple syrup and my toddler still ate it :)

These are ok. A good base recipe but needs some work for me to love them. Pretty much like eating peanut butter from the jar :/
I even added a bit more maple syrup and it was still like eating spoonfuls of peanut butter. I added the chocolate too!
Popping the amaranth was fun!

I absolutely love these! I have made several of your breakfast bars and these are my favorite!!! Popping the amaranth takes a little time to get the hang but once you get going it gets easy. My pot can’t handle as much as this recipe says to pop at once but once i figured that out smooth sailing. And the bag of amaranth seems like it will last through several batches of these. A total win in my book!

I 4X this recipe about every 2-3 weeks, keeping half in my freezer at work and the other half my freezer at home. The ones I keep at work always disappear real fast…Everybody loves them! I’m a massage therapist at a franchise place where you get exactly 5 minutes from the time you take your hands off your client, to wait for them to dress; answer follow up questions; (pee, etc….); change the sheets on the table & get your next client, unless you want to be late for every client all day……Anyway, we all LOVE having these delicious, protein packed snacks available to easily grab on the go. They keep us from having loud tummy growls in the middle of massage sessions…truly.
So, thank you so much for this recipe! It has been incredibly helpful to me, my coworkers, and our clients (even if they don’t know it). :-)
P.S. Once I got the hang of popping amaranth, I started developing an amusement toward it. It’s actually kind of fun. I’ve even made videos of it. ha

These are delicious and so easy. You are right once you get the hang of popping the amaranth it goes very quickly . Love that your recipes are vegan and GF. Thanks

These are simple and amazing!

I made these yesterday and we (mostly I) have almost finished the batch! ;0 I didn’t have amaranth, so I toasted millet on the stove very carefully, and they are delicious. Drizzled a hearty amount of vegan chocolate on top. Thank you for another great recipe, Dana!

I think my almond butter wasn’t smooth enough (it was the fresh-ground-from-the-bulk-aisle type), because these never came together into a moldable mass, even with the addition of more almond butter. Tasty crumble, but not bars. If nothing else, at least, popping amaranth is pretty fun once you get the right temp :)

Something I loved learning from this recipe: popping amaranth is FUN! So now the question is what else can we use it for? I’m psyched!

My bars came out great… at first. After a day in the fridge I think the grain absorbed all the moisture and they became very light and dry. The texture was hella weak. BUT! I’m glad to read some people had the opposite problem because that means there’s a middle ground. Will definitely try again.

Thanks, Dana :)

Very good. Popping the amaranth was a bit of a learning curve. After a few tries it became pretty easy. I had better luck in a large metal pot than a non-stick frying pan. Very, very tasty. I’ll be looking for more amaranth recipes now. Thank you!