Found: a healthy recipe to indulge your chocolate cravings and some of your daily nutrient needs. (It’s what our food-first approach is all about, after all.)

While the nuts and seeds you include in this granola are ultimately up to you, our pro tip is to reach for walnuts specifically—coupled with chia seeds, they offer vegan-friendly omega-3 DHA. But customizations aside, this recipe already packs a nutritious punch to begin with. Oats are rich in nutrients like magnesium, zinc, and iron, and they’re also a good source of fiber and protein. And cacao also includes polyphenols, which have antioxidant properties.*

Plus, it’s a tasty, big-batch recipe that you can enjoy with almond milk, over yogurt, or straight out of the oven in fistfuls. (We’re not judging.) Let’s kick it over to integrative chef Blaine Arin Tacker, who shares her recipe below.

Cacao Coconut Granola

Dry ingredients:

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups chopped nuts or seeds (walnuts, hazelnuts, or pumpkin seeds, for example)
• 1 cup coconut flakes
• ⅓ cup raw cacao powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds
• ¼ - ½ cup coconut sugar
• Optional: ¼ cup cacao nibs

Wet ingredients:

• ¾ cup maple syrup
• ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or olive oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 300℉
2. Start by adding your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Pour in the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly with a spatula.
4. Spread granola evenly over a parchment-lined baking tray, all the way to the edges.
5. Bake for a total of 45-50 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes. (Don’t skip the stirring.) Watch closely at the end, as it’s hard to tell when chocolate granola has gone from done to burned!
6. It’s done when the granola is quite crisp and completely dry. Take it out of the oven and let it chill out for 10 minutes before eating—it will crisp up even more.
7. Keeps for at least 3 months.

Notes: You can substitute regular cocoa powder if you don’t have cacao powder. The oven temperature may seem really low, but it prevents the cacao from burning and having a bitter taste.