Chocolate Chip Buckwheat Oatmeal Bars

Oatmeal bars are really easy to make and are fantastic for providing energy, fiber, and fabulous flavor. These chocolate chip buckwheat oatmeal bars are really easy to make, and are a fantastic vegan gluten-free snack to take to work or for school lunches.

These oatmeal bars utilize cooked buckwheat groats, dates, maple syrup, vanilla, chocolate chips, and coconut, and the results are delicious. These oatmeal bars are gluten-free, vegan, soy-free, nut-free, and oil-free.

I got this oatmeal bar recipe from the Vegan Yak Attack On The Go! cookbook by Jackie Sobon. This is a fantastic follow up to the Vegan Yak Attack cookbook.

How To Make Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars

Making these oatmeal chocolate chip bars is a very easy process.

1. Cook the buckwheat groats on a medium low heat for 5 to 7 minutes until tender.
2. Then puts the cooked and cooled buckwheat groats into the food processor with the rolled oats, dates, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt and pulses until the oats are are dates are slightly broken up.
3. Next, fold the chocolate chips and coconut into the oatmeal bar mixture until evenly mixed, and then spread into a prepared baking sheet.
4. The best way to cut oatmeal chocolate chip bars prior to baking is to use a pizza cutter or very sharp knife. Gently slice through the oatmeal bars without separating them so that they cook evenly and don’t dry out and brown on the edges too quickly.
5. Bake the oatmeal chocolate chip bars for about 30 minutes. Then, it’s important to flip them over so that they brown on both sides evenly. Then, gently separate the sliced out bars at their perforations and bake for a further 15 minutes until they begin to brown around the edges. You don’t want to bake them too long beyond that or your oatmeal bars will be too hard and burnt on the edges which can make them bitter.
6. Allow the chocolate chip bars to cool on a rack, and either enjoy them once cooled, or wait an hour before storing them in a sealed container with a moisture-absorbing packet so that they don’t get soft and stale.

How To Use Buckwheat

If you’ve never used buckwheat groats before, here’s the quick lowdown.

Despite the confusing name, buckwheat is not related to wheat, and is gluten free.

Buckwheat is a great addition to these oatmeal bars because it contains contains easily digestible protein, containing both essential and non essential amino acids; alkaline buffer minerals including calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, zinc and copper; and powerful antioxidants that support heart health. An added virtue of buckwheat is the soluble fiber that acts like a sponge to slow down the absorption of sugars, and supports healthy digestion and assimilation.

However, buckwheat is acid forming. To minimize the acidic quality of buckwheat, add a bit of Celtic sea salt while cooking. And, soak before cooking to neutralize enzyme inhibitors, activate the full nutrient potential, and make the buckwheat groats more digestible. Learn more about soaking buckwheat here.

Cook buckwheat with water, broth, or milk on the stove top or in a rice cooker or pressure cooker.

Another thing you can do is to toast buckwheat in a skillet after soaking to improve the digestibility and enhance the flavor. Roasted buckwheat has a nutty flavor, and seeing as these oatmeal chocolate chip bars are nut-free, it could add a nice nutty note to them.

Quick Easy Vegan Recipes

These oatmeal bars are a great example of how easy vegan recipes can be to make.

There is a popular misconception that plant-based recipes take a lot of time to prepare. Not so. There are a lot of other quick easy vegan recipes that you can prepare with very little skills and even less time.

Jackie’s book has a ton of other easy vegan recipes that you can prepare quickly and easily when you get home or prepare in advance and take with you to work or for school lunches.

Recipes are categorized to make it easy to find recipes that are suitable for your lifestyle:

• under 10 ingredients – time- and budget-conscious recipes that contain 10 ingredients or less
  30 minutes or less
• portable – make ahead of time and it travels well
• make ahead – you can make ahead of time but it might not travel well
• one-pan – the recipes can be made using one pot, pan, or baking sheet

You can also search for recipes that are gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, oil-free, and sugar-free.

Vegan Recipes from Vegan Yak Attack On The Go!

Some of my favorite recipes from the book include:

• cheezy chickpea scramble
• blueberry zucchini breakfast cookies
• loaded lentil avocado toast
• acorn squash chips
• teriyaki mushroom jerky
• chipotle white bean salad sandwich
• sesame soba salad
• shiitake spring rolls
• summer stew
• butternut mac and cheese
• tempeh adobe tostadas
• cauliflower alfredo with grilled asparagus
• coconut curry sweet potato noodles
• spicy jackfruit chili
• green enchilada casserole
• pita pizzas
• lemon lavender mini cheesecakes
• pumpkin maple donut holes
• foiled strawberry french toast

Vegan Made Easy

In addition to the fabulous recipes, Jackie also shares her Vegan Made Easy tips with pantry and equipment essentials, and preparation and cooking hints and tips such as cooking oil-free, replacing eggs in vegan dishes, adding creaminess to vegan recipes, treating your fridge like a salad bar, packing vegetables into vegan dishes, and other vegan cooking tips.

Make these oatmeal chocolate chip bars, get your copy of Vegan Yak Attack On The Go! and learn more about Jackie Sobon.