Hemp Protein Bars (Vegan)
- April 1, 2021
- Last Updated: February 13, 2025
- 48 Comments
- Recipes
These hemp protein bars are the perfect on-the-go snack. With no refined sugars or animal products, this hemp bars recipe is gluten free and great for the whole family.
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All you snack lovers (like myself) can rejoice with today’s hemp seed bars, which happen to be vegan and gluten free.
You can prep these in advance to eat throughout the week – one of the best healthy snacks for meal prep!
These hemp protein bars use a secret pumpkin ingredient. Let’s normalize eating pumpkin year round, shall we?
For a well-tested homemade hemp protein bars recipe (with pumpkin), I’m convinced I don’t need to buy evo hemp protein bars anymore.
Why You’ll Love These Hemp Protein Bars
The whole family will love these hemp protein bars – they’re just so easy and tasty!
- Great for travel – Many people struggle with healthy, protein-rich snacks when traveling. This is one of those and one of our favorite road trip snacks for kids.
- Nutritious – These hemp seed bars have pumpkin puree, pumpkin seeds and peanut butter – healthy fats to keep you full and antioxidants, just like these sweet potato oat bars. Hemp seeds are safe for kids and provide several essential nutrients.
- High in Protein – Three tablespoons of hemp seeds provide about 10 grams of plant protein, which is they they are one of my favorite vegetarian protein sources.
- Fiber Rich – With oats, peanut butter, hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds, these hemp seed bars pack a punch of fiber for health and keeping you full! They also have 6 grams of protein, each.
- Not overly sweet – If you plan to serve this as a healthy homemade toddler snack, you can opt to reduce the maple syrup, and omit the chocolate chips as well.
How to Use Hemp Seeds in Cooking
Hemp seeds, or hemp hearts (which are shelled hemp seeds), are so versatile and easy to add to literally anything, from salads to oatmeal to oatmeal applesauce bars.
They are a nutritious rockstar that adds in protein, fiber,
Hemp seeds can up the protein of so many recipes without relying on protein powder, like in my favorite hemp seed granola.
Ingredients For Hemp Seed Bars
To make these hemp seed granola bars, let’s turn to our favorite pantry staples.
- Hemp Seeds – While hemp seeds offer the highest amount of protein, you could also substitute with chia or flax seeds as well.
- Oats (*make sure to use certified gluten-free)
- Pumpkin Seeds
- Nut Butter
- Pumpkin Puree
- Maple Syrup (my favorite grade A syrup)
- Spices – I used cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice and sea salt
- Chocolate Chips (Enjoy Life are vegan)
These wholesome ingredients come together nicely to make these gluten free pumpkin granola bars.
While the pumpkin flavor shines, these hemp seed bars can and should be made year round. Kinda like my favorite Pumpkin Seed Granola.
It’s also important to me to introduce my girls to a variety of nutritious ingredients, flavors and textures.
Which is why these healthy pumpkin granola bars are a great option for snack time (because we don’t need to make any more toddler muffins, we’ve aced those time and time again).
For another fun twist on healthy granola bars, make sure to give my homemade trail mix bars a try!
How to Make Hemp Seed Protein Bars
These hemp seed protein bars start like many of my favorite quick snack recipes: mix everything together in one bowl.
One bowl recipes are the best – You don’t even need a food processor.
And since these pumpkin seed bars are egg-free, feel free to lick the batter as you go along.
Then, you’ll transfer the batter to your baking sheet and press down firmly. Bake for 20 minutes.
Make sure to scroll down for the full recipe!
This is a tasty, high protein bar recipe without protein powder, as we’re relying on the power of plant proteins, nuts and seeds.
While I love a chewy Quaker granola bar, it doesn’t provide much protein at all, so I wanted this hemp protein bar recipe to be different.
They are a little tougher and chewier than your typical granola bar, but the pumpkin puree does make them a bit softer.
These bars are great for quick energy and also keep you full for a bit of time, which is ideal for that incessant breastfeeding hunger.
Storage
You can store these hemp protein bars in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
For the best results, make sure your hemp seeds are refrigerated, since they can oxidize when not stored properly.
Make This?
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Hemp Protein Bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats
- ¼ cup hemp seeds
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/8 tsp tsp sea salt plus some for topping
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ cup almond butter or peanut butter
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup + 1 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup chocolate chips I used Enjoy Life to keep them vegan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Grease 8×8 pan or line with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, seeds, salt, spices, almond butter, pumpkin, maple syrup, and vanilla. Mix until fully combined. Fold in chocolate chips last.
- Transfer dough to baking pan and spread evenly over the pan. Press down firmly so it is flat.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until edges turn brown.
- Let cool in pan for 15 minutes before cutting into bars. These will harden slightly upon cooling.
- Top with sea salt and enjoy!
Equipment
Nutrition
Now that you know how easy it is to make your own homemade protein bars, I hope these will be a staple in your simple meal prep.
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Support Bucket List TummyI am looking forward to making these!
How long do they keep? Have you tried freezing them?
Thanks!
They are good for up to 3 days. They also freeze beautifully in an airtight container.
So flavorful and fun
I take these everywhere with me as an on-the-go snack. Thanks, Sarah!
This is definitely my new favorite sugar-free snack!
My son (who is 10) has literally been telling me that he needs more protein. haha. It makes me laugh, but it’s so true! This recipe is a keeper!
I also like to use hemp hearts in my baked goods. An easy way to up the protein! I like that these have no added white sugar
These look like a great healthy treat
I made these & they’re so delish!
I made these & they’re so delish!
Thanks Rebecca 🙂