Chocolate quinoa crunch bars perfectly balance toasty quinoa with luscious, smooth chocolate. Ready in 30 minutes, these vegan bars are sure to become your go-to, no-bake crunchy treat!
These homemade bars are super easy to make and freeze, so they are always on hand when you need a nut-free treat.
It starts with popped quinoa or "puffed" quinoa. You can do this on the stovetop by toasting quinoa on a hot skillet. Once you hear the quinoa start to pop and it smells toasty, it's time for the chocolate.
Just melt your favorite chocolate in the microwave and mix it up with the quinoa. I like to spread it into a thin layer to cut into bars but you could easily create bite-sized chocolates.
Enjoy quinoa chocolate for a snack with some fresh fruit, a chocolatey treat, or as an allergy friendly Halloween candy!
Ingredient Notes
To make these chocolate quinoa crunch bars, you only need 2 simple ingredients:
Popped quinoa AKA toasted quinoa adds crunch! It's super easy to make on the stovetop. Alternatively, you could use store-bought puffed quinoa, it has an airier texture, similar to puffed rice.
Use any type of chocolate that you like! Dark chocolate is my personal favorite and often what I use when making cocoa date truffles or chocolate chickpea clusters. Semi-sweet chocolate chips blend great with the toasty flavor of the popped quinoa.
Some people add coconut oil when melting chocolate to help the chocolate harden and produce a nice sheen. I do not find this necessary, the bars harden perfectly without it and still produce a beautiful sheen!
The recipe card below includes the full list of ingredients + instructions.
How to Make Chocolate Quinoa Bars
- Pop quinoa.
- Melt chocolate.
- Mix chocolate and quinoa.
- Spread into even layer.
- Chill and cut into bars.
Ways to Customize Chocolate Quinoa Bars
The chocolate quinoa mixture easily pops out of silicone molds to make different shapes, like hearts or squares. You could also dollop the mixture directly onto a parchment sheet to make chocolate quinoa bites.
If you’re feeling adventurous, play around with flavors too! Add almond butter, peppermint extract, or sprinkle with flaky sea salt. You can also turn it into a bark by adding chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, chopped nuts, hemp hearts, or dried cranberries.
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Chocolate Quinoa Crunch Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup quinoa raw, uncooked
- ½ cup chocolate chips semi-sweet or dark
Directions
- Heat a skillet or pot to medium high heat. Add ½ cup quinoa to the skillet and continually stir until the quinoa smells toasty and starts to make a popping sound, between 1 to 3 minutes.
- Melt ½ cup chocolate chips in the microwave for 60 seconds and stir until the chocolate is smooth. You could also use the double boiler method.
- Combine the popped quinoa to the melted chocolate, stirring until the quinoa is evenly distributed.
- Use a small glass container or loaf pan (ranging from 6” x 4” to 7.5” x 5.5” for a thinner bar that is easier to bite into) and line it with parchment paper. Fold the parchment paper over the sides to easily pop out the bars later.
- Spread the chocolate quinoa mixture evenly and smooth out the top. If desired, sprinkle extra popped quinoa on top.
- Freeze the bars for 20 minutes or until the chocolate is hardened. Then, using the parchment sheet, remove the bars from the container. Let them sit at room temperature for a couple of minutes.
- Cut the quinoa chocolate into your desired number of bars. I sliced mine into 4 bars. You could also halve the bars to make 8 little squares.
Notes
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* The provided nutritional information is an estimate per serving. Accuracy will vary on specific ingredients and brands used.
manvir says
hi
what's the minimum time the quinoa can be soaked? don't have time to soak it overnight as I need it for the evening
Sarah Pilley says
Hi Manvir! The soaking is really just to help moisten the quinoa, you can just stir the quinoa a little some water and you'll be good to go!
Tracy Danielson-Hensley says
what color of quinoa is best? I have tri-color.
Sarah Pilley says
Hi Tracy! Any color will work, it's just a little easier to see when the quinoa is done if it's white.
Wanda says
I just made these amazing bars, they’re so good. I did put some peanut butter on them. I’m so happy I discovered this recipe!!
Sarah Pilley says
I'm so happy that you enjoyed it Wanda! And I love adding nut butter to the bars, great idea!
Frances says
Great idea
Super quick to make
Brief soak for quinoa before a good rinse in a colander
I made double the quinoa and doubled the chocolate to 400grams (2packets of melts)
Who needs too much washing up ??
I just added the chocolate into cooked quinoa pan once I took it off the heat.
This melted the chocolate and stopped the quinoa from burning making it easy to combine.
Then added vanilla and a spoon of coconut oil
I just tipped it onto baking paper on the bench and placed some glad wrap on it and rolled it flat
A sprinkle of sea salt and voila
Marie says
I have tried toasting/popping quinoa before without success - I followed your instructions and really, just kept the pan moving until it looked and smelled toasty. They are perfectly crunchy. I did add a little toasted coconut to the mix and now I have yummy crunchy bars - they're a hit. Thank you!
Sarah Pilley says
So glad that you enjoyed, I love the idea of adding toasted coconut!
Elle says
Hello, can I confirm that it is raw/dry quinoa that we use rather than cooked? And it is perfectly safe to add water and fry straight away rather than soak overnight?
Sarah Pilley says
Hi Elle! Yes, this recipe uses raw quinoa and it is okay to toast it right away but you can also choose to soak it first!
Nini says
Two of my favorite foods😋
MJ says
If I use a store bought puffed quinoa, should I toast it as well? or juste use it as is?
Sarah Pilley says
Hi MJ! If you're using puffed quinoa, you don't need to toast it 🙂
Jm says
Is the nutrition information for one bar or the full 4 serving ?
Sarah Pilley says
Hi! The nutrition is for 1 bar (a quarter of the overall recipe).
Tina Tremain says
Can you add things like nuts and/or coconut to this, or would you have to add more chocolate or honey to hold it together?
Sarah Pilley says
Hi Tina! You can definitely add mix ins like nuts or coconut, but I would recommend increasing the chocolate or decreasing the quinoa. Either way, just keeping the ratio of 1:1 for chocolate to mix ins, so that, like you said, the bars will hold together nicely.
Lon says
my finished crunch bars arent crunchy, the quinoa is just kind of soft. i followed the recipe exactly, is it supposed to be like this?
Sarah Pilley says
Hi Lon! I'm sorry it didn't turn out crunchy 😢 I'm not sure why that would happen if you're using uncooked quinoa... the toasting gives it some extra crispiness. The only thing I can think is that somehow the popped quinoa got steamed or the heat was trapped in some way?