Vegan Tahini Hemp Seed Bars
on Feb 24, 2020, Updated Oct 02, 2024
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These baked vegan tahini hemp seed bars are easy to make and have the most amazing chewy texture and sweet, nutty, sesame flavour. Perfect for a whole-food snack or dessert!
About the Recipe
Tahini makes a wonderful addition to desserts. It’s nutty, sesame flavour pairs well with sweet ingredients like the maple syrup and dates you’ll find in these delicious bars. Here’s why you’ll love them:
- Dietary Needs: Vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, nut-free and oil-free.
- Quick and Easy: You’ll need just 6 ingredients and a few minutes of prep time
- Travel well: Perfect for a lunchbox, road trip, hiking or camping
- Crisp on the edges with a delicious soft and chewy on the inside.
You can also try tahini in these Vegan Tahini Sesame Cookies, Vegan Tahini Date Cookies and Salted Caramel Tahini Cups.
Ingredient Notes
- Tahini. Good tahini will be wonderfully creamy with a nutty flavour that’s not overly bitter. Look for tahini with just one ingredient: sesame seeds. Can be substituted with peanut butter, almond butter or sunflower seed butter.
- Hemp seeds. High in protein, iron, vitamin E and antioxidants, hemp seeds really pack the nutrition into these bars. Hemp seeds are sometimes called hemp hearts.
- Coconut. Use unsweetened fine or medium shredded coconut. It may be labeled as desiccated coconut.
- Maple syrup. The maple syrup acts as a binder and sweetens the recipe. You can substitute agave or brown rice syrup but I wouldn’t recommend switching to a granular sweetener.
- Dates. Soft, moist dates are best for this recipe. I recommend medjool or sayer dates. If your dates are very dry, soak them in hot water for 15 minutes then drain well before using, however, I recommend using dates that are nice and soft.
- Oats. Use quick, rolled or old fashioned oats. The oats will be processed into a grainy oat flour so any oat variety except steel cut oats works.
This list is not complete. Please see the recipe card at the end of the post for the complete ingredient list with measurements and detailed instructions.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1. Blend the oats into a coarse, grainy flour in your food processor.
They don’t have to be as fine as oat flour but they should be mostly broken down. This should only take a few seconds.
Step 2. Add the rest of the ingredients and process into a thick dough.
You have a couple of ingredients for mixing the dough. If you have a large food processor you can toss everything in and pulse a few times to combine.
If not, add the dates to the oats and blend to combine, then transfer to a mixing bowl and mix with the rest of the ingredients.
Firmly press the dough into a baking pan, bake, cool for 15 minutes then slice and enjoy!
More Vegan Desserts
- No-Bake Cashew Tahini Bars
- Chocolate Tahini Energy Bars
- No-Bake Hemp Seed Brownies
- Baked Cranberry Granola Bars
- Vegan Oatmeal Cookie Bars
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to comment section below to leave your star rating and review.
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Tahini Hemp Seed Bars
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare a 7-8 inch square baking pan with non-stick cooking spray or line with parchment paper so it sticks out over the edge. Parchment is best so you can easily lift the bars out of the pan once baked.
- Place the oats in a food processor and pulse a few times to create a grainy oat flour.
- You have a couple of options for mixing the rest of the ingredients. If you have a large enough food processor, add everything to the oats and blend until fully combined. If not, you can add the dates to the oats and blend to combine, then transfer to a bowl and mix in the rest of the ingredients by hand.
- Press the dough into the pan, taking a few minutes to press it into all corners and getting it as flat as you can. Bake for 30 minutes then let cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes. Slice into bars.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Originally published August 15, 2016.
Just made them! Very good and nutritious. I used hemp hearts as this is what I had on hand.
I noticed a typo in the recipe – for the maple syrup, it says 750 g in the conversion :-). Also when you choose 2x ou 3x the ingredients, the conversions don’t change.
I know, thanks, I’m not able to have the grams increase if you double or triple the recipe unfortunately. Thanks for the heads up on the maple syrup though! Glad you enjoyed them.
I love these.
I’ve made these many times and they’re always a winner. I want to experiment with adding in some dark chocolate mini chips!
Chocolate would be an amazing addition to these. Glad you love them!
Delicious! I didn’t have dates or coconut so I added organic cocoa powder and it was turned out great. I love the idea of using hemp seed in recipes!
Incredible but mine crumbled apart easily. Any idea what I did wrong? I live at 8,000 ft so maybe I needed more moisture?
Just wanted to remark on my earlier comment about the bars falling apart. They became firm after allowing to cool! Just needed more than 15 minutes. More like 30-45 minutes.
Thanks for following up and your feedback! Glad you enjoyed them.
Hi!
I’d love to try these but I can’t eat oats. Could I use quinoa flakes instead? Just wondering about the texture.
You should be able to, yes. I haven’t tried it though so I can’t say what the texture will be like.
Any ideas on a substitute for the coconut? Or a similar and easy recipe to try instead?
I think you can just omit it or replace with a bit of extra oats and hemp seeds. I haven’t tried it though! I don’t have else anything baked like these but some of the no-bake energy bar recipes may work for you.
Do you think this would work with steel cut oats?
I wouldn’t recommend steel cut oats for this recipe, sorry! Any other kind works though.
I’m out of regular oats! I have made this recipe a bunch of times and it’s my fav!! Guess I’ll be running to the store 🙂
I was just thinking maybe you could steel-cut if you blended them really well. I just don’t want them to be hard in the bars for you and I haven’t tried it myself. If you do end up trying it, let me know!
Loved this recipe! Easy, tasty and fun to eat. Deryn adds such helpful notes for substitutes and for alternative methods to try (for example, the “small food processor” adjustment).
I’ve made this recipe at least 50 times. It is so good, so easy. I think the quality of the result depends on the quality of the tahini. You really want good tahini. That and don’t over cook!!
I’m so glad you love them! Yes, so true…good tahini makes a big difference. Thanks for adding that!