3 Easy Vegan Snacks

These 3 Easy Vegan Snacks are deliciously simple, quick and easy to make using oatcakes or biscuits as the base. Choose between Chocolate Peanut Caramel, Chocolate Orange or PB&J Sandwiches.

Snacks have a big place in our lives and I love making them. From energy balls to caramel bars, savoury bowls of hummus and the like, there is so much scope for snacks: anything goes. So, when a well-known oat cake and oat biscuit brand called Nairn’s approached me to get creative with their snacks, I was only too excited. These 3 Easy Vegan Snacks are what I came up with; they are all easy, quick and so delicious.

What flavours are these snacks?

For these snack toppers, I have chosen:

• Chocolate Peanut Caramel (aka Snickers)
• Chocolate Orange (aka Jaffa Cake)
• Peanut Butter and Jam/Jelly Sandwiches

What makes these snacks so amazing?

These are some of my new favourite go-to snacks for good reason. They are:

• Quick and easy to make in 10 minutes
• Require minimal ingredients and minimal washing up
• Healthy, made with good-for-you ingredients
• Naturally vegan and gluten-free
• Nut-free options
• Great for meal prep and for traveling with
• Delicious all day long

What ingredients do I need for these snacks?

The base of all the snacks are either oatcakes or oat biscuits (see below for suggestions to swap the base) and then the fun happens on top.

For the Peanut Butter Caramel:

• Smooth peanut butter: the smooth and runny style of peanut butter is best here. If you are avoiding nuts, please use tahini or another seed butter or you can swap the peanut butter for almond or cashew butter for a peanut-free option.
• Maple syrup: just a little to turn the peanut butter into a caramel consistency and taste. Other sticky syrups like agave, date or golden syrup will work or try vegan honey.
• Peanuts: I love to use home roasted peanuts and then roughly chop them. The roasting adds a rich flavour. Simply add the peanuts to a dish and bake for 10 minutes at 160Fan/180*C and shake them around half way through. Then allow to cool fully and chop them up. If swapping the peanut butter to another nut or seed butter, use different nuts or seeds here, too.
• Dark chocolate: or your favourite dairy-free chocolate. Melt this down and then cover the peanut caramel snacks with the chocolate to create a chocolate shell.
• Coconut oil: when melted with the chocolate this allows the chocolate to set more softly so that they will not crack apart when you bite into them. It is not essential if you’d rather leave it out.

For the Chocolate Orange:

• Marmalade: nothing fancy here, just your regular delicious breakfast marmalade jam. You can use smooth or ones with orange pieces inside, too.
• Dark chocolate and coconut oil: as above, you can use your favourite chocolate for the shell.
• Cacao nibs: these snacks needed some crunch on top so I went for cacao nibs but you could add some small nuts or seeds, desiccated coconut or leave them plain.

Finally for the PB&J Sandwiches:

• Vegan cream cheese: this keeps the frosting rich, creamy but not too sweet. My favourite brand is NUSH in the UK but Violife also has a great one. They are spreadable in texture and make for the best frosting.
• Smooth peanut butter: as above, you can use another nut or seed butter if needed but the smooth and runny kind is best.
• Maple syrup: other sticky syrups will also work (as mentioned above) to slightly sweeten the frosting.
• Jam: any jam will do for the middle of these PB&J Sandwiches, I love strawberry or raspberry but you can use your favourite.

How do I make these 3 Easy Vegan Snacks?

They really are so simple and the method varies slightly between each flavour but the main steps remain the same:

• Choose your base: oatcakes, rice cakes, oat biscuits etc.
• Make or prepare the filling: as mentioned for the individual flavours.
• Spread on the fillings: and then chill in the fridge if necessary.
• Cover in chocolate: where needed.
• Enjoy the snacks: fresh or they will last for a couple of days.

What oatcakes or biscuits should I use?

I used three different types or Nairn’s oatcakes/biscuits for these 3 Easy Vegan Snacks:

• Multigrain Oatcakes: for the Chocolate Peanut Caramel.
• Chocolate Orange Oat Biscuits: for the Chocolate Orange.
• Rough Oatcakes: for the PB&J Sandwiches.

I love the Nairn’s range as there is a lot of choice (they are not all vegan so please read the labels!) and the fine milled oatcakes are also great as well as some of their more savoury ones. You can also use rice cakes, rye crackers, water crackers or even small slices of toast for these 3 Easy Vegan Snacks. Just use whatever you have and they will be delicious.

Are these snacks gluten-free and nut-free?

The brands and oatcakes/biscuits I used are all gluten-free but please check your brand of oatcakes, rice cakes etc for gluten and nuts. To keep the recipes nut-free, swap the nut butters for seed butters like tahini or sunflower seed butter and check that your chocolate is free from nuts.

How long will these last for?

Once made, all of these 3 Easy Vegan Snacks will keep for 1-2 days, either in the fridge where specified or at room temperature.

I love healthy snacks, what else can I make?

I hope you are going to love these Chocolate Peanut Caramel, Chocolate Orange and PB&J Sandwich snacks and for more ideas, how about my:

• Funfetti Protein Cookie Dough Balls
• Chocolate Covered Banana Pops
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Caramel Bars
• Minty Pea Hummus
• Sun-Dried Tomato Falafel

I look forward to hearing what you think of these 3 Easy Vegan Snacks so please let me know in the comments below. If you do make any of these, I’d love to see them so please tag me in your creations, I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With snacks of love x

p.s. the original recipes were made with Nairn’s as part of their campaign but all opinions are my own and this blog post is not sponsored.