WFPB snacks (Whole Foods Plant Based Snacks) are a fun and easy way to get more fruits and vegetables in your diet. Even if you don’t eat a 100% plant-based breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you’ll enjoy these vegan snack recipes. Get sweet and savory healthy plant-based snack recipes, as well as whole food plant-based snacks to buy. You’ll love snacking on roasted chickpeas, dried fruit, smoothies, vegetables, popcorn, granola, trail mix, salsa and chips, kale chips, and more!
There are plenty of easy vegan snacks out there without resorting to Oreos! The healthy plant based snacks below are all whole foods snacks. You’ll find vegan snacks for kids, for athletes, for folks trying to lose weight, and for everyone else!
All of our vegan savoury snacks and vegan sweet snacks feature one or more of these:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Legumes
- Nuts and Seeds
- Whole Grains
If you’re American, you’re likely not getting enough of those, and you’re probably getting too much added sugar and refined grains. With smart snack choices, we can help balance out our diet a bit better and enjoy a treat!
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🌱 WFPB Snacks
Here are some of the best whole food plant-based snack recipes (some follow a stricter definition for WFPB ingredients than others):
Many fruits and vegetables are a rich source of a variety of essential nutrients including vitamin C, potassium, and folate. These vitamins and minerals play a variety of roles in the body.
For example, vitamin C helps to support our immune system. Potassium has a key role in helping us to maintain a healthy blood pressure.
The vitamin C in fruit and veggies can also help our body to better absorb plant-based sources of iron. This is especially important for those following vegan and vegetarian diets.
Fruits and veggies also provide fiber. Fiber can help lower our LDL cholesterol levels and improve digestive function. However, it’s whole plant foods that give us the fiber we need. Most fiber is stripped out of juices.
Most fruits are naturally sweet, ready to satisfy that sweet tooth for vegan snacking. Additionally, many fruits are ready to eat, making for a very convenient snack.
Beans, peas, and lentils (including chickpeas) are special because they can count as part of the vegetable or the protein group. They provide fiber, folate, and potassium, similar to fruit and veggies, and make excellent crunchy vegan snacks. Unlike most vegetables, though, chickpeas are a significant source of plant based protein.
P.S. Don’t miss my recipe for WFPB cookies at the end of the article! They’ll satisfy your sweet cravings without maple syrup and other added sugars.
🍎 Whole Foods Plant Based Snacks
Here are some of my favorite easy whole food plant-based snacks to buy if you have no time to cook. These Whole Foods snacks aren’t the best options if you’re doing WFPB on a budget. However, you can sometimes find these same plant-based snack brands at Walmart, Aldi, Costco, and other inexpensive stores.
Whole Food Plant Based Snacks Store-Bought Suggestions:
- Fresh Fruit Tray (fresh vegetable trays are great too but may contain non-vegan ranch dip)
- Pico de Gallo Salsa (with tortilla chips)
- Peanut Butter Packets (can also use almond butter, sunflower butter, or another nut butter pack)
If you’re looking for whole food plant-based snacks for kids, crackers or potato chips and dips are often a welcome choice. However, there’s many dippers you can use beyond crackers and chips for a healthy snack. Here are a few of my favorite vegan foods to eat with dips.
- Apple slices
- Pear slices
- Sweet bell pepper strips
- Jicama sticks
- Celery sticks
- Baby carrots
- Sugar snap peas
- Cucumber slices
- Radishes
- Whole grain pretzels
- Whole grain pasta chips
✈️ Plant-Based Snacks on the Go
Sometimes you need WFPB snacks on the go, whether that’s plant-based snacks for work or vegan snacks for travel. Here are 10 travel snacks for your next road trip:
- Dairy-Free Popcorn (or some of these Popcorn Substitute Ideas)
- Dry Roasted Edamame (the perfect salty, crunchy vegan snack!)
- Individual Serving Cups of Black Olives (another one for salt lovers)
- Raw Superfoods Trail Mix (or make your own with ingredients like raisins, walnuts, cashews, chia seeds, and maybe vegan chocolate chips)
- Lupini Bean Dip (or hummus or black bean dip)
Other portable ideas include vegan energy balls or bites (instead of coffee), snack bars, and cereal. Cereals like Cheerios are often fortified, and not WFPB. However, there are vegan cereals out there or you can make your own air fryer granola to snack on.
FAQs
If you’re not losing weight on a WFPB diet (and you want to), make sure your meal plan includes enough protein and fiber. Fiber-packed fruits and vegetables are some of my favorite plant based snacks for weight loss. If you are a vegan or vegetarian, legumes are one the best whole food sources of protein around!
If you’re always hungry on WFPB diet, make sure you’re eating a well-balanced diet with adequate protein, fiber, calories, and fat. Vegan diets tend to be lower in protein and higher in carbs and fat. Some excellent sources of plant-based protein include tofu, tempeh, soymilk, edamame, chickpeas, black beans, seitan, and lentils.
The best grab-and-go vegan snacks include fresh fruits, raw veggies, dried fruits, roasted chickpeas, roasted nuts and seeds, and whole grain crackers. If you’re looking to gain weight, include more healthy fats and calorie dense options like peanut butter, seed crackers, and dried fruit in your meal planning.
If you’re on a 100% plant-based diet, eggs, cheese, and other animal-based foods are not permitted. If your version of plant-based just means you eat more plants than animals, then yes, eggs are allowed. “Plant-based” isn’t a strict medical diet; you get to choose how to define it.
If your plant-based diet is actually a vegan diet, you’ll want to avoid chips with cheese and other dairy, such as Doritos. Plain corn chips, sweet potato chips, or potato chips (e.g., Fritos or classic Lay’s chips) are vegan and taste great. Add a tasty dip for more flavor.
Can you eat popcorn on a whole food plant-based diet?
Yes, popcorn counts as a whole food and is allowed on a WFPB diet. It’s also a low calorie, high volume food (unless you drown it in added oil or fat, of course).
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📖 Recipe
WFPB Snacks (Whole Foods Plant Based Snacks) Vegan
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats, dry
- 1 cup mashed ripe banana (3-4 bananas)
- ½ cup shredded carrot
- ½ cup grated apple (no need to peel)
- ¼ cup chopped hazelnuts
- ¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- ¼ cup unsweetened dried cherries
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons cacao nibs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a dark metal baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Mash the bananas, grate the apple and carrot, and chop the hazelnuts.
- Combine all ingredients thoroughly in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
- Using a ¼-cup measuring cup, drop scoops of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. You will end up with eight scoops. Flatten them slightly into a cookie shape with wet hands. They don't spread, so no worries if the cookies are close together on the sheet.
- Place the baking sheet about ⅓ of the way from the top of the preheated oven. Bake for 15 minutes until the cookies are firm enough to hold together. Let the cookies cool before eating to give them more time to firm up.
Video
Notes
What is the difference between vegan and plant based diet?
Some people use “vegan” and “plant based” to mean the same thing. Most dietitians I know use “vegan” to mean a diet completely without animal-based foods. They use “plant based” to mean a diet that may (or may not) contain animal foods, but that is primarily composed of plants. The strictest version of WFPB is also oil free, something many dietitians do not advocate. I’d argue cooking with some added oils, such as olive oil, can make eating healthy vegan snacks a more pleasurable experience. (As can a little sugar, such as in the Forks Over Knives Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies or their Marble Pudding dessert. YUM)Nutrition
Susannah says
What an amazing collection of great ideas! Sharing 🙂
Summer Yule says
Happy you enjoyed it! Thank you for visiting 🙂
Terrified Amateur says
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Before something changes and I lose access yet again, please allow my compliments on an extraordinary collection! So many great ideas to sample.
Oh, and in the likely event I'm denied communications again soon, I'll mention now I hope you're well. Gosh, it's been way too long...
Summer Yule says
Hey, so great to "see" you back! I'm glad you liked the recipes and ideas! 🙂