Healthy Pecan Recipes

A blend of dates, sunflower seed butter, salt and vanilla make these bites surprisingly reminiscent of salted caramel--both in taste and texture. Unlike our ultra-easy mix-and-match basic energy ball recipe, you'll need a blender to make a paste for the base of these balls, but the extra effort is oh-so-worth it for the sweet and satisfying result.

This simple chicken grain bowl makes a perfect family dinner. Let everyone customize their meal by portioning the greens and grains into bowls, then serving the remaining ingredients buffet-style so eaters can pick and choose what they want to top theirs with.

In this satisfying, on-the-go oatmeal recipe, protein-rich Greek yogurt, crunchy pecans and sweet berries make this the perfect healthy breakfast. Short on time in the morning? Try our overnight oatmeal variation.

This creamy sweet potato soufflé is complemented with a crunchy pecan-oat topping for a truly scrumptious side dish. The filling can be made up to five days ahead, so you just have to top it and bake it when it's time. Whip up this healthy sweet potato soufflé recipe for Thanksgiving or any other special occasion.

We love the maple-nut flavor combination of this heart-healthy granola, but feel free to substitute your favorite nuts or dried fruit for your own custom blend.

You don't have to make a special trip to the bakery when you can whip up a batch of these heavenly cinnamon streusel rolls at home.

This apple dessert marries the best parts of apple crisp with a baked apple to make an adorable and tasty sweet treat. Cooking an apple crisp inside an apple is a wonderful treat in summer with a scoop of ice cream, or in fall after an apple-picking trip.

Apples lend their sweet-tart flavor to this warm and comforting apple coffee cake. The nutty oat and pecan filling in the middle of the cake also acts as a crispy topping that's drizzled with a sweet vanilla glaze.

Let this cute little vegetarian stuffed squash side dish steal the show at the dinner table! Butternut squash is stuffed with a sweet and savory filling that gets a crispy finish under the broiler. If you can't find small butternut squash, honeynut squash is a great alternative. Shaped much like a butternut squash (but smaller), the honeynut squash has a deep orange skin and sweet flesh.

Many pumpkin roll cakes have the starring ingredient only in the cake, which is a missed opportunity to enjoy all the flavor, plus you end up with leftover canned puree sitting in your fridge. Here, the remaining pumpkin is whipped with cream cheese, pecans and crystallized ginger for a tangy filling.

The key to these decadent treats is the portion size--baking them in mini-muffin tins keeps the carbs and saturated fat in check. And maple syrup allows you to make this pecan pie recipe without corn syrup.

This easy vegan pumpkin pie gets its structure from aquafaba (the leftover water from a can of chickpeas) whipped up into a meringue-like foam. When it's combined with pumpkin and poured into a gluten-free pecan crust, you would never know beans had anything to do with this vegan pumpkin pie recipe.

Dried blueberries and pecans team up with cacao nibs for a chocolaty treat any time of day. The cacao is a bit more bitter than chocolate, but the maple syrup helps tame it. Almond butter and chia seeds provide protein to make these bites substantial snacks to fuel your body.

Chocolate and pumpkin flavors pair perfectly together in this diabetic-friendly loaf bread recipe.

This orange-scented carrot cake cheesecake has a wonderfully moist and flavorful carrot cake shell which holds the creamy cheesecake portion. The swirl effect of dollops of cheesecake batter is a fun and festive way to round out this rich dessert.

At home or at Campo, the restaurant he oversees at Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm in Albuquerque, chef Jonathan Perno likes to welcome guests with spiced New Mexican pecans. You won't see this in most spiced-nut recipes, but Perno blanches them to reduce some of the bitter tannins in the skin that can sometimes overwhelm the pecans' delicate flavor.

The dessert menu at Brigtsen's restaurant in New Orleans offers "Bread Pudding du Jour," which changes with the seasons. This sweet potato version plays well during the holidays.

Dried blueberries give these pancakes a rich blueberry flavor and pecans liven up the texture with a bit of crunch.

If you like pecan pie, you're sure to love this sweet and nutty cocktail for two. Maple syrup and crushed pecans line the rim of the glass, while bourbon and maple-pecan-flavored liqueur sweeten things up. Try this fun and festive drink on Thanksgiving as a before- or after-dinner treat.

Let your Crock-Pot do the work for this easy slow-cooker apple crisp. It tastes just like a classic apple crisp, with the apple combination adding a sweet and tart balance in each bite. It's sure to become a new fall favorite.

These bite-size pimiento cheese balls from Jamie and Bobby Deen are a huge hit with kids (of all ages). They're the perfect appetizer to bring to a summer picnic. Jamie and Bobby share a passion for great home-cooked food with a Southern flair with their celebrity-chef mom, Paula Deen. These brothers are following in their mom's footsteps with their own TV shows, books and website. Our favorite part of what they're up to: healthy makeovers of some of Paula's recipes! Recipe adapted from The Deen Bros. Get Fired Up, by Jamie & Bobby Deen and Melissa Clark (Ballantine Books, 2011).

Miso is not just for soup! This fermented bean paste's rich umami flavor balances the sweetness in this apple dessert recipe. More ways to use miso: whisk into a dressing or stir into sautéed vegetables with a bit of butter too.

Cooking the sweet potatoes in a slow cooker frees up space on the stove if you're cooking a big holiday dinner—plus you can serve it straight from the crock if you'd like.

Mable Clarke includes this zucchini bread among the treats that end the fish fry she started to save Soapstone Baptist Church in her South Carolina community. This recipe uses grated zucchini--it's easy to do with a food processor, but you can also use a box grater to do the job. While some recipes call for squeezing the water out of the zucchini after it's grated, don't--it's the secret to this quick bread's extra moistness.