kook & wijn

Healthy muesli granola

delicious in yoghurt with fruit

A few days ago you could read my article about limiting your sugar intake. One of the tips I gave you was to stay away from the supermarket muesli granola, as they are (often) so full of sugar. You think you start your day healthy, with your yoghurt and your fruit and muesli, but in fact what you eat is refined sugar. And your sugar level is messed up before it’s even 9 in the morning. Not ideal. Therefore the Mr and me make this muesli recipe already for years ourselves. I got it once from a friend, and she found it in a Woolies TASTE Magazine. Something I find quite ironic, as supermarkets sell the high-in-cane-sugar muesli too. Anyway, this recipe is cane sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, egg-free. But it still provides that hit of sweetness to kick-start your day!

bake it on oven trays in a 180 degrees Celsius oven and end up with crisp nutty and healthy muesli granola

Ingredients (makes 1 kg)

100 gram raw pecan nuts
100 gram raw walnuts
100 gram raw almonds (unpeeled brown ones, not the blanched ones)
100 gram raw pumpkin seeds
100 gram raw cashews
500 gram gluten-free rolled oats
1,5 tablespoons ground cinnamon
200 ml agave syrup
200 ml macadamia oil
2 teaspoons vanilla paste

Method

Place the nuts in a bowl, cover with warm water filtered water and soak for 1 – 6 hours. (see overview different nuts and soaking times). Rinse well with cold water and dry spread out on kitchen paper (in the sun, if possible). Change the kitchen paper every now and allow the nuts to dry completely. This will take about a day.

Preheat the oven to 180º Celsius. Roughly chop the nuts and combine with the rolled oats and cinnamon in a mixing bowl.

In a measuring cup, whisk together the agave syrup, vanilla paste and macadamia oil. Pour the oil-and-syrup mixture over the dry ingredients and mix well so that everything is evenly coated.

Line a large baking tray with tinfoil and spread the granola in the tray. Bake for 12-15 minutes, stirring now and again to ensure that the mixture doesn’t clump. Stay with it, don’t walk away, the muesli can easily burn. You want a golden brown colour, not black.

Remove from the oven, shake and stir, then allow to cool completely. It will crisp up as it cools. Store in an airtight container.

Tip: It’s a good idea to do the soaking and drying of the nuts on one day, and the muesli making itself on the next day. That is how we always plan it. Also don’t rush with putting the muesli away in a container. Make sure it’s completely cool first otherwise you will lose the crunch.

How (and why) to soak nuts

Nuts contain enzyme inhibitors on their outer skins, which makes them harder to digest, but also keeps them from sprouting prematurely. Neutralising these inhibitors by soaking releases the healthy enzymes and nutrients (such as vitamin B, C and carotene) in nuts. The trick is not to soak different types of nuts or seeds together as they all require different amounts of soaking time.

Cashews, pine nuts and macadamias: 1 to 2 hours
Brazil nuts, pecans and walnuts: 2 to 3 hours
Pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds: 3 to 5 hours
Almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios: 5 to 7 hours

Source: This recipe was published a few years ago in Woolworths South Africa TASTE Magazine

healthy kick start of the day without the cane sugar is nutty muesli granola

This is how the nuts and seeds are outside in the sun on our loungers when we make muesli. The soaking is quite a bit of work, but the good things is we only have to make it every 5-6 weeks as it’s a good batch!

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