Gluten + Grain free Granola!
Granola is super tasty, I usually have it for a dessert. However, I find it so expensive and tricky to find a good one. One thats not ladened in sugar and grains. So I set out to make it instead. It works out to be so much cheaper and it’s actually really easy!
You can experiment with different nuts or even add dried fruit. I opt for no dried fruit as I feel like it’s sweet enough with the honey and I prefer my kids not to have even more sugar in their diet, but you could totally adapt this recipe to make it your own.
Ingredients:
3 cups of nuts (I’ve used a mixture of almonds, macadamia & cashew but you can use whichever nuts you like, I would avoid peanuts though)
1 cup shredded coconut (make sure you use additive free,100% coconut and if you have coconut flakes they will need to be added halfway through as they burn easily)
1⁄3 cup pepitas
1⁄3 cup sunflower seeds
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1⁄2 tsp cinnamon
1⁄3 cup coconut oil
1⁄4 cup honey
Method:
- Preheat oven to 150C
- Mix all the dry ingredients together in a baking dish
- In a small saucepan on low heat, melt the coconut oil and mix in the honey.
- Pour this over the dry mixture and stir through until it is all covered evenly
- Bake for roughly 15 minutes but keep checking as nuts can burn easily
Make it your own!
One of the beautiful things about cooking is becoming comfortable in your own kitchen. Being able to adapt and modify recipes on the go so it’s not a mile long shopping list every time you want to make something new.
I find this approach allows me to use up what’s in the house (saves me running back and forth to the shops!) and it keeps my food fresh and inspiring so no-one in my house gets bored.
Here’s some ideas for how to tweak this recipe for your liking…
- When melting the coconut oil and honey, try adding some different spices. I love cloves (go easy!), nutmeg, ginger and vanilla.
- Dried fruits – as I mentioned I try to avoid this but every now and then, why not! Dried goji berries, cranberries, blueberries are amazing! Much more exciting than the old sultana. Diced apricots, mangoes, there’s plenty to choose from. Pick one, chop them small and keep to a minimum, 1/4cup total dried fruit will be plenty.
- The variety of nuts will keep this recipe fresh. Pistachios, macadamias, almonds, brazils, pecans, walnuts, cashews, hazelnuts, chestnuts… the list goes on. I’d pick 2 at a time! But hey, there are no rules.
Often nuts are baked in toxic vegetable oils so check out the back of the packet before buying. Look for RAW and UNSALTED.
ENJOY!
