Have you tried granola?

Granola is constantly gaining ground among healthy snacks and meals, offering plenty of vitamins, minerals and trace elements, essential for the healthy functioning of our body. Herbs, depending on the composition of granola, can give a distinct flavor, helping to create a rich breakfast.

Granola, depending on the shape we give, is an energy bar or breakfast consisting of a combination of oats with nuts, sweeteners, dried fruits and sometimes herbs and spices. The combinations are too many depending on our tastes and the imagination we have when we prefer to make our own granola, but of course you will find many combinations in the market.

Depending on your needs, you will cfind combinations for better concentration, for energy, for easier digestion. But what you really need to watch when buying, is the sweeteners that are contained because often, instead of buying a healthy meal, it ends up being a particularly fattening delicacy. You can consume the granola pure or with yogurt, juice or milk.

Preference on granola, because of the energy it offers, the nutrition and, of course, the fact that it is easy to transport it, show hikers, cyclists, athletes and campers.

Homemade granola gives you the advantage of creating just what you want in taste and nourishment, without preservatives.

Oats as a base, is rich in fiber, trace elements and proteins, and – importantly – does not contain gluten. But you can enrich your recipe with quinoa, groats, even rice. Of course, oats need a basic material to bind, and a sweetener to make them more pleasant to taste. Ideal materials are a light seed oil, sunflower oil, coconut oil or olive oil. From sweeteners, you can add in combination or individually honey, molasses, black sugar, maple syrup.

Then comes the addition of additional nutrients. Try a variety of nuts such as crushed walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, linseed, poppy seeds, peanuts, sesame seeds. Of course, dried fruits such as cranberry, blueberry, berries, chopped figs, blond and black raisins, prunes can not be missed.

For chocolate lovers, of course you can add pieces of black chocolate, depending on your mood. While herbs can not be missed. You can add ginger, turmeric, vanilla, nutmeg or cinnamon in a small amount to make your granola more flavourful or more spicy. Personally I love spicy and especially in combination with chocolate.

That’s why I suggest you my own recipe and of course you can make many variations with all the above ingredients.

We need:

400gr oats
150gr of honey
100gr sunflower oil
60 gr crushed raw almonds
60gr crushed raw nuts
30gr sunflower seeds raw
10gr of finely chopped blueberries
2 dried figs finely chopped
1 tbsp. crushed Lavender flowers
2 tsp. Ginger
1 pinch of salt
optionally chocolate

You can put more or less oil, or seeds and nuts according to your own taste.

The preparation is very simple:

In a pan add the honey, the oil, the ginger and the salt and mix. We do not burn it, just like warming up and softening honey to unite the materials. We remove from the heat and add oats, sunflower, lavender flowers, walnuts and almonds. Stir well and pour the mixture into a non-stick baking sheet where it is well pressed. Bake to 150 degrees (preheated) for 25 – 30 minutes. If you want a lighter texture, you can often mix the mixture without first pressing it.

Finally, and after the mixture has cooled, add the chopped dried fruit and chocolate! It is kept in a jar for about 2 weeks. You can cut small pieces in bar size, or break into small pieces for your breakfast!