Have you ever made your own granola? If you have, you know the struggle is always to get that delicious and necessary crunch – and god knows there is an over-abundance of online recipes and articles about how to get that lovely crunch – here’s another.
First, a note on granola. Granola is silly expensive for being a bunch of crispy oats. I never buy it anymore – I just always have lots of nuts and seeds on hand (as you should as a veg, they are so good for you!) and store a big tub of oats so I can throw this together when the mood so strikes. If you keep these ingredients on hand you can throw together a tastier granola for a helluva lot cheaper. I like to buy an accompanying greek yogurt and make this when I’m bored with cereal or toast and want to eat a different breakfast for the week.
My method for crunch is to add a tasty honey liquid to it before it goes into the oven to help it crisp up – it seems to do the trick for the crunch as well as add a delicious flavor. I would love to hear your favorite crunchy granola method so send em over if you have them!
Before I leave you, one last note, I encourage you to play – substitute raisins for dried cranberries, add some apple cubes, sliced almonds – whatever, have fun with this and make it your dream granola so you will never want to overspend at Whole Foods again!
Granola
- 1 cup rolled oats
- handful of raisins
- handful of pecans
- handful of pumpkin seeds
- handful of sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Preheat oven to 350F. Spread your oats, seeds and nuts out on a baking sheet. Mix your water, honey, lemon juice, and sugar together in a cup. Pour over oat mixture and stir it up, pour over olive oil, spread it out. Pop in oven for 10 minutes (don’t be freaked out if they are softer than you want them to be, they will get nice and crunchy). Take out and stir/unstick from your pan, re distribute, pop back in the oven for 10 minutes. Take out and stir/unstick, re-spread and then pop back in for a last 5 mins. Take out, let cool, scrape it all up and store for fabulous breakfasts!
