Homemade Healthy Granola

Granola is a popular breakfast food or snack which mainly consists of a mixture of rolled oats, nuts, dried fruits and seeds; sweetened using maple syrup, brown sugar or honey. People often buy it from market assuming that it is difficult to make or you need to collect lots of ingredients for making it. However, after reading this post you will be pleasantly amazed how easily & quickly it can be prepared at home with the common ingredients available in your pantry.

I personally prefer homemade granola over the ones you get on store shelves as it gives you a scope of customizing it as per your taste and choice of components. It is not only cost efficient but also saves you from added preservatives/chemicals which are generally present in the granola boxes sold in market.

Each serving of granola is somewhere between 1/3-1/4 cup depending on the dietary requirements. By adding all healthy ingredients in correct proportions, you can be sure that with each serving you are getting a part of you daily dose of fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants etc. Generally people find it difficult to make nuts & seeds a part of their daily diet. With this effortless homemade granola recipe you can easily make them part of your breakfast or evening snack.

When it comes to choice of flavours, my all time favourite is chocolate. In this granola recipe I have used Cadbury brand Unsweetened Cocoa powder, which gives a slight flavour of chocolate to granola without making it too sweet along with brown sugar. Little bit of cinnamon powder has also been added to give it a sweet aroma. As oil or butter is generally added in granola we have replaced it with a healthy fat in form of peanut butter. Different type of nuts (almonds,walnuts, pecans etc.) & seeds (flax, sunflower, pumpkin etc) can be used in making this granola. I have mentioned the details below in the recipe but you are free to replace them with your preference without disturbing the proportions drastically. If you don't have brown sugar you can use white sugar also, however brown sugar gives a distinct rustic aroma to granola because of which I would recommend it.

Granola can be served or eaten in many ways but as a matter of rule it is always served cold. You can have it with milk, yoghurt & fruit bowl, fruit salad, smoothies or can directly munch a fistful of it. I like to have it with my fruit bowl on regular basis in breakfast. My husband is although not very fond of oats, even he eats them this way without complaining.

Serving Suggestion: Fruit Bowl with Granola

You can also prepare parfait using this granola. I had earlier shared a recipe of Yoghurt & Fruit Parfait recipe using muesli. You can replace muesli with granola in this preparation. Recipes like these helps us to sneak these nutritious things in our kids diet.

Serving Suggestion: Granola Yoghurt Parfait

Granola can also be packed as a healthy snack in kids tiffin. Another delicious whole oats recipe which I have shared earlier is "Fruits & Nut Chocolate Oats Bar". Do check it out!! Hope you would like this crunchy healthy granola recipe!! 

List of Ingredients:

• Rolled Oats- 2 cups
• Chopped Nuts (Almonds/Walnuts)-1/2 cup
• Mixed Seeds (Flax/Sunflower/Melon/Pumpkin)-1/4 cup
• Chia Seeds- 2 tbsp
• Brown Sugar-1/2 cup
• Peanut Butter- 1 & 1/2 tbsp
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder-1/4 cup
• Cinnamon powder-1/2 tsp

I have used Quaker brand Whole Oats. You can check out its price & other specification by clicking on this Amazon product link.

Whole Oats

Steps to Prepare:

Step1:

Dry roast the rolled oats in a non stick pan. The oats need to be roasted on low-medium flame till they start releasing their nutty aroma & become slightly golden in colour. Keep these roasted oats aside.

Step2:

In the same pan, dry roast the chopped nuts on low flame. I have used only almonds here but you can use other nuts also like walnuts, peanuts or cashews as per your taste. Mix these roasted nuts with oats and keep them aside.

Step3:

In this step we are going to roast mixed seeds. Below I have used flax seeds & sunflower seeds. You can add more seed like melon, pumpkin or sesame. The seeds are roasted on low flame for just 1-2 minutes till they slightly puff up; then mixed with nuts & oats above.

Step4:

Also, Add chia seeds to the above mixture. Stir well & keep these aside.

Step5:

In the same non stick pan, add brown sugar. Heat it on low flame till it melts completely & become liquid.

Step7:

In this melted sugar, stir in some peanut butter. Mix well.

Step8:

Add the oats, nuts & seeds mixture in it while it is hot. Gently stir it with spatula so that all particles are coated with this caramelized sugar.

Step9:

Sprinkle cocoa & Cinnamon over it. I use a sieve for sprinkling part as cocoa gets evenly dusted on the entire mixture. Mix it gently. When the mixture cools down enough so that you can touch it, you can even use hands to mix the granola & break some of the clumps into smaller pieces.

Enjoy this delicious granola with a serving of yoghurt or fruits or have it as it is as snack!!