Well Nourished | Quinoa Granola

With health food shops charging a small fortune for a box of granola that lasts less than a week, WELL CURATED wanted to make a batch recipe that not only uses locally sourced ingredients, but also boasts a wealth of nutritional benefits. In our quest to find the winning formula, which had to fulfil a healthy list of credentials, from crunch to sugar content, we switched our base from humble oats to protein packed quinoa. Quinoa is hailed for it's vitamin and mineral content and is one of the few plant foods containing all 9 of the essential amino acids, known as essential because our body cannot produce them and therefore needs to obtain them through diet. Botanically speaking, quinoa is not categorised as a cereal grain, but a starchy seed from the same family as spinach, chard, and beets, making it a great addition to gluten-free diets. Quinoa seeds are rich in fibre, B vitamins, vitamin E, and other minerals like iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus. They also contain quercetin and kaempferol, two important plant compounds that have been shown to have anti-inflammatory, anti-viral and anti-depressant effects. We also add a good amount of ground flaxseed to the recipe. Flax is by far the richest dietary source of plant lignans. Lignans have powerful antioxidant and estrogen properties which may help in preventing breast and prostate cancer, as well as other types of cancer.

Method

• Preheat oven to 160C.

• Melt the almond butter and date syrup in a saucepan over medium heat, add the water slowly, stirring frequently. It should become a thick liquid about the same consistency as syrup.

• Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, using a kitchen aid if you have one.

• Poor the liquid over the dry ingredients and mix well until it reaches the consistency of flapjack mixture.

• Spread the mixture across a baking tray, breaking any big lumps up.

• Bake for 30-40 mins, if the edges start to go brown move the mixture about halfway through baking. 

• Add toasted pecans and cashews, these can’t be baked with the granola base as they cook faster and burn. Simply toast for 10 mins once the granola comes out the oven. Alternatively fry them in a dry pan, no oil, stirring constantly. 

• Once cooled, keep in an airtight container.

Well Sourced | Ingredients