BASIC GRANOLA

Make your own breakfast granola. Shop bought ones are either over-processed and full of bad ingredients - including things they stick in there to supposedly make it healthy, like artificial vitamins - or they are hideously expensive. I always make my own and it is simple enough. It is an excellent way to eat grains. It tends to be a summer thing. Winter-time is more porridge.

The basic process for a wholesome granola is this:

*Start with a mixture of dry ingredients, usually featuring wholegrain rolled oats.
*Rub a liquid mixture of oils and sweeteners into the dry mix.
*Toast in the oven until the grains are cooked.

As in all cooking, once you understand the process you can improvise around it trying different dry and liquid mixtures according to your needs and tastes and the availability of ingredients by season.

My basic granola recipe is as follows:

DRY INGREDIENTS

8 cups of wholegrain rolled oats
2 cups of rolled spelt grain
Quarter cup of sesame seeds
A handful of linseed
A handful of sunflower seeds
A handful of almonds
A handful of pumpkin seeds
A handful of chopped, dried dates.

The sesame seeds, linseed, sunflower seeds, almonds and pumpkin seeds should all be loosely ground in a mortar and pestle. (If you like you can buy linseed meal and almond meal instead of grinding your own.)

WET INGREDIENTS

Third a cup of extra virgin olive oil
Third a cup of sunflower oil
Two tablespoons of unhulled tahini
Two tablespoons of rice syrup
A teaspoon of sea salt

Mix all the wet ingredients together.
Rub the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Set out in shallow trays and place in an oven at about 200C.
Check after about 15 minutes.
When the oats on top start to brown stir the mixture and return to the oven. Repeat this a few times. Total cooking time is from 45 minutes to an hour.
The end product should be fragrant and golden brown. Careful not to burn it.

Cool. Place in an airtight container.
Serve with rice or almond or oat milk.
Chew well. (Chewing is important in macrobiotics.)

To improvise, keep the same proportions but replace the spelt grain with other cereal grains of your choice (eg. rice flakes) and mix up the medley of seeds and dried fruits. If you live in a temperate climate, though, resist the temptation to include tropical fruits. Dried apples or pears are nice.