Granola meets the Middle East through the main ingredients here with cinnamon (a natural food preserver and effective blood sugar stabilizer), tahini (a sesame paste with good levels of copper, manganese and the desirable fatty acid omega-3) and dried apricots (little powerhouses of iron, vitamins a and c and fiber). Parfaits are a really good way to use up little bits of whatever ingredients you have laying around to make a nice looking dish. I used cinnamon almond milk, oranges and quinoa but oatmeal and greek or coconut milk yogurt would go nicely too.
For a short cut to cooking quinoa, rinse your desired amount then place it in a large pot of boiling water and cook for 8-9 minutes, keeping the water boiling. Then drain through a small sieve- just like cooking pasta! The quinoa is less fluffy but equally delicious and completely breakfast appropriate. It saved me when I realized last minute that I used up all my oats for oatmeal in the granola. This granola has lots of strong flavors so putting it in a parfait like this keeps it from being overwhelming.
- Group 1
- 2½ cups oats
- 1 cup puffed millet
- 1 cup almonds chopped
- ¼ cup palm sugar
- 1 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon orange zest (about 1 medium navel orange)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- Group 2
- 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice (about 1 medium navel orange)
- 2 tablespoons raw honey (or maple syrup)
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Group 3
- 1 cup dried apricots chopped
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 tablespoon raw honey
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 350º. Mix together the group 1 ingredients then pour in the group 2 ingredients and stir to combine. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring around every 10 minutes to ensure it browns evenly. Remove from oven and mix in the group 3 ingredients then set aside to cool before storing in an air tight container.
- 4 cups water
- 1 cup almonds soaked overnight
- 4 dates
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Soak the almonds overnight, or for around 8 hours, in a large bowl full of water. In the morning they should be plump and soft. Blend them on high speed in a blender with all the other ingredients. Strain through a nut milk bag or cheese cloth (see the cheese cloth in sieve contraption I use below). You can freeze the solid bits to use later in baking or smoothies. The milk will stay fresh in the fridge for 2-3 days.
