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Granola can be made healthy. It takes no time to prepare granola using rolled oats, sugar-free maple syrup, nuts, olive oil, honey, and craisins, aka dried cranberries. Storebought granola are sometimes overly sweet for me, and many of the brands use ‘unhealthy’ high fructose corn syrup as a sweetening agent. It’s straightforward to bake granola at home. Just stir together all the dry ingredients, drizzle in the wet ingredients, and give it a good mix. Bake for 25 minutes, let it cool down, add dried cranberries, and store the granola in an air-tight container. It’s healthy, simple, and incredibly delicious; I hope the recipe will make you a homemade granola convert. I like to use this fruity & nutty granola in my breakfast parfait and sometimes with overnight beetroot and chia pudding parfait desserts. The combinations are simply blissful.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups of classic rolled oats.
• 2 cups of pecans.
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes.
• 1 cup of cranberries.
  (I prefer to use 50% less sugar cranberries.)
• 1/2 cup of pistachios.
  (Alternatively, you can also use pumpkin seeds.)
• 1/2 cup of sugar-free maple syrup.
• 1/3 cup of honey.
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil.
• 1/2 tsp salt

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RECIPE

• In a bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut flakes, and salt. Drizzle in the oil, honey, and maple syrup. Optionally, you can add cinnamon for an extra flavor; I skipped it. Stir until combined, as shown in picture #3.
  (If you like clumps in your granola, add 2 tbsp peanut or almond butter with wet ingredients. This will encourage clumping.)

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• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking tray with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
• Scoop the granola onto the parchment paper, as shown in picture #4.
• Next, bake the mixture for 12 minutes, rotate the pan halfway, flip granola gently and bake it again for 13 minutes or until golden brown.

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• Let the granola cool down and stir in dried cranberries in it. You can add your favorite mix-ins such as chia seeds, dried cherries, raisins, or chocolate chips at this stage.

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• You can swap pecans and pistachios with your favorite nuts such as walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, or pepitas, aka pumpkin seeds. Please refer to picture #6 for the granola variation where I used walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds for the variation. Both types of granola taste incredibly delicious.

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• Store the granola in an airtight container. This is an important step in making yogurt parfait; the rest is just an assembly with fresh fruits and greek yogurt. I also like to add the granola topping to my overnight chia and beetroot pudding parfait, as shown in picture #7.

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Optionally, you can spice up your granola with nutmeg, cardamom, or cinnamon. Nutmeg is my favorite spice when it comes to the granola recipe.