Granola is one of the foods that was healthy, and then got highjacked. The granola bar of my youth was little more than sugar (or eeh gads sugar substitute), oil, possibly fructose syrup, and some grains and nuts for good measure, there may have been chocolate too. Even the granola sold as breakfast cereal varies in quality and ‘healthy’ ingredients.
Before this trend, hippies of the world were busy making their own granola and a new generation of healthy, conscious young people has taken the standard up a notch to account for vegetarian, and even vegan needs. Recently a dear friend shared with me how her oldest daughter, in her third year at medical school, had just made for the family (in particular the request of her slightly younger sister) a delicious granola featuring one of my favorite grains – buckwheat. This, along with my extreme fondness for said friend and her daughters, inspired me to invite the granola chef to be a guest on Food Speaks, and below we have her story and her recipe. All photos are also hers. Keeping up with the times and enjoying great tastes!
Giorgia Colombo & her granola recipe…
Recently, my sister asked us to buy granola when we went to the grocery store. My mum and I were in the cereal aisle, looking at all the granola options but they were all full of sugar, and expensive, so we didn’t buy any. When we got home I remembered that my mum had asked me to come up with a recipe to use the buckwheat she had bought a while ago. Recently, I had tried some buckwheat granola that was delicious, so I decided to make some granola with it. I used what I call a “skeleton recipe”, I looked up a granola recipe online to find the proportions and usual ingredients, as well as the cooking time, and then modified it to my tastes and what we had in the house. I realize most people don’t have many different types of grains and seeds lying around, we’re lucky enough to have what my mum calls the “museum”, a collection of various grains, nuts, and seeds. This recipe can be adapted to what you have on hand and your tastes, for example, using 2 tablespoons of sweetener makes a granola that is not very sweet (the way we like it) so add more if a sweet granola is desired.
