Say hello to your salad’s new best friend. This jar of mustardy granola has become a total game-changer in our kitchen. And if you are like us and often mix leftovers into quick salad bowls, you are soon going to realize its potential. The granola has the most delicious flavour and adds a superb crunch to all types of salads. We don’t see this as a salad topping but instead a filler that you can use instead of cooking a batch of rice, quinoa or millet or whatever you normally use to make something simple and green into a more substantial meal. The granola is also great with soups (perfect for gazpacho!) and on top of grilled feta cheese or on a savory yogurt bowl. There are doubtless lots of other uses that we haven’t tried yet, but we surely will during the summer.
Savory granola might not be an entirely new concept, but it is a great one. And this recipe is a real winner with tones of mustard, orange zest, thyme and rosemary. It also has an incredible crunch from buckwheat groats, nuts, seeds, rolled rye and oats. So give yourself 10 minutes to mix the ingredients together, shove it in the oven and then use it on almost anything. You can thank us later
To help you get started, we are also sharing a quick little baked feta cheese recipe and a crunchy green salad which both are optimal paired with the granola. The feta cheese is almost too simple. Bake a block of feta cheese for 10 minutes on 200°C / 400°F, then switch up the temperature to max and turn on the broiler for just a few minutes. Drizzle with olive oil, fresh herbs and a generous sprinkle of savoury granola. We usually serve the cheese as a side dish to share on the table. An extra drizzle of honey will make it even more special.
The salad is a bit of a mash-up between a salad and a slaw. Thinly sliced vegetables and pears are mixed with lettuce, drizzled with a yogurt dressing and then covered in granola. Win!
Savoury Granola – Salad’s Best Friend
Makes 4 cups / 1 litre
You can of course add or replace any of the seeds, nuts or flakes with what you have in your pantry. If you are looking for a slightly lighter granola you can replace some of the oil with water. Dry spices could also be added instead of the fresh herbs.
1 cup / 100 g rolled rye flakes (or just oats, if you are sensitive to gluten)
1 cup / 100 g rolled oats
1/2 cup buckwheat groats
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup hazelnuts
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 360°F. Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a large bowl and whisk until smooth. Add all of the dry ingredients to the bowl. Use you hands or a spatula to toss the dry ingredients in the dressing until all is coated. Bake for about 20 minutes or until crunchy and golden, stirring the granola halfway through to prevent it from burning. We usually add some extra herbs after it is baked but this is of course optional. Store in an air-tight jar in room temperature for up to 4 weeks.
Fennel and Pear Salad with yogurt dressing Serves 4
a pinch of salt and a generous grind of black pepper
Prepare all the salad ingredients and place them in a large salad bowl. It’s easiest to use a mandolin to get thin slices. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to combine. Stir together the yogurt dressing in a small bowl. Serve the salad on 4 plates, drizzle with yogurt and top with a generous scoop of granola.
PS. In case anyone is wondering, the salad plate was a real bargain from a local ceramicist. Apparently it’s a bit uneven so we almost got it for free. A tip is to always ask for their “damaged goods” if you want unique pieces and are on a budget. The apron is from Stone Cold Fox.
If the warm apple and cinnamon fragrance from our kitchen could spread into my laptop, on to the internet and out through whatever device you are reading this on, then I could stop writing this text right here. You would already be deep into your pantry drawers looking for the ingredients to start baking these muffins.
Instead, I guess I have to convince you the old-fashioned way, with words and images. And since we truly want you to understand how thrilled we are about this recipe, we also filmed a video for our youtube channel. Let’s start with that!
Apple trees heavy with fruit, small rubber boots tumbling around in the leaves, warm porridge in the morning, furry sweaters, cinnamon sticks, pitch dark nights and rainy afternoons. Autumn is already over us and it always seem to come with a profound desire for baking. In our apartment, switching on the oven is also a necessary trick to keep warm, since our radiators have a mind of their own.
If anyone remembers my previous aversion to warm apples, this recipe must be the ultimate proof that I’m passed it. Not only does our muffins have shredded apples in the batter and sliced apples on top of them, but they also hold small golden pockets of apple sauce in the middle. It’s a serenade of apple flavours and textures paired with warm spices and they sing happy songs together.
I guess this is an Autumnal edition of our Blueberry & Turmeric Breakfast Muffins. These are only sweetened with apples and dates, they are gluten-free and we have included a well-tested vegan option. The vegan version come out just slightly denser, but they taste almost identical. The combination of apple, oats, almond and buckwheat is perfect in an earthy, wholesome but still light kind of way.
So if you are also feeling the autumn mood or are just freezing and need another excuse to switch on the oven, we have got just the right recipe for you.
Triple Apple & Almond Muffins Makes 12 muffins
These muffins are only sweetened with apples and dates. We make our own apple sauce and even though it is unsweetened, it tastes very sweet and works perfect in this recipe. Since the muffins are not overly decadent, we enjoy them both as weekend breakfast and weekday dessert. However, if you know that you like your muffins more on the sweeter side, you can replace have of the apple sauce with maple syrup. Or simply use a sweetened apple sauce.
Dry ingredients 1 cup / 100 g almond flour 1 cup / 100 g rolled oats (use cert. gluten free if intolerant) 2/3 cup / 75 g buckwheat flour 2 tbsp arrowroot (or potato starch) 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground cardamom ½ tsp ground ginger ½ tsp sea salt
Wet ingredients 160 ml / 2/3 cup plain unsweetened yogurt or plant yogurt 80 ml / 1/3 cup coconut oil, butter or olive oil 10 fresh soft dates, pitted and mashed 3 large eggs (or 3 tbsp chia seeds mixed with 9 tbsp water) 1/2 cup / 120 ml apple sauce, unsweetened (see below for instructions hot to make your own) 3 organic apples
Preheat the oven to 400°F / 200°C. Grease a muffin pan with oil or butter or line it with muffin tins. Add all the dry ingredients to a food processor or blender and process on high speed so the oats turn into coarse flour and all ingredients are mixed. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, yogurt, coconut oil, dates and 1/3 cup / 80 ml of the apple sauce (save the rest for later) to the food processor or blender and mix until smooth, and then transfer to the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients. Grate two of the apples and add them to the batter. Divide the batter into the muffin tins, filling them only half way up. Drop a heaping teaspoon of apple sauce in the middle of each muffin and then cover with the remaining batter. Slice the last apple thinly, brush the slices with oil and place one or a few slices on top of each muffin, pressing them down slightly. Dust with cinnamon. Bake for about 18-20 minutes. Let cool for a bit before taking them out of their tins and they will release easier. Enjoy!
Apple Sauce Apple sauce is one of the simplest things to make and if you choose a sweet variety of apples, no other sweetener is needed. This makes more than you need for the Apple Muffin recipe, which is good as you can add large spoonfuls of the leftovers on top of yogurt or cultured buttermilk in the morning.
1 lb / ½ kg organic apples ¼ cup / 60 ml water 1 tsp lemon juice
Core the apples, cut them in ½ inch / 1 cm dices and add to a large sauce pan on medium heat together with the water. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat slightly. Let simmer for 20-25 minutes. Use a hand blender to mix it smoothly. Add lemon juice and stir around to prevent the color from going brown. Store in air-tight glass jars the fridge for up to about a week or in plastic containers in the freezer for-like-ever.
When I find a recipe I love, I become a bit obsessed. It occasionally feels as though a journey has come to a resting point through many trials and errors. I am currently stuck on this buttermilk pancake recipe. The pancake recipe first made it’s appearance through this spelt variation. Since then, I’ve been working on a solid gluten-free counterpart and I think this is it.
On occasion I’ll run across buckwheat pancakes on a breakfast menu and I’m usually disappointed. From what I can tell, the buckwheat flour is there in name but not in flavor. Usually it taste as though the buckwheat is only a couple tablespoons in the entire recipe. Not here. These buckwheat pancakes showcase the nutty, bold flavor of buckwheat and use the oat flour and starch as an aid for fluffier pancakes.
