Fruit and Nut Granola – The healthy way!

So January is here and we are all in the swing of trying to stick to a healthy eating plan to kick start our 2016! Forget buying cereal’s from the supermarket shelves as a lot of these have so much added sugar even though they claim to be healthy! Here at BB we have picked a selection of recipes from Jo Pratt’s latest book ‘in the mood for healthy food’. These recipe’s are wholesome, healthy and full of natural ingredients and better still, you won’t find any added sugar – plus we have tried all the recipes ourselves and they taste great! Try this Fruit and nut Granola recipe for a healthy breakfast which keeps the hunger at bay!

Fruit and Nut Granola
MAKES 6–8 SERVINGS
preparation time: 10 minutes
cooking time: 1 hour

4 tbsp melted coconut oil or rapeseed/canola oil, plus extra for greasing
2 very ripe bananas, peeled
50g/1¾oz/heaped ¼ cup pitted dates, roughly chopped
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp ground cinnamon
a pinch of salt
250g/9oz/2½ cups rolled oats
115g/4oz/scant 1 cup mixed dried fruit (chopped if large), such as raisins, sultanas/golden raisins, cranberries, cherries, apricots and figs
115g/4oz/scant 1 cup roughly chopped nut of your choice, or a mixture such as pecans, walnuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, almonds and cashew nuts
75g/2½oz/²⁄³ cup mixed seeds, such as pumpkin, sunflower, flaxseed, chia and hemp
plain yogurt and fresh fruit, to serve

This homemade granola is all about natural, wholesome, good-for-you ingredients, and it contains no added sugar. These quantities can easily double up, which is well worth doing as once made it will store well in an airtight container. It’s also a great recipe for using up open bags of dried fruit, nuts and seeds. Choose your own cocktail of flavours to add to the basic base of oats and banana, and enjoy every morning knowing there is no added sugar (did I mention that?).
Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF/gas 2–3. Grease one or two large non-stick baking sheets with a little oil.
Put the bananas, dates, vanilla extract, cinnamon, melted coconut oil and salt in a food processor and blitz until completely smooth and creamy.

Put the oats, fruit, nuts and seeds in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add the creamy banana mixture and mix well to coat everything.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking sheet(s) and roughly spread out with your fingers to make a single layer, keeping the lumpy texture that resembles granola.

Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the baking sheets from the oven and reduce the temperature to 110ºC/225ºF/gas ½. Stir the granola on the sheets and break up any large clumps. Return to the oven and cook for a further 45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes, until the granola is dry and crunchy. If you feel it is still a little soft in the middle, then cook for a further 15 minutes or so.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely on the baking sheets before storing in an airtight container. Serve with a dollop of plain yogurt and some fresh fruit. The granola will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container, though I guarantee you will want to eat it all before then!

Did you make this recipe? We would love to hear what you thought! You may also like our chia seed breakfast recipe

Jo Pratt is an acclaimed food stylist, writer and presenter. She has written for Elle, Weekend, Sainsbury’s Magazine, Olive, BBC Good Food and Glamour , for which she was Food Editor,
as well as the BBC Food, Good Food Channel and Good To Know websites. She regularly appears on UK TV, including Saturday Kitchen and Daily Cooks Challenge , and works with
many food brands.

In the Mood for Healthy Food by Jo Pratt © Nourish Books 2015, commissioned photography by Tamin Jones