orange vanilla granola

laced with olive oil and maple syrup

Welcome to mamaeats, a twice-weekly newsletter (Tues. & Sat.) inspired by a simple + seasonal home life. I’m a mother of three, avid reader, gardener, and home cook who focuses on nourishing, whole food meals with a focus on plants. This newsletter is my labor of love, and it means so much that you are here. If you are not already, and are able to do so, please consider becoming a subscriber to support my work here. This gives you access to all the archives and recipes (find the recipe index here), as well as cook-along videos which go along with most recipes.

Today Iʼm sharing a recipe which I make almost weekly in our home, a true staple. I’ve made it for ages, mostly for snacks, but this year it has come particularly handy for school morning breakfasts. My daughter loathes porridge and is generally not a breakfast person, but she does enjoy granola, which is energy dense enough to fuel her morning while also not having to eat a huge volume of food. She generally eats it over yogurt or with soymilk, adding frozen berries and hemp seeds to the top. Itʼs a breakfast which is very quick to throw together herself in the morning, and which I can feel good about her eating.

I have been making this particular one for years, which uses both olive oil and maple syrup for a very tasty and wholesome granola. Itʼs adapted from a recipe by Nekisia Davis, which you can find here. I find the original recipe genius, although quite sweet for my taste and so Iʼve reduced the sugar ratio while also adding some additional flavoring to the recipe. There are, of course, endless variations, and this recipe is quite forgiving. Feel free to swap in whatever nuts and seeds you like or have on hand. If youʼre someone who enjoys dried fruit in your granola, just make sure to add it at the end, when the granola is already out of the oven, otherwise it will most certainly burn into hard black charcoal (ask me how I know). Wishing you lots of good, easy breakfasts ahead. xx A

with yogurt and frozen/defrosted passionfruit pulp

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orange vanilla granola

notes: Feel free to change flavorings and nuts/seeds as you wish. Buckwheat groats are lovely, thick coconut flakes, and other rolled grains such as rye instead of oats are fun to experiment with. Check out your local bulk bins for endless options. If you want something lovely to mix in at the end, our favorites are things like freeze dried berries, dried tart cherries, chopped candied ginger, even chopped very dark chocolate. The one I make most often is this orange zest scented one, which I find is such an uplifting flavor, and we have lots of oranges here this time of year. Side note: if you’d like to make the orange flavor even stronger, scrunch the zest into the brown sugar for a minute or two before mixing with the remaining ingredients. Cardamom and cinnamon with dried apples and hazelnuts is also a favorite flavor variation; also ginger, clove, and molasses (instead of the maple); lemon zest and pistachio; or just plain- the olive oil, maple and salt really makes a delicious flavor by itself. This recipe is one I've adapted years ago from Nekisia Davis' brilliant recipe which you can find on Food52.

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup pecans

1 cup almonds

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar packed

1 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp vanilla

zest of two oranges

Combine everything in a large bowl. Spread out on a baking sheet (I line with parchment paper or a silpat).

Bake at 300f/150 c for about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to redistribute the edges to the middle and prevent any burning. When done it should seem dry/tacky when stirring it with no wetness pooling underneath on the parchment.

Let cool completely. Stir through any extras like dried fruit or hemp seeds if you like and store in an airtight container at room temp (I use a half gallon mason jar).

Orange Vanilla Granola

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