Crunchy Quinoa Granola

No this is not a picture of bird seed. It is actually human food: granola made with quinoa! I was looking for something to have in the morning that wasn't oatmeal and was higher in protein. I began to search my evernote database for breakfast recipes. I came across this toasted quinoa recipe I had saved from Healthy Tipping Point. I thought I would give it a try. I made a few changes but the same concept was the same: a granola made with quinoa.

I was a bit skeptical since I had never eaten quinoa that wasn't cooked through boiling, and was weary as to how the texture would be. Turns out, toasted quinoa is actually not like eating pebbles as I thought it would.

Crunchy Quinoa Granola adapted from Healthy Tipping Point

makes 4-5 servings

1 cup quinoa

~ 1/4 cup of nuts (I used what I had on hand...sunflower and pumpkin)

3 tbsp dried cranberries

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp pure maple syrup

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl until cinnamon evenly coats everything.

2. Add olive oil and maple syrup and mix well.

3. Toast at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes.

4. Allow to cool and then store in an air-tight container.

As I was making this I really thought I had added WAY to much cinnamon. I thought for sure I had just wasted a whole cup of quinoa because it was going to be too strong and spicy. Too much cinnamon can taste medicinal. Turns out, the baking mellowed out the cinnamon and it had great flavour. I am really happy I added the cranberries because they were a wonderful addition, especially when I eat this with my plain unsweetened yogurt.

I'd say this recipe is very "granola." Someone used this word the other day to describe my act of making homemade tomato sauce (if I remember correctly). I liked the word and what I thought it represented, so I vowed to begin to use it more often. After looking up the urban dictionary definition, I'd say this recipe is fairly good representation of "granola," except I can't promise my ingredients were fair trade. In fact, I could probably bet that they weren't, unfortunately.