Those who eat healthily like to reach for cereal in the morning. It is tasty, provides lots of energy, keeps you full for a long time and is simply a healthy breakfast.
For a change, you can also reach for other crunchy mueslis such as granola. In the following article, you will find a few tips on how to bake your own granola.
Discover the variety of Verival granola now
What exactly is granola?
Granola originally comes from the USA and is a delicious muesli consisting of oat flakes, nuts, fruit and honey. These are the same ingredients as for a muesli, but the difference lies in the preparation.
What makes granola special is that the oat flakes are baked in oil and sweetened with honey, syrup or apple sauce. This is not done with conventional muesli. But granola is extra crunchy with extra nuts and just the thing for a crispy breakfast with fresh fruit or for snacking in between meals.
Crunchy muesli is also popular for making muesli bars or as a topping for desserts, porridges or smoothie bowls. As with muesli, you can prepare different granola varieties according to your preference and taste.
For sweetness, you can, for example, create a granola with chocolate and coconut flakes or cranberries with pistachios. But savory with pumpkin and bell pepper is also possible and tastes great.
What makes granola so healthy?
A homemade granola usually consists of untreated ingredients. So it's best to use unsweetened ingredients to avoid any hidden fattening.
This makes granola the healthiest option. Granola is made from sugar (honey and fruit), but it is basically a very healthy breakfast.
The individual ingredients such as oats, nuts, seeds and dried fruit are important building blocks for a healthy diet. You can also add berries and other fruits and enjoy it with milk alternatives such as oat milk, almond milk or rice milk.
When does crunchy muesli become unhealthy?
This crunchy muesli becomes unhealthy from the moment you add unnecessary sweeteners or frying agents. If you buy ready-made mixes, you should always check how much fat and sugar they contain and whether additional sweeteners have been used.
The muesli may look healthy, but if it contains hidden fatteners, it is no longer healthy. It is also not as filling as a fresh crunchy muesli.
Organic crunchy muesli from Tyrol - Find out more here
How do I make my own granola muesli?
When preparing your granola muesli, you can let your creativity run free. You can add anything you like. But of course, you should mainly work with oat flakes, nuts, kernels and seeds.
Basically, you should mix all the desired ingredients with oil and honey and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. Do this at 180 degrees top and bottom heat.
Instead of oil, you can also use apple sauce, canola oil or dates. If you want the nuts to be a little smaller, you can of course crush or chop them beforehand.
As soon as the muesli is golden brown, take it out of the oven and let your crunchy muesli cool. If you want, you can then break your granola into smaller pieces. And your delicious breakfast is ready.
Granola ingredients for a tasty crunchy muesli
As already mentioned, the basic ingredients of oats, nuts, fruits and sometimes puffed rice are an absolute must in a granola. But you can add a lot more, depending on what you are hungry for. You can also use spices such as cinnamon, turmeric or vanilla to refine it.
Oats
Baked oats are the basic building block for granola and thus the most important ingredient. You can use fine or seeded flakes, or spelt and rye flakes, depending on your preference.
The flakes also contain fiber, protein, important vitamins and minerals. They are therefore a plus for a healthy diet, because they also provide plenty of energy for the day. The baked oats make the muesli extra crunchy, which is what ultimately distinguishes a granola.
Nuts and seeds
With nuts and seeds, you can also make your granola even crunchier, healthier and tastier. Almonds, walnuts, cashews, peanuts, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are particularly suitable. And, of course, anything else you can think of.
Seeds
Seeds are also part of a healthy breakfast. They contain lots of good fats and are another source of plant-based protein. You can use chia seeds or flax seeds, for example.
Honey, maple syrup or agave syrup
You can sweeten baked oats with honey or maple syrup. You can also use agave syrup just as well. If you don't use oil to bake the oats, but instead use apple sauce, then you don't need to sweeten the oats any further.
Berries and fruits
Superfoods are not necessary to make it a healthy breakfast. Just adding fresh fruit, such as berries, rounds off the muesli and provides enough vitamins and other important nutrients for the day. Fresh fruit makes your muesli juicier and helps to avoid a dry consistency.
Other granola ingredients
Granola tastes great with yoghurt, quark, milk or other milk alternatives. Or you can enjoy it with a glass of milk or juice. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.
Healthy granola from Verival
To make starting the day a little easier, Verival has put together some ideas and the corresponding ingredients for a healthy granola that you can enjoy quickly and easily in the morning.
Puffed whole grain rice crispies and baked whole grain oats, spelt or wheat provide the great crunchy effect. The base of the granola is refined with delicious ingredients. For example, a wide variety of fruits, coconut or chocolate are used, and a little cane sugar or honey is added to sweeten the crunchy. But just see for yourself.
You can find all the information about the Verival Crunchy mixes here.
