Home  |  Articles  |  Subscribe  |  Advertise  |  Write for Us  |  About Us  |  Contact Us Delicous ways to start the day Ysanne Spevack Granola Granola is quick and easy, perfumes your kitchen with a sweet home-baking smell, is deliciously good for you and saves a fortune on decent muesli. Before preparing the granola, make sure you have a big re-usable plastic container to store it in. Granola can be served with any kind of milk. Popped amaranth also features in this granola mix. This tiny seed from South America is a very special grain that's like no other. The seeds are highly nutritious, full of protein and fibre, and also rich in iron, calcium and vitamin. This makes a week's supply: 500g rolled oats (i.e. small porridge oats) 50g walnut pieces 50g chopped hazelnuts or 50g chopped cobnuts 50g sunflower seeds 50g pumpkin seeds 50g sesame seeds 100g juicy dried sultanas 8 tablespoons safflower oil 4 tablespoons brown rice malt syrup 3 tablespoons date syrup 50g popped amaranth Preheat the oven to 180oC/350oF/Gas Mark 4. In a big bowl, mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly. In a small frying pan, gently heat the oil and syrups to combine them. Stir this mixture into the dried ingredients as soon as syrup goes runny. Divide the granola between two baking trays, spreading it out so that it's no more than 3cm deep. Put it in the hot oven and stir it with a wooden spoon every 10 minutes. It should be ready in about 20 minutes. Check it and remove the trays when the oats have just gone golden rather waiting until they go brown. Once it's out the oven, immediately stir in the popped amaranth so it sticks to the hot syrupy clumps. Leave to cool before eating. Save the rest in a container. Try homemade granola with nut milks like hazelnut or almond milk, and get a doubly nut whammy. You can buy-ready made nut milks at Fresh & Wild, but to make your own, simply soak about 50g ground nuts (as in nuts that have been ground, not American peanuts) in about 100ml boiling water for quarter of an hour. Strain the milky liquid, throw away the solids and try adding a touch of malt. Apple Porridge This recipe has a standard oat porridge base, but is creamier because it's soaked. It's flavoured with a deliciously vibrant mix of apples and tropical fruit, all spiced to wake you up with a zing. The crushed nuts add an interesting texture and a good mix of oils and proteins. All in all, this porridge is good for you and tastes divine. For 4 bowls of steaming hot porridge: 3 moist prunes, pitted 2 juicy soft-dried figs 3 sliced dried star fruit 2 dried strawberries 50g walnut pieces 30g almonds 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 4 whole cloves 250ml proper pressed apple juice 200g porridge oats 400ml good quality soy milk 1 small fresh eating apple The night before, chop all the dried fruit except the strawberries. These are too brittle to chop, so should be quartered with kitchen scissors or left whole if you don't have a pair. Put the nuts in a plastic bag, squeeze the air out and bash them with a rolling pin. Put the prepared dried fruit and nuts into a bowl with the spices, and cover with the apple juice. Put the oats and soy milk in a saucepan and leave to soak. Next morning, heat the saucepan over a low heat, topping up with more soy milk if it's not looking runny enough for you. Stir the porridge frequently with a wooden spoon. Pick the cloves out of the soaked fruit. Finely grate the fresh apple and mix it into the fruit mixture. Keep heating the porridge, letting it come to the boil. Let it bubble for a minute or so, stirring all the time, then take it off the heat and add the fruit mixture. Stir this in, then divide the porridge between four serving bowls. Put bottles of maple, agave and date syrups on the table for people to help themselves. Jo's Porage Millet is a wonder grain. It's one of the richest sources of silicon, the mineral that's a major ingredient in collagen. Collagen is not just something that's used in cosmetic surgery. It's the substance that keeps everything in your body flexible - your skin, your eyes and your arteries. Millet is also the only grain to contain all eight of the essential amino acids needed for a complete protein. This breakfast is nice and alkaline, too, as millet is also the only grain that is alkaline, so it's a real treat for your liver. Full of complex carbohydrates, it will keep you alert and on the ball until lunchtime, with the rice, nuts and fruit providing the starches. To make 2 portions: 4 heaped tablespoons millet flakes 4 heaped tablespoons brown rice flakes 2 heaped tablespoons sultanas 1 heaped tablespoon flaked almonds 500ml oat milk Put all the dry ingredients into a saucepan and add enough cold water to cover. Leave this overnight with the lid on. In the morning, add the oat milk and warm over a low heat. For an alternative, try adding a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the dry mixture and soaking it in apple juice. Taken from The Fresh and Wild Cookbook, Ysanne Spevack, Thorsons, £10 Back to Articles © Juno Magazine 2007