Buckwheat granola and Brazil nut milk

I love waking up to the maple-vanilla smell of granola drying in the dehydrater. I made a big batch & put it in last night. It’s an experiment., which know is going to turn out amazingly well.. I tasted it. It has buckwheat groats in it. I soaked these for about 5 hours. Buckwheat is an interesting grain, which is not even really a grain, although it’s classified as one. It is actually a fruit seed. It doesn’t even act like a grain, it gets soft quickly when soaking it, in about an hour. Grains take many more hours or even days to get soft. And buckwheat is very easy to digest and doesn’t turn the system acidic as grains do.

Buckwheat Granola

2c buckwheat groats, soak a few hours to overnight, will = approx 3-4c after soaking.

1c almonds

1 ½ c walnuts

¾ c sunflower seeds

¾ c pumpkin seeds

½ c raisins

½ c dried cranberries

1 apple

1 ½ c date paste

¾ c maple syrup

½ lemon – juiced

1 T vanilla

1 t Celtic salt

-Soak all nuts, seeds and groats.

-Date paste is made in the blender using dates and water, I make it quite thick.

-Combine apple, date paste, maple syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, salt and ½ the soaked sunflower &/or pumpkin seeds together in food processor & blend. Pulse chip in the buckwheat groats, not pureeing them, will be soupy/lumpy. Pour this mixture out into a bowl. Pulse-chop the rest of nuts and seeds and add. I did the almonds and walnuts separately until the desired size. Then I pulse chopped the seeds together lightly and added the raisins & cranberries and pulsed them in slightly. Its all personal preference.. but I think mine is perfect! : )

-Last night I spread it out on teflex sheets & dehydrated at 115 degrees overnight, 9 hours. I just flipped onto the mesh screen and will leave for the day. Expect it to be perfectly crunchy and read when I get home from work tonight.

I love this with sweet brazil nut milk. Almond milk is good also.. but I prefer brazil nut. And I don’t feel like straining the milk after its blended like I do with almond milk.

Brazil nut milk = blending 1 c brazil nuts with 3 cups water and sometimes add a few dates.

& fruit cut up on top! Mmm.. banana..

Ok, breakfast time, later.. Have a fantastic & flavourful day! : ) !!!

pic (which, incidently, doesn't look very much like my granola) is from http://www.thefoodsection.com/foodsection/images/granola-thumb.jpg