Granola is a breakfast cereal food and used in snack foods with a mix of honey, rolled oats, or brown sugar, puffed rice, which are baked until it becomes crispy or toasted golden brown.
While baking, this mix is stirred to manage loose cereal of breakfast for consistency. Dried grouch as dates, raisins confections like chocolate is added. When granola is added with flaxseed will help indigestion.
Granola is often combined with honey, yogurt, and fresh fruit like blueberries, strawberry, or banana and milk. It is also is eaten as topping for different recipes.
What is Granola?
Table of Contents
Granola is prepared from rolled oats, which are groats of oat that are pressed flat and steamed lightly with nuts, honey, and puffed rice. The whole mixture is baked until it becomes crispy and then eaten as a snack for boosting energy.
Commonly the granola is regularly utilized by on the go people and camper, hikers, and outdoor-oriented people who do not have a refrigerator for storing food.
Low Carb Granola Cereal Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Almonds
- 1 Cup Pecans
- 1 Cup Hazelnuts
- 6 tbsp Erythritol
- 1 Large Egg white
- 1/3 Cup Pumpkin seeds
- 1/3 Cup Sunflower seeds
- 1/2 Cup Flaxseed meal (Golden)
- 1/4 Cup Butter (measured firm, then dissolved; can use ghee for dairy-free or coconut oil)
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven at 325 degrees F that is 163 degrees C. Line two small or large parchment paper or baking sheets.
- Use the food processor slightly and chop the hazelnuts and almonds into large pieces around 1/4-1/2 of its full size.
- Include pecans and grind again. Do not make powder but keep its pieces.
- Include pumpkin seeds, erythritol, sunflower seeds, and golden flaxseed meal.
- Include the egg white in a food processor and whisk together with vanilla extract and melted butter in a small bowl.
- Pulse the food processor button a couple of times and combine everything from bottom to top using a spatula and again pulse. Repeat the process if needed until it coats evenly.
- In the end, mix the nut pieces and coarse meal to make everything little damp from butter and egg white.
- Take out the nut mixture to the parchment paper or baking sheet in an even layer. Press them together into a thin rectangle shape and bake for 15-18 minutes till the edges become brown.
- After baking, let them cool down fully before cutting into parts.
Notes
Nutrition Facts
granola bars, Snacks, hard, plain
Serving Size : 100 g
1 bar (21 g)
One bar (25 g)
1 bar (1 oz) (28 g)
Nutrient Value
- Water 3.9 [g]
- Energy 471 [kcal]
- Protein 10.1 [g]
- Total lipid (fat) 19.8 [g]
- Carbohydrate (by difference) 64.4 [g]
- Fiber, (total dietary) 5.3 [g]
- Sugars 28.57 [g]
- Calcium, 61 [mg]
- Magnesium, 97 Mg [mg]
- Iron, Fe 2.95 [mg]
- Sodium, Na 294 [mg]
- Phosphorus, P 277 [mg]
- Potassium, K 336 [mg]
- Zinc, Zn 2.03 [mg]
- Vitamin C, 0.9 [mg]
- Riboflavin 0.12 [mg]
- Thiamin 0.26 [mg]
- Niacin 1.58 [mg]
- Folate, DFE 23 [µg]
- B Vitamin 12 0 [µg]
- Vitamin B-6 0.09 [mg]
- E Vitamin 2.09 [mg]
- Vitamin A, RAE 2 [µg]
- A Vitamin, IU 33 [IU]
- Vitamin D 0 [µg]
- Cholesterol 0 [mg]
- K Vitamin 14.6 [µg]
- Vitamin D 0[IU]
- Saturated 2.37 [g]
- Total monounsaturated 4.38 [g]
- Total polyunsaturated 12.05 [g]
- Caffeine [mg] 0
Granola Cereal: Health Benefits
Granola cereals recipe contains low carb, and it is healthy for over a health. Let’s have viewed how it benefits your health and diets.
Improved Digestion
Granola work as digestive assistance. It is commonly eaten by people who need extra energy. Granola consists of fiber, both soluble and insoluble. Dietary fiber is helpful for eating habits because it helps to maintain digestion. It helps to include weight and bulk to bowel movement and make them more solid and easy to pass through the digestive tract. Granola cereal also helps to activate peristaltic motion, which is the time when soft muscles of intestine contract and move food along and also cause digestive juices and gastric release by removing stress.
Soluble fiber is best for improving constipation symptoms, which is a discomforting health problem. The insoluble fiber causes to harden the loose stools and lower the diarrhea occurrence. Moreover, fiber also improves heart problems by cleaning arteries and harmful LDL cholesterol and excess omega-6 fatty acids that can result in serious ailments such as heart attack, atherosclerosis, and stroke.
Weight Loss
Granola cereal is best for weight loss diets. These are very filling food that provides a good boost to your body in many ways. It has low sodium and cholesterol, which are the main reason for chronic obesity. The fiber present in granola makes your body feels full because it adds bulk to and helps to absorb water. Therefore, it lowers the appetite and reduces the ghrelin release, which is hunger hormones. It also prevents overeating, which is common in people with obesity.
Reduced Cholesterol
Granola contains soluble fiber, which helps to lower harmful LDL cholesterol and boosts HDL cholesterol. Preventing harmful cholesterol in the bloodstream helps to remove plaque in the veins and arteries. This type of plaque that raises blood pressure and stress on the cardiovascular system.
Make sure to purchase granola, which should not contain hydrogenated oils. However, it can raise bad cholesterol levels and lower good cholesterol. Most of the granola preparation contains nuts like walnuts, almonds, which are the best source of omega-3 fatty acids.
Boost Energy Levels
Many outdoor campers and hikers prefer to have granola cereal bar as a trip food because it provides loads of energy. It gives an extra boost for further camping. Granola will not make you consume extra sugar like crash diets and feel sluggish. It provides manganese, which is an important mineral for the body. Manganese is also an essential mineral for kidney, liver, and metabolic activity. Granola activates the tissues and right distribution of resources in the whole body. Having proper metabolic function helps to boost energy levels.
Anticancer Potential
Granola consist of low levels of vitamin C, which is an essential and natural antioxidant. A naturopath named Kathleen a Head issued a report in the alternative-Medicine-Review-Journal, that tells vitamin C helps to promote the immune system and activate white blood cells. It also prevents cancer from metastasizing and forming. However, the real link is about manganese that prevents cancer.
High manganese content to granola provides more antioxidants. According to National-Cancer-Institute, antioxidants are more helpful compounds that prevent free radical and cellular metabolism, which cause to mutate the healthy cells into cancerous by altering DNA structure. You can prevent radical damage by increasing manganese in your diet.
Prevent Anemia
Anemia is a condition, which impacts millions of people in the world. Many people do not know that they are suffering. Generally, it is an iron deficiency in the blood, which is an important part of developing red blood cells. Anemia causes headaches, fatigue, depression, cognitive malfunctions, and intestinal disorders.
Adding granola in your diet helps to increase the iron and lower the anemia symptoms. The ready-made varieties of granola help to enhance iron in the body.
Strengthen Immune system
The human immune system is a defense mechanism of the body that works naturally. A healthy immune system prevents diseases and illnesses. The strong immune system is healthy for everyone.
Granola contains full of nutritional ingredients such as nuts, rolled oats, seeds, and dried fruits that provide antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins. Consider granola for a healthy and fit diet plan.
Benefits of Pregnant women
Granola provides unique benefits for pregnancy. It is a very nutritious breakfast that provides full of minerals and vitamins. It also contains a good amount of folate and folic acid, which helps to prevent birth defects in unborn infants.
Boosted Cognition
Breakfast is an essential meal of the day, which helps to maintain your brain active the whole day. It is true if you include the granola in breakfast since it helps to lower the high blood pressure. Granola produces low sodium and potassium that helps to decrease hypertension. When blood pressure is decreased, the veins get relaxed, stress will lower, and promote blood flow and oxygen. Increased blood flow and oxygen help the brain to promote cognitive function and elevate the nervous response in the neural pathways formation. It is a similar reason that banana is often known as a brain promoter because of its high potassium levels that excite high mental functions.
Lower High Blood Pressure
Granola works effectively for lowering high blood pressure, which helps to relieve cardiovascular system strain and promote heart health. It also lowers the risk of stroke, atherosclerosis, and other heart conditions. Try supplementing granola potassium with fresh fruits. It is a delicious combination of breakfast and snacks.
Improve Circulation
Granola is the best ingredient containing essential minerals, which work wonder for the human body. Particularly, many minerals such as potassium, sodium help to manage healthy blood flow and promote circulation. Having good circulation helps in cognitive health and athletic performance.
Prevent Migraines
Granola benefits to reduce migraine headaches. It also lowers the severity of migraine because of its anti-inflammatory effects and content of magnesium. Magnesium helps to lower the severity of the migraine by boosting healthy circulation and strengthening blood vessel elasticity. It also prevents muscle spasms and painful headaches.
Skin Care
Granola consumption also provides vitamin E, which is alpha-tocopherol. A single serving of granola provides 20% of vitamin E of the daily requirement. Vitamin E helps in many body functions, including preventing premature aging, wrinkles, sunburn, capillary strengthening, and promoting heart health. It also helps to increase blood flow in nails and hair follicles to preserve their integrity. It also prevents sunburn and redness. Overall, the vitamin E present in granola makes your breakfast healthy.
Versatile Food
Granola is the best versatile food. You can have it at breakfast with fruit and milk. It is also best suitable for a smoothie, yogurt. It makes one of the healthy muesli, cereal bars, and flapjacks. Enjoy this pretty delicious snack in natural form.
Regulated Blood Sugar
The manganese present in granola work best for people with high blood sugar. It is also helpful in diabetes management. Manganese helps to regulate blood sugar by stimulating or lowering insulin.
According to a study issued in the BMC-Endocrine-Disorders-Journal, individuals with high manganese levels in the blood have a reduced prevalence of diabetes. However, more studies needed to confirm the protective effects of manganese over diseases.
Granola also improves blood sugar and lower the risk of a drop or sudden spikes that can create difficulties for diabetes. The manganese presence in granola helps to speed up the wound healing, sex hormone regulation, and production as well as new tissue production to speed up organ repair and cellular damage.
Granola – How to choose?
Choose healthy granola because it may have different brands depending on the brand. Carefully read the labels of nutrition while shopping for granola.
Do not take the products to contain sweeteners or sugar, including honey or natural sweeteners.
Instead, some ingredients should be whole foods such as seeds, oats, nuts, and dried fruit.
You can also look for different high fiber and protein. Aim for 3-5 grams of fiber every serving.
You should also consider the serving sizes carefully, which range from 2tbsp to 2/3 cup. Especially small serving size may give false size, as you may eat more than required.
Avoiding Common Mistakes with Granola
To Batch or Not to Batch?
You can do as you wish. Different methods have different textures. The mix having more sweetener, such as sweeter sticks better with other nuts and seeds and form clumpier granola.
According to the rules of digital food editor-Dawn Perry’s, press the raw mixture lightly during piling it over a baking sheet and do not stir it quickly after taking out from the oven.
You can also use lightly beaten egg white before baking to create consistency of the cookie.
Avoid adding liquid sweetener to get flakier version and stir after cool down.
Make Smart Swaps
Granola is an adaptable substitution. Try using cranberries in place of dried cherries, pepitas in place of sunflower seeds. But if you wish to change the recipe you would consider adapting, use the same ration of wet to dry ingredients like an original recipe to get the reliable results.
You can try mixing and matching the ingredients to manage dry and wet ingredients. If you want to add sub-ingredients like butter or olive oil, then manage your wet mixture fat to sugar ration consistency. Remember that some sweetener will taste sweeter. So, choose the sweetener carefully.
Right Temperature
The low or slow temperature will prevent the granola from burning. You can bake safely to golden brown granola with 300-350 degrees, but more than that temperature cause to increase risk of burning a part of the granola mix. Higher temperature cause to burn the ingredients like seeds, nuts, and coconuts before batch and prevent crispy texture. Keep a moderate temperature and keep watching the mixture. Keep stirring from till it gets brown.
With Flavourings and Spices, Start Small
Many people like boldly flavored granola but adding extra one tsp dried spices overpower it. If you add cinnamon, add a half teaspoon in every baking sheet of the tray or add-in in every 6 cups for more powerful spices like cardamom or allspice. Begin with a quarter of a teaspoon and manage it from there. You can add vanilla but remember other extracts or flavored water like orange flower water or rose water can be more intense, so begin with 8-teaspoon. Include these all-in granolas before baking in the oven to infuse the flavors in the whole mixture. Do not forget to add salt to prevent too sweet or one dimensional.
Know When to Add Mix-Ins
Generally, seeds and nuts can go straight into your crude oat blend so they can get fragrant and toasty while they prepare. Partner web proof-reader Rochelle Bilow likes to include cacao nibs over the last minutes of baking for “an unpleasant nuttiness that I truly like.” For blend ins like the dried natural product or edible flowers, hold up until your completed blend leaves the stove to hurl in.
Grasp Alt-Grains
A sack of plain good old moved oats never let a cluster of granola down—even though if you abstain from utilizing snappy cooking oats here, as they won’t hold their surface as they cook. Be that as it may, making your granola is an incredible reason to go your supermarkets to have different grains for your granola recipe. A similar way you’d switch up your nuts and seeds, you can build up your granola’s oat base with various chipped entire grains like rye, quinoa. As in rule #2, simply ensure you keep your proportions in extent.
Other tips for making better granola
Use more fats
If you are not using more or different fat, then your granola piling becomes dry. You can use olive oil for merging and toasting quality. It will create a line between savory and sweet. But you can add coconut oil to the experiment at home.
Choose oats wisely
Choose rolled oats for quick cooking. Instant cooking oats give dusty products and take less time.
Add fruit last
The interesting thing about the granola recipe is you can add whatever you like. You can add pistachio, cocoa. But remember to add these dry fruits before baking the granola. Consider adding chopped nuts and seeds in granola and cook over low flame.
Use a firm press
When you are pouring granola over the baking sheet or parchment paper, make sure that the sheet is full, otherwise, it will burn the oats. Try also pressing down the pre-cooked granola using a spatula to level the layers. It helps to form small clumps and perfect for morning breakfast.
Know when it’s done
Granola is like cookies and keeping continue to cooking when you take it out of the oven. As it gets cool, it begins to form a cluster and get harden. Do not pull the granola till it gets brown.
Caution
Granola offers impressive health benefits, but it also has some harmful effects on some people. As the granola is a carbohydrate and cooked in fat, it produces a kind of chemical molecules that is unable to digest. However, different recipes of granola produce different chemicals.