Granola: Cooking A Hearty Snack At Home

The best start to the day is a hearty and nutritious breakfast. We suggest breakfast with granola!

The best start to the day is a hearty and nutritious breakfast. We suggest breakfast with granola! And about what granola is, how it is useful and how to cook it - in our article. 

What is granola

 

Granola is a mixture of rolled oats, honey, water, seeds and nuts baked in the oven. Most often, granola is prepared and sold in a crumbly form, but it can also be found in the form of compressed bars. Here, manufacturers could not resist the variety: bars can be both hard and “chewing” - depending on how long the granola was baked in the oven.

The beauty of granola is that you can add new ingredients to it every time: crushed dates, dried apricots, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, nuts, fruits and berries. After cooking, granola acquires a crumbly crunchy texture, which makes it convenient to add to cottage cheese, yogurt, or even smoothies.

Due to the high content of fiber, carbohydrates and proteins, granola becomes a real find for those who love an active lifestyle and hearty snacks - 100 grams of classic granola contains about 471 kcal.

How to cook granola

 

Another plus of granola is the ease of preparation. You can safely entrust the next recipe to a child.

Line a baking dish with parchment paper and sprinkle 1.5 cups of oatmeal on it. Spread them all over the baking sheet and send them to the oven for 15 minutes at a temperature of 160-180 degrees. Stir the granola a few times to keep the flakes from burning. Add additional ingredients: sunflower seeds, puffed rice or sesame seeds. Dissolve 2-3 tablespoons of honey in 1/3 cup of water. Pour the flakes with this liquid, mix and send it back to the oven for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. A few minutes before the end of cooking, add chopped dried fruits - so that they do not dry out too much.

Granola does not belong to quickly perishable products: it can be stored for 2 weeks in a dry place in a closed glass jar.

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The benefits of granola

 

Classic oatmeal granola has a lot of useful properties, but it is even better to cook granola with dried fruits and syrup. So, granola:

improves the functioning of the digestive tract due to the high content of fiber; quickly satisfies hunger and saturates the body with energy; restores the body after physical or mental stress; normalizes the level of sugar and cholesterol in the blood; provides additional protection against viruses and infections; improves mood; improves the functioning of the cardiovascular system.

Harm of granola

 

Due to the high content of carbohydrates and fiber, granola is a very high-calorie product. It is suitable as a small but satisfying snack - a handful of granola is enough for the average person. It is not a complete breakfast - it is best to add it to the main course (for example, to cottage cheese). We can say that granola is a hearty snack in case a person is not able to eat at home or in the canteen. Granola is produced in large quantities, and GOST is often neglected in production, adding many harmful additives. Better cook it at home.