Best Homemade Granola

Brooke Bulloch, RD and mom

This granola recipe tastes delicious and contains so many ingredients that help promote good health: cholesterol-reducing whole oats, digestion-slowing fibre, anti-inflammatory fats, protein and complex carbohydrates. Add it to milk, yogurt or cottage cheese and you’ve got a well-balanced, easy, and nutrient-dense breakfast or snack. It takes no time to make and you can personalize it with your own ingredient swaps.

This makes a huge batch of granola, but can easily be reduced by half for a smaller batch. Enjoy the best ever granola!

To start, preheat your oven to 350 F.

Ingredients

8 cups rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut, shredded or flaked
3/4 cup wheat bran
3/4 cup ground flaxseed
1.5 cups sliced almonds
1 cup shelled unsalted sunflower seeds
1 cup pumpkin seeds (optional with or without the shell)
1.5 cups golden raisins
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 cup honey (use maple syrup for vegan option)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1) In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Mix well. Then split into 2 even batches by adding the second half into another bowl.
2) In a saucepan, warm the honey and oil over medium heat, stirring often, until bubbling. Remove from heat and mix in the vanilla.
3) Pour half the honey-oil mixture over each granola portion and mix until each bowl of granola is well coated.
4) Pour each bowl of uncooked granola onto two cookie sheets.
5) Bake each batch ~16 minutes, taking them out of the oven half way to stir.
6) Let cool and store in glass or airtight containers (I use an old, large glass flour container from the 60s).