Alderwood Smoked Honey-Nut Granola

I just made a batch of my Alderwood Smoked Honey-Nut Granola last night. And wanted to share this recipe with you all because it’s SO delicious. I can’t get enough! Smokey-sweet (in a smoked-sea-salt-and-dark-chocolate kinda way!) It’s a tasty way to kick your new year off to a healthy start.

The first time I made this granola we only had Alderwood Smoked sea salt onboard. I wasn’t sure how Alderwood Smoked sea salt would work for granola?!? But since that’s all we had and I really wanted to make granola, I used it. Turns out my husband Kirk and I both loved the smokey-sweet flavor so much, I make it that way all the time now!

This Alderwood Smoked Honey-Nut Granola is vegan and gluten-free. Plus it’s packed with protein from all the nuts and quinoa. It also has a lot of cinnamon which helps to stabilize blood sugar from the honey and raisins. And if you’re strict vegan you can substitute the honey for maple syrup.

Also, I used to use almonds, but today I prefer other nuts and seeds. Not only are almonds high in oxalates (read Toxic Superfoods to learn more), but they are also hugely water-consumptive—up to a gallon of water per almond! So I gave up my almond habit.

Since I don’t eat dairy, I top my granola with coconut water or coconut milk for breakfast or eat it with some mangos and guavas. Yummm! Even our cat Tosh loves eating guavas…but that’s another post…

Alderwood Smoked Honey-Nut Granola

Print Recipe

Note: this recipe makes a LOT of granola (about 16 cups), enough for you to gift some to your friends, or try it as a topping on tropical fruit salad. But it's SO good that it may not last very long. Note: I tried cutting back on the amount of honey because one cup seemed like a lot, but it just doesn't taste quite right using less honey. And when you do the math, it turns out to only be 1TBSP of honey per cup of granola, so not too bad.

Servings 16 cups

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup honey or maple syrup
• 2 tsp alderwood smoked sea salt
• 2 TBSP vanilla
• 2 TBSP cinnamon
• 1-1/2 cup roasted, sprouted pumpkin seeds
• 2 cups pecan halves
• 12 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Rolled Oats this is about one-and-a-half bags of oats.
• 1-1/2 cups roasted, sprouted sunflower seeds I use a mix of salted and unsalted
• 1 cup coconut flakes
• 1 cup puffed quinoa
• 1 cup raisins
• 4 TBSP sesame seeds

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• In a small saucepan warm the oil, honey and Alderwood smoked sea salt. Stir in the vanilla and cinnamon.
• In a large bowl mix the nuts, oats, quinoa, coconut, and seeds (not the raisins.) Pour in the warm honey mixture and stir until well coated.
• Spread granola on an un-oiled baking sheet or lasagna pan, and bake for 30 minutes, tossing half-way through.
• Remove from oven and stir to prevent clumping (if you use maple syrup it may clump more), stir in raisins (if you bake the raisins they will burn.)
• Cool and store in an air-tight container. I store ours in large mason jars.
• Note: Depending on the size of your oven and pans used, you may need to cook this in several batches. I have a small boat oven and it bake it in 3 batches.

Please leave a comment to let us know what you think of this granola or any modifications you made and liked?