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A Homemade Muesli Recipe for the Best Breakfast!
Homemade muesli really is a breeze to make..so here's a muesli recipe to get you loving muesli!
Here are some suggestions for the very best ingredients and the proportions to use. Get the kids involved if you can - it's quite good fun, pouring and mixing the ingredients. See below for a guide to serving and storage, but first lets look at the main ingredients for a good muesli.
A Homemade Muesli Recipe:First the cereals...To prepare a good muesli base choose some or all of the following organic grains: wheat flakes, rolled oats, rye flakes, barley kernels, wheatgerm. Experiment with different mixes and you will soon learn which cereals you like best. For a subtle taste it's good to include a high proprtion of oats. Go easy on the wheatgerm. While it is nutritionally wonderful, too much of it gives a mealy texture. It also deteriorates quickly.
Mix in some of these organic nuts and seeds: almonds, brazils, cashew nuts, coconut, hazels, macadamia, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts. It is best not to have too many nuts and seeds in your muesli mix as they are rich in proteins and oils - the mix can become rather a challenge to the digestive system! Chop the larger nuts into pieces first. Almonds and coconut are best flaked. Hazels and almonds can be lightly toasted under the grill. Only do this if you are going to eat the muesli mix fairly quickly, as cooked nuts will not keep as long. Toasting brings out the nutty flavours. Put down tin foil and toast on a low heat, watching them like a hawk for burning. You can rub off the brown skins of hazel nuts after toasting. You can dry roast small seeds such as sesame seeds in a pan over a low heat. Keep them moving by shaking the pan often to stop them burning. Turn the heat off as soon as they start to smell good.
Add in a small proportion of any of the following dried fruits: apple, apricots, banana, currants, dates, prunes, sultanas, raisins,
Lexia raisins are particularly tasty. Many of the more exotic fruits such as papaya and even pineapple are heavily sugared to preserve them, so they are not ideal for a staple muesli mix. The fruit sugars in dried fruit are still quite concentrated, so again, it is better to be a bit stingey with the proportions. Natural sugars, released from the break down of carbohydrates in the cereals, will give you more sustained energy than concentrated fruit sugars. If you have too many dried fruits at once your system reacts much as it would to having a junk food cereal - a quick sugar high followed by an energy slump.
A Homemade Muesli Recipe:
Grains will lose freshness and potency, and fats deteriorate with exposure to air, so it is better to only store enough for a few weeks. Nuts are especially prone to turning rancid, so it's best to keep them separate and add them when you prepare your muesli. They also deteriorate more quickly if they are chopped. Alternatively, prepare only enough for a couple of weeks at a time. A Homemade Muesli Recipe:
Well, not really! It is always best to soak muesli well before eating it. It is far more digestible and, once you get used to it, you will probably find that it is delicious that way. (It is more digestible because phytates in the fibre break down. Phytates are a problem for some people because they block absorption of some nutrients.) Soak it overnight or for at least half an hour before you want to eat it. You can soak it in milk, water, fruit juices or any number of milk substitutes such as soya milk or rice milk. It's really nice soaked in a mild apple juice. Orange juice and other citrus fruits are not so good as cereals and citrus tend to not mix well. To get the best from muesli, serve it with finely chopped or grated fresh apple and a selection of fresh berries such as raspberries, bilberries, or blueberries. Peach and nectarine are also very nice sliced into the mix and fresh grapes are great too. You can experiment with whatever is in season. If fresh or dried fruit happen to be a bit lacking a spoonful of honey can transform a plain muesli. Tahini can be a good too, giving it a nutty taste and creamy texture. (Tahini is a kind of nut butter prepared from sesame seeds; it is a common ingredient in middle-eastern cooking.) Try adding hunza apricots if you can. They are often available in health food stores. These are the apricots eaten by the Hunza people who are famed for their longevity! You will need to pre-soak them. If you are making muesli for small chidren (the ones that don't like lumps!) you can whizz up the ingredients in a food processor until everything is almost a powder. This approach may also suit anyone who has difficulty chewing, such as elderly people or invalids.
Muesli with fresh grapes, apple and blackberries
Muesli is one of the best health foods if prepared well. This muesli recipe is infinitely variable. Once you have the basic ingredients in your kitchen you can prepare different variations, including some things and excluding others. It's quick to make and inexpensive, too. It's a far cry from the rough, chewy, over-sweet and indigestible stuff that often results when you buy a pre-packed muesli and just add milk! Love internet shopping? Here's a way you can earn money while you shop. Return from A Homemade Muesli Recipe back to Organic Healthy Recipes Green Cookbook
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