According to my (shiny! new!) housemate, muesli is very hip these days. Well, I was into it before it was cool. If that makes me a muesli hipster, so be it.
I mentioned a shiny new housemate. Actually I have two of them. I recently moved back to Australia and into a house with two friends, and after some time in limbo, I’m delighted and excited to have a kitchen and people to cook with.
Today marked my first batch of muesli in the new kitchen. It hardly seems worth writing up the recipe, and yet the stuff I make is so much tastier and, I think, cheaper than the pre-made stuff that it seems wrong to let anyone go on not realising how easy it is to do.
So, this is not so much a recipe as a set of guidelines.
It all starts with a large bowl and a large jar. The bowl’s for mixing and the jar’s for putting the results into. If you want, you can mix it straight in the jar (just dump it all in and give it a good shake), but I find it a bit cumbersome to do that, so I just throw everything into the bowl and mix it with my (clean) hands, then transfer.
My recipe is generally about 3 parts grains to 1 part flavourings. That’s heavy on the flavourings compared to the bought stuff, but that’s why I make my own.
I start by mixing up about 3 cups of dried fruit and nuts. This batch is pretty generic, based on what I found at the supermarket: about equal amounts of sunflower seeds, sultanas, chopped dried figs, and chopped dried apricots. See below for alternative flavour combinations.
To this I added a 500g bag of rolled oats, and a 250g bag of worm-shaped bran cereal. I like the bran cereal for the crunch it gives, but if you can’t find it or don’t like it it doesn’t matter. You can also use other kinds of rolled cereal: barley, rye, spelt, or whatever takes your fancy. Some are chewier than others, and I’m not very fond of them myself, but it’s up to you. You might need to go to a good health food store to find them, though.
Mix everything up, by shaking the jar or with your hands in the bowl or whatever works for you. The result is about 12 cups (3L) of muesli which you can eat with milk, yoghurt, or whatever you fancy.
Here are a couple of flavour alternatives for the fruit and nuts part of things. I usually add sultanas/raisins to all my mixes, and then vary what else you add, like:
- Dried pineapple, dried mango, banana chips, and coconut flakes
- Walnuts and dried cherries
- Apricots, dates, and almonds
- All the nuts: sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds
- Dried apple and dried cranberries plus a little cinnamon
Previously, for breakfast:
