Anti-inflammatory granola.

I’m not really a granola fan - except this one! Basically most of the commercial varieties are just candy with good PR, loaded with sugar and inflammatory vegetable oils. My colleague Puja (Instagram @biowhole_nutrition), posted her version recently and I started to think about how I would make my own version. Mine is made with buckwheat. Buckwheat is not a grain, but commonly known as a pseudo-cereal and is related botanically to rhubarb, sorrel and knotweed. It scores low to medium on the glycemic index (GI) - a measure of how quickly a food raises blood sugar after a meal, and therefore good for blood sugar balance. It’s gluten free and provides a good level of protein, iron and B vitamins and is rich in bound anti-oxidants such as superoxide dismutase and glutathione. Many of these reach the colon and support the reduction of local oxidative stress and positively modifying gut bacteria. High in resistant starch, it provides food for our good gut bugs and helps to make butyrate, the food of choice for the colon.

Turmeric is a well known anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant food, well known in curries for it’s yellow colour. Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric and has powerful biological properties which may support digestion, liver function and joint pain. I have also included some lovely anti-oxidant spices which you can vary according to your own tastes.

Internet wisdom says you should soak nuts and seeds to ‘activate’ them to reduce phytate* levels, but the research on this is variable.

Experiment with different ingredients in different quantities for your own version.

Ingredients

• 200g or 2 cups of raw (unroasted) buckwheat groats - organic is best

• 1 cup of seeds of your choice, eg pumpkin, sunflower, flax, chia

• 1 cup of nuts of your choice, eg walnuts, almonds, pecans, pistachios, cashews

• 1 cup shredded dried coconut

• 1 tbpn fresh finely grated ginger or 2 tspn of ginger powder

• 1 tspn fresh finely grated turmeric or 1 tspn of turmeric powder

• 1 tspn cinnamon

• 1/2 tspn cardamom seeds, grounded

• 1/4 cup maple syrup or raw honey

• 1 tbpn olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil or MCT oil

Method

• Wash the buckwheat groats and soak in water for 4 hours or overnight until soft. It swells so you need twice as much water as buckwheat. The soak water and the buckwheat goes slimy, so rinse thoroughly until clear before using.

• Heat the oven to 150 deg C.

• Mix the spices with the maple syrup and oil.

• Add groats, seeds, nuts and coconut in a large bowl and mix together by hand.

• Add spice mixture to the main mixture. Ensure that your granola is coated thoroughly. If you are using your hands, wear a glove or you will get yellow hands from the turmeric.

• Spread thinly onto a baking tray lined with parchment and bake on a low heat for one to two hours or until dry and crunchy. Stir it around from time to time to stop the granola around the edges from catching.

• Leave to cool on the tray and store in an airtight jar.

• Enjoy with your favourite milk, kefir or sprinkled on top of a smoothie bowl.

*Phytates are called ‘anti-nutrients’ which are chemicals in plants that keep your body from absorbing essential nutrients from food such as magnesium, zinc, calcium and iron. They may inhibit digestive enzymes and therefore may irritate the gut. Your body can normally handle small amounts of phytates and we should enjoy these foods. For most people, life is too short to soak nuts and seeds, but if you have a severe gut sensitivity, try dropping nuts and seeds for a while and see how you feel.