Crunchy Homemade Cardamom Tahini Granola

This blog post is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill. All opinions and comments are my own.

Crunchy homemade granola imbued with a delicious cardamom and tahini flavour – that is what my weekdays are usually made of these days. This crunchy granola has been a family favourite for 8 years and I recently decided to give it a twist with a flavour of cardamom and tahini inspired by middle-eastern flavours. Now, I know not everyone likes cardamom and tahini so keep reading to also find out what to substitute if you don’t want these flavours. I also love having this during Ramadan for suhoor for a fulfilling and no-fuss early morning meal. That way I know, that when I have pakora’s for Iftaar, I nourished my body in the morning. Balance, right?

Jump to Recipe

Every excellent crunchy granola has a few key elements. This part is imperative and it took me a while to understand this because probably just like you, I would skip this section in recipes where recipe creators explain the elements of granola.

Your crunchy granola base – good quality oats

Oats. Large Flaked Oats – not the quick ones, not the instant ones. You need GOOD quality large flaked oats. I exclusively use Bob’s Red Mill Old Fashioned Rolled Oats for my granola and have been for years. I highly recommend using these as your granola base.

Oil for your granola

This is imperative! yes, you need a bit of oil – I am talking 1-2 tablespoons. My personal favourite to use is melted coconut oil. In this particular recipe, I have swapped coconut oil for tahini to have a different flavour profile. However, if you are not a fan of tahini, simply use coconut oil or any other neutral oil like avocado oil.

Sweetener for the granola

Yes, we like sweet things. My absolute favourite sweetener in granola is a good quality maple syrup. You can use as little or as much as you want depending on how much sweetness you like in your granola

The crunch factor in your homemade granola

Okay… so this is the million dollar secret (or not!). You need crushed blanched almonds or almond meal to add that crunch that store bought granola has. This is truly what gives this recipe its name – crunchy homemade granola! Adding almond meal to your granola not only ups the nutritional value but also gives you the nice chunky bits of granola that you often see in pre-packaged version, except home made is better and has no preservatives! If you are allergic to almonds, you can substitute with another nut like brazil nuts and grind them into a fine powder.

Additional nutrition for your homemade Granola

This is the step where you can add nuts and seeds to your granola. An important thing to note is that you should only be adding UN ROASTED nuts or seeds at this point since we are going to bake the ingredients. Some great options are: chopped walnuts, pumpkin seeds, coconut and flakes. If these are roasted, then I would add them as a topping (see below)

Seasoning to elevate this homemade granola to compete with any store bought competition

Like any great recipe, the seasoning is what makes or breaks this crunchy homemade granola. My favourite seasonings are cinnamon powder, cardamom, cocoa powder for a more chocolatey granola, and some salt.

Delicious Toppings to make the homemade granola shine

These are what we add after the granola has baked and cooled. My favourite ones include mini chocolate chips, cranberries, dried apricots, roasted nuts, toasted shredded coconut, and pistachios.

Okay so I have laid out the anatomy of a delicious granola for you and you may be wondering what flavours work best – whatever you have in your pantry! That is truly what makes this recipe so amazing! Some delicious combinations for toppings are:

• Holiday seasoned: Dried cranberries + mini white chocolate chips
• Middle Eastern Inspired: Cardamom + nuts + tahini (see below recipe)
• Cozy Fall Granola: Cinammon + Pumpkin Seeds + Dried Apple slices
• Summer Flavours: Vanilla + Shredded Pineapple + Dried mango

As you can see the options are endless!

You can eat the granola as is as a snack or with your favourite flavoured or unflavoured yogurt and fresh fruit. This also makes for an excellent breakfast and healthy suhoor option during Ramadan!

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