This fruit- and honey-sweetened quinoa granola is an easy win for breakfast. You can make a big batch of it, just as you can with this coco-nutty granola, store it in a jar in the cupboard and serve it with homemade yogurt or kefir for a quick, easy breakfast.
Quinoa granola is also a fantastic early food for toddlers, as it is relatively easy for little bellies to digest and it’s a good source of magnesium and bone-building phosphorus.
Feeding Babies and Toddlers
When feeding babies and toddlers, it’s easy to get stuck into the creatively limited options of “kid food” of easy and bland, but palatable foods like breaded chicken fingers, cheese and pasta dishes. If your kids will eat, why mess with a good thing, right?
Babyhood and toddlerhood presents the perfect opportunity to expose your children to a wide variety of foods, flavors and textures, which not only nourishes their little bodies with a wider variety of nutrients but also helps to train their palates so that they learn to enjoy many foods rather than just a few.
That’s the crux of Nourished Beginnings Baby Food, a gorgeous new cookbook that focuses on introducing wholesome, nutrient-dense first foods for babies that go beyond the bland purees and dull “kid food” to presenting delicious meals that are not only age-appropriate first foods, but that also present a wide variety of flavors.
It’s this book that I’ve leaned on in introducing new foods to my own baby who is now nearing a year old.
| Fruit and Honey Sweetened Soaked Quinoa Granola | Print |
- 6 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 2 cups quinoa
- 2 cups raw nuts such as pecans, almonds or walnuts, finely chopped or pulsed in the food processor
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 1 cup coconut flour (available here)
- ½ cup melted friendly fat such as butter, coconut oil or avocado oil
- ⅓ cup raw honey (Order it here.)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 5 cups chopped seasonal fruit such as apples, strawberries, figs and pears
- Put the oats, quinoa, chopped nuts, sea salt and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl. Add water to cover, combine and let the mixture soak 8 to 12 hours. This soaking process breaks down phytic acid in the grain, makes it easier to digest, and makes the nutrients more available to be absorbed.
- After the grains and nuts have soaked, drain the liquid and return them to the mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and combine.
- If you have a dehydrator, spread the granola onto your dehydrator trays and dehydrate at 135°F overnight (or over the course of a day). I tend to soak the mixture during the day and dehydrate overnight. If you are using an oven, spread the granola on baking sheets, set your oven at the lowest heat (such as 150°F ) and stir throughout the day. Another option is to set the oven at a higher temperature, such as 300°F or so, and bake the granola for about an hour, again stirring often until it is fully dried.
- Once the granola is dried, you can crumble it into containers for storage. You can serve the granola with raw milk, coconut milk or with whole yogurt. The texture is slightly crispy, but not too hard for toddlers to manage the chewing, though you can crumble the granola into smaller pieces
- for them if you wish. When my toddler is teething, I let the granola sit in the milk or yogurt for a bit to soak the liquid and get softer, and that works well too.
Easy Breakfasts for Happy Bellies
Most mornings, I like to start off with a light drink like this Super Green Morning Tonic or Butter Tea, but a solid breakfast is a great way to go, especially for small children. You can find all our breakfast recipes here.
Sprouted Quinoa Porridge is delightful, delicate and is served with a cardamom-spiced blackberry sauce.
Coco-Nutty Granola is easy to make in batches and you can store it in a jar for an easy breakfast you can grab in a moment’s notice.
Fresh Herb Frittata can be a nice lunch in addition to a breakfast, and it’s fantastic when you make it with spring’s very first eggs and fresh herbs.
Baked Eggs with Smoked Salmon is one of our favorites, and it only takes about five minutes of prep work before you toss them into the oven and go about your business.
Susan says
This granola sounds great for people at the opposite end of life from babyhood, too. I am really glad to see you address the issue of introducing children to real, interesting food at a young age. My husband has two sons, each of whom has two sons. The children of the younger son like all sorts of “strange” foods and are fine with trying new things. The children of the older son were apparently raised on “kid food”, and the older one (who is almost 15) is still afraid – literally – of what I call real food, as is his younger brother. That still boggles my mind. How does one change the tastes of a child like that so that they can survive in the real adult world?
DebbieP says
Just confirming: the quinoa is never cooked, just soaked and dehydrated, correct?
Lisa says
Do u dehydrate the fruit or leave it raw ?
Thank you do much
LucyRose says
re: honey and toddlers – I thought honey was generally considered unsafe, even in recipes, for children 18 mos and under? see: wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/infantbotulismhoney.htm
Jenny says
Hi Lucy,
No, that’s incorrect information. Honey can be safely fed to babies 12+ months old, according to the AAP. The risk of infant botulism at 12+ months is unheard of.
http://www.aappublications.org/content/32/12/32.5
Ami says
Do I add the fruit before dehydrating or is it for serving after the granola is dry?
Fiona Chain says
Hi Jenny
I make a simple muesli of toasted oats and nuts every second week and enjoy it daily for breakfast (it’s the main reason I get up early-to enjoy a leisurely breakfast) but this one sounds just wonderful, more nutritious and I think it would be totally delicious too. Thanks for the recipe and have a lovely day.
Fi
Lindsey says
Is it possible to use almond flour in place of coconut flour?
Jenny says
You could try and let us know how it works .
Laura says
It doesn’t specify if the quinoa is cooked before use.
Could you let us know, please?
Jenny says
Hi Laura,
If the quinoa were cooked, it would be specified in the instructions.
Domi says
Hi, I am joining the question about fruit – do I add it before dehydrating or after? Kind regards