Don’t you just love granola? Such a good snack, or over yogurt for breakfast, or even with some really cold almond milk over it. Granola and me, we’ve got a thing going. This granola has been one of my favorites recently – totally have this one on repeat and have made it so often I’ve found the need to give jars of it away. This gal does not need to be eating granola at every meal, ya know?
I love a fruity, bright flavor this time of year, especially after such brutally cold weather last week! If I turned my back to the windows, stood in front of the heater, and took a bite of this granola with a little (almond) milk, I almost felt like it was spring. Almost.
For the yogurt parfaits, I added a little bit of strawberry jam between the layers, which I felt really pulled the whole parfait experience together. The sweetness of the jam complimented the plain greek yogurt and elevated the granola with just a bit more sugar. I also used a combination of plain greek yogurt and strawberry greek yogurt, which honestly just looked pretty! Sometimes you just have to do it because it looks prettier, right?!
This granola has just a few ingredients: old fashioned oats, pistachios (love that subtle pop of green!), olive oil, honey, vanilla, dash of salt, and dried strawberries. The most challenging part about granola is getting the coating just right, which is a 50-50 balance between oil and your sugar source. For the sugar, you could use honey or maple syrup; to the coating I added vanilla extract, which I feel like really rounded out the recipe with an additional depth of flavor.
To garnish each of the parfaits, I added a final dollop of yogurt, strawberry jam and a sprinkling of granola, making sure to add a little extra dried strawberry to the top.
Granola bakes low and (kind of) slow, and you leave the fruit, whether it’s dried strawberries or raisins, etc., for the drying phase. Once the oats are golden, you take it from the oven and let it dry; it will still feel a little wet, but you just toss the fruit on top, smush it around a little so it gets embedded with the granola as it dries.
I ended up using pretty big Weck jars for these, which could easily serve 2 people from each jar. I would recommend using a smaller, jam size jar like this Weck one or this Ball one. If you want to be superrr cute, you can get an even smaller 4oz jar, which can be fun if you are making a lot of food – to have a few things that are in smaller portions.
Strawberry Vanilla Granola
Ingredients
- 1/2 c olive oil
- 1/2 c honey
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 c pistachios
- 3 c old fashioned oats
- 1 c dried strawberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300. Line baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
- In a bowl, combine oil, honey and seasoning. Stir to combine.
- Add pistachios and oats, coating the nuts and oats well.
- Arrange in a layer on the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Stir mixture 10 minutes in.
- When oats are golden brown, they're ready to come out of the oven to dry. Sprinkle on dried strawberries and allow the granola to dry/set, about 15-20 minutes.
- Break up the granola or leave it in bigger chunks. Store in an airtight container.
