The first time I heard of nori granola, I was instantly impressed by how brilliant the idea is. The recipe by Heidi Swanson, one of my favourite bloggers, combines the salty seaweed with a whole lot of complementing and contrasting flavours. There are oats, obviously. But there are also less obvious additions like cashews, fennel and sesame seeds. All bound together by a tiny amount of honey and olive oil.
This isn't breakfast cereal. This is a grown up granola that's perfect for snacking. I'm yet to try it with yogurt but I've already scattered it all over a bowl of pumpkin soup and it was delicious there too.
Heidi says to use up the granola in a week so what follows is half her recipe.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup oats
3/4 cups coarsely chopped raw cashews
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp fennel seeds
3 six-inch nori sheets, crumbled
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp brown sugar (I used coconut sugar)
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp olive oil
Preheat the oven to 150C and line a baking sheet with parchment. Combine all the dry ingredients (the first seven on the list) in a bowl. In a small saucepan, heat honey, sugar and water until the sugar dissolves. Stir it constantly, it should take about 3-4 minutes. Pour the syrup over the oats and other things and stir to coat well. Add the olive oil, mix well and spread in an even layer on the baking sheet.
Bake for about half an hour until the granola is golden brown. Give it a stir a couple of times, every 10 minutes or so, just so the granola bakes evenly. Let cool on the tray - it will crisp up as it cools - then store in an airtight jar.
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