Rawkin Carrot and Raisin Granola

January 13, 2011 By Leanne Vogel April 3, 2017

It’s Thursday! This means a couple of things…

I chose the winner for my Twitter giveaway this morning
Only 1 more day until Friday!
[Not associated with Thursdays at all, even though I’d like it to be] The 6 cookbooks that I’d ordered before Christmas were delivered last night! I only had a chance to read through a couple of recipes, but from what I can see there’s a lot of inspiration contained in these pages!

Granola winner

Thanks to all of you who entered my latest Twitter Giveaway. Congratulations goes out to @Hcultivations, I hope you love Kaia Foods and Lara Bars as much as I do! For those of you who didn’t win tasty Kaia Foods granola, do not fear. I come prepared. Although it’s a bit more work than receiving a package in the mail, I promise this granola is good too!

On with the eats…

I challenged myself by going on a raw diet when I was studying to become a nutrition educator. Read more about my raw journey here. A couple of weeks into it I was hit with a strong craving for sweet, crunchy, sticky, cereal. I searched high and low, but couldn’t find anything worth mentioning [there was no such thing as Kaia Foods at the time]. That’s when I came up with the recipe below. It was my saving grace! It’s evolved over the years, but has taken it’s best change yet when I attempted to make it sugar-free today! Why sugar-free? Why not! Natural sweeteners like honey, stevia, and maple syrup are a much better choice over processed white sugar but, at the end of the day they are still sugar and should be enjoyed every-so-often. Making this recipe has reminded me of this very fact. Since starting my blog I’ve found myself loving the honey, and maple syrup maybe a bit too much. So, I’m making a conscious effort to reduce natural sweeteners in my life. Starting today. [Don’t worry though, they’ll still be loads of awesome recipes going on! Less sweetener doesn’t mean less fun. Promise.]

Rawkin Carrot and Raisin Granola

Author: Leanne Vogel

Recipe type: Dairy-free,Egg-free,Gluten-free,Grain-free,Paleo,Refined Sugar-free,Soy-free,Vegan,Vegetarian

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 6 hours

Total time: 6 hours 20 mins

Serves: 16

This SUGAR FREE granola can be baked in the oven or slowly dried in the dehydrator. When dehydrated, the fresh apple “sauce” clumps up to make beautiful granola clusters! [There will be clusters in the baked version, just not as large.] It’s delicious on its own, sprinkled over fruit, or enjoyed the classic way – in a bowl with almond milk [don’t forget the banana!…mmm]

Ingredients

1 cup pecans
3 cups almonds
2 cups sunflower seeds
water
3 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 apples, pureed in a Vitamix or food processor (similar consistency to apple sauce)
2 lemons, zest only
4 medium carrots, grated
1 cup quinoa flakes (optional – you could also use rolled oats – just don’t get the instant kind!)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1½ cups raisins

Instructions

Place pecans, almonds, sunflower seeds and vanilla extract in a large glass bowl. Fill bowl until all nuts and seeds are covered. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in fridge overnight
Rinse nut and seed mixture before placing it in a large bowl
Combine remaining ingredients
Place on a ParaFlexx sheet (it should take up at least 4 sheets) and dry on 110F for 5-6 hours

View Nutritional Information (once on page scroll down) Don’t have a dehydrator? No problem! I’ve included a baked version below. Here are the amazing clusters of dehydrated granola! Note: the baked version will not be raw, as the contents have been heated past 118F, but it’s still delicious!

Directions [baked version]

Preheat oven to 300F
Combine all ingredients but raisins in a bowl
Lay out on 2 cookie sheets lined with parchment paper
Place in the oven for 45-50 minutes, making sure to stir every 15 minutes or so
Remove from oven and stir in raisins

Store both versions of this recipe in an airtight container in the fridge. Will keep for up to a month. What’s your ultimate favourite granola flavour? Do you like clusters in your granola?

This entry was tagged: carrot, granola, raisin