Blueberry Pistachio Granola

Granola is one of those things that’s great for breakfast and great for snacking, because it’s a blank canvas when it comes to flavor. Today’s granola is a little sweet and a little savory with a little hint of citrus. And, it’s absolutely delicious!

It’s ridiculously simple to make granola, and that’s what so great about this recipe. Pick your dry ingredients, toss them with some wet ingredients, give them some flavor, and pop it all in the oven. That’s it!

For the base of our granola, we’ll start with some oats. There are a couple different varieties of oats on the market. But from a texture standpoint, I prefer to use old fashioned (or rolled) oats. We’ll toss the oats with some lightly salted shelled pistachios, and it’s time to work on the flavorings.

To flavor our granola, we’re going to use a little bit of lemon zest and a subtle touch of cinnamon. Then, we’ll mix that into the oat/nut mixture along with some melted coconut oil and maple syrup. And, that’s all we need to assemble our granola.

Now, let’s talk about coconut oil for a second. You typically see 2 kinds of coconut oil: refined and unrefined. Unrefined coconut oil has more of a coconut flavor to it. I love coconut, but I didn’t want that to be one of the flavor profiles in this granola. So, we’re going to use refined coconut oil. If you’re totally coconut obsessed, feel free to use unrefined.

Once our granola mix is together, to the oven it goes to dry out and lightly toast. We're going to toast it at a low temperature so that it gets nice and crunchy without burning. Then as soon as the granola comes out of the oven, we get to mix in our final ingredient...dried blueberries! The dried fruit is was really adds a pleasant sweetness to this granola, but it's important to wait until after the granola finishes in the oven before we add the fruit. If we toss our blueberries into the mix before it goes in the oven, they'll become dry, tough, and rubbery. And, nobody wants that!

The finished product is a harmonious blend of sweet and savory. The blueberries, lemon, and cinnamon add a lovely sweetness to our granola. But, those salted pistachios perfectly balance out the sweetness. If Goldilocks was looking for a jar of granola that wasn't too sweet or too salty, this would be it!

This granola flavor is sure to be on permanent rotation in my house from here on out, and I'm sure it will be in yours too!

I hope you guys love this one as much as I do, enjoy, and let's eat!