Raw, Gluten-Free, Buckwheat Granola!

Want a healthy spin on your typical fat-laden granola? Most typical granola brands contain ingredients like sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, nuts (which have gone rancid, and are not properly prepared by soaking), and dried fruits (often prepared with preservatives like sulphites). In addition, other chemical additives are typically squeezed in to prolong shelf-life and make it taste better than it actually is. 

This raw granola recipe is gluten-free, vegan, and features healthy ingredients like hemp, chia and pumpkin seeds, immune-boosting goji berries and cranberries as well as raisins. Making a lot of this granola ahead of time, and storing it in the fridge will ensure you always have some on hand. 

You can Taylor-make your own granola too - just because I added something or didn't add something doesn't mean you can't omit or add something else you think might taste good! If you like some other kind of dried fruit, go ahead and add it!

You can enjoy this raw granola recipe by itself as a healthy snack, or with some raw almond milk if you please! (Click HERE for a raw almond milk recipe)

Ingredients:
- *2 cups raw sprouted buckwheat (get the non-roasted buckwheat, so you can sprout it)
- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked overnight (8 hours)
- 1/4 cup hemp seeds
- 1 tbsp. chia seeds
- 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1/2 cup dried organic cranberries (unsweetened)
- 1/2 cup dried organic raisins
- 3 ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 tbsp. spirulina powder
- 10 medjool dates, pitted and chopped into tiny cubes
- Spices: 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. cloves, 1/2 tsp. vanilla bean pinch cumin and pinch cayenne pepper

*To sprout buckwheat, simply soak it in some water overnight, then drain the water and let it sit in a cloth bag or a jar with a sprouting lid for 10-24 hours, or until little tails start to come out of the buckwheat

Directions:
1. Remove soak water from the pumpkin seeds and roughly chop
2. Put all ingredients into a large bowl (except for the bananas) and mix around until well incorporated
3. Add in the mashed bananas and mix well into the granola mixture
4. Spread out onto Teflex dehydrator sheets and dehydrate for 8-12 hours at 115 degrees F. Flip your granola over onto the mesh tray, remove Teflex sheets and dehydrate for another 8-12 hours or until dry and crisp. Once cool, break up granola into tiny pieces and store in an air tight container in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.

***If you do not have a dehydrator simply put this mixture onto a cookie sheet, and lightly dehydrate in the oven on the lowest temperature with the oven door open (to avoid the inside of the oven getting too hot). The heat in an oven will be much hotter than that in a dehydrator, so that means that it would take much less time to dehydrate, and may not be as raw as you would want. If this is not a problem for you, then go ahead with this method.