Guilt-free granola

Photos: Sriram Narayanan

As much as I love baking goodies, not everything I make is rich, sweet, buttery and calorie packed. In fact, ever since I started on an exercise routine around three months ago, I have been at my wit’s end, trying to eat right. And this has more to do with how often I eat than what I eat.

After a month of regular exercise, I realised I had lost more muscle instead of fat; an extremely unhealthy weight loss that one usually associates with fad and starvation diets. 

Now, I am clearly not the sort of person to go on a fad diet. It was, I believed, the other way round. I had been exercising and eating healthy. Starting the day with fruit, increasing my lean protein (egg whites and skinless chicken) and fibre intake, eating lots of greens and whole grains, the works.

Therefore, the sudden muscle loss was a bolt from the blue.

After going over my daily eating habits, what my dietician told me came as a revelation. The problem was my eating too little and not as often as I should. The right way of going about it was to eat a small, healthy snack every two hours (yes, you read that right). A handful of toasted peanuts between breakfast and lunch, a few almonds and a couple of walnuts after lunch; hell, apparently, even an occasional cheese slice constituted good snacking!

Since then, the enthusiastic cook in me has been busy devising ideas for small snacks that are tasty, very healthy, filling and easy to pack on the go. And these cardamom and banana granola bars fit the bill perfectly. The oats in these bars ensure a slow and steady release of glucose in your bloodstream, so you feel full for a longer time. The almonds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds in the bars are protein packed, apart from being rich sources of good fats or Omega-3 fatty acids.

All natural, easily-made-at-home granola bars Photos: Sriram Narayanan

Moreover, unlike store-bought granola and “energy” bars that contain artificial sweeteners or sugar substitutes, these moist and chewy homemade bars are all natural, made with raw cane sugar, a bit of honey and sultanas, and unsweetened fruit puree.

Oats, almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds pack a protein punch in these bars

I gave the bars a slightly Indian kick by adding in crushed cardamom and mashed bananas to the granola mix, which lifts them several notches higher than any other granola bar I have tasted recently.

Melt raw cane sugar with oil, banana puree and honey on a low flame Photos: Sriram Narayanan

On a particularly rushed day, when you are racing from the office to a client meeting across town, these granola bars make for a satisfying, tasty snack between meals.

Cut the baked granola into bars when still warm Photos: Sriram Narayanan

Happy eating!

Cardamom and Banana Granola Bars

Ingredients

3 cups oats (270 gm)

¾ cup (100 gm) almonds, chopped

¾ cup (90 gm) raisins or sultanas

½ cup (100 gm) sunflower/pumpkin seeds

11 cardamom pods, crushed finely

½ cup (120 gm) raw cane sugar or light brown muscovado sugar (I use Waitrose, which is available at HyperCity outlets)

¼-cup honey

½ cup (150 gm) unsweetened fruit puree (I used ripe elaichi bananas)

½-teaspoon salt

1-tablespoon oil

Method

Preheat oven at 160C.

Blitz one cup of oats in a mixer to a fine powder. Mix this with the whole oats, chopped almonds, raisins, and pumpkin or sunflower seeds in a large bowl.

Place a pan on low to medium heat. Add oil, honey, raw cane sugar, and the fruit puree and stir until the sugar melts fully. Remove from heat.

Mix the dry mixture well into the melted cane sugar mixture. Spread the granola mix in a greased, square baking pan and pat down with a spatula to smoothen and even the surface. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from oven and cut into squares when still warm. Let cool before storing in an airtight container.