Homemade granola is going to become the hero in our quest to eat a decent breakfast every morning. One of my desires in this new-ish year is to eat a good filling breakfast (without having to get up earlier) every morning. I’m thinking big batch cooking will save the day, like a ready and handy jar of this tahini cardamom and maple granola; it will certainly make mornings tasty, full and breezy.

The truth is, I haven’t made any granola this year. I may have a bit of a burnout coming off a year of consistently making granola. This time last year, we were averaging two to three batches a month.

I had granola for breakfast most mornings; delicious toasty clusters of oats, nuts and fruit sprinkled on coconut milk yoghurt, in velvety rich almond milk, folded into creamy oatmeal, or munching a handful on its own as snack. I’m not sure when exactly the shift from granola begun, but these days I’ve just been drinking coffee in the morning, which is not the most satiating meal to get one through the morning.

If you’re unfamiliar with tahini (you must be new here, welcome), it’s sesame seed ground into smooth paste. Used mostly in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, tahini has a lighter and earthier taste than other nut butters, it’s subtly savoury. I use it in creamy salad dressings, hummus and falafel.

I like using nut butters in granola as they boost the salty quotient, creating a more flavourful granola. Tahini lends a layer of nuttiness and subtle savoury flavours, as well as help balance out the sweet and salty ratio. Hence this granola is nutty, sweet and salty and a little addictive.

Lightly sweetened with maple syrup, the granola is packed with oats, almond, pistachio, coconut flakes and a dash of warm aromatic spices. There’s also a handful of fruit thrown in the mix – dried blueberries, raisins, cherries and tart golden berries; you get a wonderful mix of simple deliciousness with every spoonful.

If like me, you have a jar of tahini sitting in the fridge from making last week’s hummus, use some in this granola; keep making this granola until you run out of tahini.
Seriously, it’s that good!