Coconut + Seed Grain-Free Granola

If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE gluten and everything that can be made with hearty, whole wheat flour.

And, if you’ve been following along this spring, you’ve likely noticed that there’s not a lot of flour around these parts right now. No, I have not had a change of heart about gluten (NEVER!) Gluten is wonderful, grains are so so good for us – all of us – and I will never let them go. But that doesn’t mean I won’t swap them out when it’s seasonally appropriate. Enter this Coconut and Seed Grain Free Granola (so so good.)

The lesser-known side of seasonal eating

When we think of seasonal eating, we often think about eating the fruits, vegetables, and plants that are in season, and growing where we live. This is a tricky thing to decipher in the United States because we can have whatever we want when we want it, and we have no idea when anything is growing because it’s all available, flown in from across the world to sate our appetites, and so seasonal eating seems….abstract.

Ayurveda sorta makes this worse because, by the way, eating seasonally DOES mean eating what’s grown locally to you, where you are, but it also means eating in such a way that balances the qualities of the season you’re in. Each of the seasons has different qualities, and is governed by a different dosha in Ayurveda; winter is the season of vata with its rough, cold, mobile, blustery ness. Summer is the season of pitta; hot, oily, slimy, and wet.  Spring is the season of kapha, replete with its heavy, damp, sluggish, slow, and moist qualities, and since opposites balance, we want to eat in a way that reduces these qualities in our bodies. This is to say that foods that are light, crisp, astringent, and warming are the way to go. And, by the way, that means that many of the foods that we typically would eat when we think of spring and its sunshine at last (bright salads, cold juices, fresh fruits) are the opposite of what our bodies want and need because they only amplify the qualities of coolness, dampness and moisture.

So what does that have to do with a seedy, coconut granola?

As the equinox turned, I made a huge batch of this Coconut and Seed Grain-Free Granola to last us a few weeks. Grains, as it turns out, are fabulous, necessary moisture givers for the body, and we want this quality in other times of year. But in the spring, it’s important to reduce that moisture and astringent, small seeds do a great job of this while still providing our bodies with important fats and proteins to fuel our endurance efforts. For these next weeks, as my body is sloughing off winter and springing forward, this is what I’m eating for breakfast.

So grain-free….for good?

Going grain-free as a tool for balancing the doshas in the body, and remedying digestive issues is a rad and smart way to use nutrition in your favor. Going grain-free for good, however, isn’t an idea that I recommend for anyone, particularly active, high-achievers, and athletes. The astringent qualities of grain-free foods are wonderful when we need them as medicine, but they threaten to throw the body far off balance when they’re present constantly. We need astringent and moisturizing foods in balance to keep our bodies strong and functioning at their peak, and a grain-free diet (or any restrictive diet for that matter) is the opposite of this.

This granola!

…is not too sweet, just salty, refined-sugar free, crunchy, crave-able and so so good in so many ways. I love to eat it:

• as a crunchy topping for porridge
• on its own with yogurt or milk
• as a snack by the handful
• ground up as a grain-free crust for  No-Bake Cashew Cheesecakes

I hope you love it (seasonally!) as much as I do!