Pistachio Cardamom Granola

Recipe by The View From the Great Island

Some of my favorite recipes start out as a burning desire to taste a simple combination of flavors. Pistachio and cardamom are paired up in desserts from India to Greece, and all over the Middle East, where pistachio trees originated, but not so much here. It’s too bad, because thanks to the California climate we actually have access to a good supply of fresh pistachio nuts. But American pistachios didn’t come on the market until the 1970s, and even today you have to hunt and peck through any nut mix to find one or two bright green gems. And when you do find them in stores they are usually heavily salted. I guess I should be happy that those awful red dyed shells are a thing of the past. It’s worth the effort to try to find a bag of unsalted nuts in their shells. They have an unusual sweet flavor that comes through when it’s not masked by all that salt. The color is much brighter, too. And it’s fun to see your treasure pile of green nuts grow as you pop them out of their shells. Today I used ground cardamom for convenience, but if you really want …

Total time

0 minutes

Courses

Breakfast

Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
¼ cup sesame seeds
1 tsp cardamom
¼ cup almond oil
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
⅔ cup jumbo raisins
⅔ cups roasted unsalted pistachios (rough chopped)

Method

Set oven to 350F
Mix the oats, cardamom and sesame seeds in a bowl.
Whisk the oil, honey and vanilla together and pour over the oats, tossing well until all the oats are evenly coated.
Spread out the oat mixture on a dry baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Watch it at the end, it can burn quickly.
When the oats are golden brown, remove from the oven and add the nuts and raisins. Let cool completely on the baking sheet, then store in an airtight jar.