Coconut Granola with Wild Alchemy

Today, I would like to introduce you to Lucie Hawkes of Wild Alchemy Foods. Lucie and I got chatting at Lewes Farmers Market last year sometime. When I very bravely (or so I thought) tried my first taste of Cherry Kombucha, which as it turns out is pretty delicious! Since then I have popped to Lewes on many occassions for a few of Lucie's gut friendly goodies. During which time, I also managed to convince her to share one of her recipes on the blog. So here we are, with a delicious coconut granola, that is also free from dairy, gluten (if you buy gluten free oats) and refined sugar, and I have to say it has been a real hit with the girls, they demolished the lot pretty quickly and now have given orders for me to make some more.

Recipe:

80g coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla powder
60g coconut sugar
2 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
200g jumbo oats (gluten free if you want the granola to be gluten free)
60g desiccated coconut
50g pecans
30g almonds
30g pistachios
30g chopped hazelnuts
30g sunflower seeds
30g pumpkin seeds

Added after cooking:

2 tablespoons of chia seeds
2 tablespoons of linseeds

Method

Heat the oven to 150 degrees Celcius.
In a deep baking tray (we lined mine with baking parchment), add the coconut sugar, maple syrup, honey, vanilla powder and coconut oil.
Heat in the oven for 2 minutes, until the oil has melted.
Then add the oats, pecans, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and mix well.
Bake for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so to break up any clumps.
Once cooked, stir in the chia seeds and linseeds.
Leave to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Enjoy!

Whilst she was here, I asked Lucie to share a little bit about herself:

Can you tell my readers what it is exactly that Wild Alchemy does?

"My main focus is on gut friendly, probiotic food and drinks. Wild Alchemy products include cultured and fermented coconut milk kefir, kombucha and raw snacks. I have a stall every week at the Lewes Food Market and stock a selection of products at Youjuice in Brighton."

What drove you to start Wild Alchemy?

"My partner was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that I was pretty sure was related to poor diet and gut health, he lived in L.A at the time and had quite a busy, stressful work life which had a bad effect on his health. This really kickstarted my interest in gut health and probiotics. I also come from a very large family of health 'nuts'! My mum bought us up with the best foods and natural medicines, so we're all interested in health in one way or another, whether it be fitness or food!"

Lucie's partner's health improved dramatically as a result of the change in diet and his auto-immune disease is in remission. Once again adding to the evidence that I believe to be true, in the connection between gut health and disease.

If you live in Brighton or Lewes, I highly recommend paying Lucie a visit, or you can find her here:

Website - www.wildalchemyfoods.com
Instagram - @wildalchemyfoods

Have a great weekend.

Emma x