Healthy Quinoa Pumpkin Spice Granola

This pumpkin spice quinoa granola is both delicious and good for you, and gets you ready for those chilly fall days! Great on top of yogurt, on muffins, or just a quick snack by the handful 🙂

Yes, another pumpkin recipe!

I am sure by now your Pinterest feed is blowing up with a million pumpkin recipes from every blogger under the sun and you are probably starting to get bored of all the pumpkin, but I still have a few pumpkin recipes I’ve gotsta share with you! I promise to do my best to spread them out and throw in some other recipes, including a few apple recipes from our latest picking excursion.

Where I am in the New Jersey suburbs, the temperatures have been resting comfortably within the early to mid 70’s and I can already feel the crisp promises of autumn! I started taking out my huge scarf collection and shopping around for a good pair of boots. And… okay don’t hate me, but I’ve also started looking at things for my little one for Christmas. Eep! Normally, I am one of the people shopping a night or two before Christmas trying to get my hands on whatever’s left, but I am trying to be a good mama and be proactive this year, so I don’t have to stress out about it later. I am thinking… an easel with a black and white board and a dollhouse, plus a helmet and pads for the balance bike I got her two years ago that she only now big enough to use. And as gift for me/her… I will get her passport done and I am due to renew mine.

Oh my gosh, look at me, posting a pumpkin spice granola recipe and talking about Christmas in September… who have I become?

Let’s just get back on topic, shall we?

Ever since learning about making yogurt at home with simple ingredients and equipment, I’ve had tons of yogurt on-stock all the time and loving it! I am the kind of person who loves a big yogurt bowl with tons of add-ins, especially mounds of granola. Lately, I’ve been loving the peanut butter and almond butter granolas I found on Pinterest, but wanted something that was a little more seasonal, and with a different oompf of healthy added in. I found this pumpkin granola on Skinny Taste and it sounded so interesting and I needed to try it! I was so happy that I did because it was pretty much perfect and I did not need to modify it much at all.

I doubled the recipe because the amount of granola the original recipe made was just not enough for my belly! I also used agave instead of maple and sprinkled in just a bit of brown sugar. Not too much as I wanted to keep this healthy, but just enough to give it an extra hint of sweetness. Instead of plain quinoa, I used tricolor quinoa because I need all the fall colors!

That’s it. No other major changes. Gina is a healthy-food-made-uber-delicious genius.

Don’t have time to make this amazing pumpkin granola now? Pin it for later! 

Healthy Quinoa Pumpkin Spice Granola

Yield: 1 batch

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Inactive Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 55 minutes

A healthy quinoa pumpkin spice granola that is a perfect topping to your yogurt or as an addition to your muffins. This is a quick, easy recipe you'll love

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (80 g) uncooked quinoa,rinsed and dried
• 3 cups (285 g) old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup ( 83 g) ground flaxseeds
• 2 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice (<-- click for recipe)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (60 g) pepitas (I did half pepitas and half sunflower seeds)
• 1/4 cup (30 g) chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup (60 g) dried cranberries
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (90 g) agave nectar
• 1/2 cup (115 g) pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Spread the quinoa on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Add the oats, ground flaxseeds, spices, pepitas, peacans, cranberries, and brown sugar to the bowl and toss well to combine. In a separate bowl, mix the agave, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.
3. Spread the granola on a baking pan and bake for 15 minutes. Stir once or twice, then bake for another 15 - 20 minutes. The granola should be a very light brown, but not too golden. Open the oven door a crack and let the granola sit for another 1 - 2 hours, then take out to finish cooling.

Notes

The granola tastes its best the next morning after it's had time to fully develop its flavors.

Did you make this recipe?

I'd love to see how it turned out! Tag me @acookienameddesire and use the hashtag #acookienameddesire