I was going to call this ‘Middle Eastern-inspired Breakfast Granola’, but let’s face it, the closest I’ve been to the Middle East is in fact the local Turkish shops (of which, admittedly, there are quite a few). On the other hand, I live in an area where the supermarkets routinely stock pomegranates and rosewater and Persian feta, so there’s certainly something in the idea…
Anyway, this is my Sydney Rd breakfast. The yoghurt is Greek, the pomegranates, while in this instance from the Farmers’ Market, are Mediterranean or maybe even Iranian, the Pistachios are from the Middle-Eastern grocer, the cinnamon is from one of the Indian-owned spice shops, the sunflower seeds acknowledge the granola-vegan-hippysville that Brunswick is rapidly becoming and the honey? Well, the honey is from one of the labs at work, which is technically on Sydney Rd, too. I am reliably informed that it is not radioactive or bioengineered, though I think I saw it fluorescing quietly in the kitchen last night…
All in all, a proper breakfast for my side of town, with the advantages of being quick to make, moderately healthy, very tasty, and, quite accidentally, exactly the right size for two people. Even if one of them doesn’t eat nuts. Which is just fine, because I have no problem eating this for breakfast two days running…
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15 g sunflower seeds (about 30 ml) 25 g pistachios (about 50 ml) 30 g rolled oats (about 70 ml) 25 g honey (about 20 ml) a big pinch of cinnamon seeds from half a pomegranate Greek yoghurt to serve – about 300-350 g for two people.
So I got these tomatilloes at the market, and a whole big box of peppers and chillis and then I had this black chocolate and I had pumpkin seed meal, and all of this pretty much said ‘Mexican’ to me, but there’s a problem – I really don’t know thing one about Mexican cooking. I’m sort of aware of flavours that go together, but not how to make them do so, or anything like that.
Wow, it has been a while, hasn’t it? I do apologise. I’ve spent most of the last two weeks in a state of exhaustion, between the demented craziness of getting the Project Grants in (an article came out on Thursday claiming that scientists last year collectively spent approximately 400 years on unsuccessful grants. While I feel that this figure is slightly exaggerated, it certainly felt like a decade or two was spent on them in the last month, and this was actually less time than I spent last year…), and some rather stressful things going on outside work. So when I go to start thinking about recipes for the next week, this happens:
This is such a lovely easy dinner – very fresh and full of flavour. It’s also an excellent way to use up zucchini or tomatoes that are abundant but a bit watery – roasting concentrates the flavour, the balsamic vinegar sweetens them, and you wind up with a glorious, chunky, full-flavoured sauce that really takes only about five minutes of actual kitchen time.
At last! An entry for the 
