Carrot Cake Granola

We may have ended up with one too many bags of carrots at our home for Easter. So I’ve been coming up with new ways to use them.

Throwing sliced carrots into stir fry or mixing with other roasted veggies like broccoli and zucchini is great. You can also chop up carrots in a food processor with onions & celery to form premade mirepoix which is a starter for many yummy soups and stews! I started keeping this in my freezer.

This granola recipe uses three whole grated carrots is so delicious with toasty pecan cinnamon notes and little morsels of white chocolate. Me and my husband were both eating handfuls of it on its own this week in the kitchen. ☺️

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup (or 6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 3 large carrots, shredded and squeezed dry
• 3 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped
• 3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

• Position an oven rack in the center of the oven, and preheat to 325 degrees F.
• Whisk together the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.
• Add the oats, carrots and pecans, and toss until evenly coated. Spread out on a rimmed baking sheet.
• Bake the oat mixture until golden and toasted, 30 to 35 minutes, stirring about halfway through. Let cool completely on the baking sheet.

Swaps and optional mix-ins

• To lighten this up:
  • Instead of butter, you could use coconut oil
  • The sugar could be swapped with a sugar substitute.
• Some fun mix-ins to try:
  • Dehydrated pineapple
  • Yogurt covered raisins instead of white chocolate chips
  • Also you can choose to use pecans, walnuts, or a mixture of both. I really enjoyed the spiced pecan flavor that came through in this recipe.

To serve

This carrot cake granola serves up excellent with yogurt, fresh pineapples and a drizzle of honey.

It also is wonderful to enjoy like cereal with some milk and raisins.