Coco Granola by Kindima Bah - 5 Amazing Cheap Recipes From Pro Chefs to Sustain in Lockdown

This piece was written by our Community Ambassador, Food publisher, writer and advocate Riaz Phillips. You can find out more about Riaz here

At the start of the first COVID-19 lockdown when news began to trickle out that the communities that were being negatively impacted the most were the ones closest to me, I wanted to do something positive that helped those in need and at the same time shone a positive light on underrepresented food cultures in the UK.

The result was Community Comfort, an incredible array of recipes inspired by a global palette of cuisines. The following recipes are a handful that I have picked due to their ease to make, relatively cheap ingredients and for how long each cook can last especially given these winter days!


Recipe Three
Coco Granola by Kindima Bah

This dish is from Kindima’s travels to her grandmother’s home in Guinea, West Africa. Visiting here she had a daily routine of snacking on an array of local grown nuts and seeds. Whilst many are working from home, a great amount of people still have to get up and go, and for both this is perfect. It takes less than half an hour to prepare. You can increase the volume of the ingredients to make it last for weeks. Store in airtight jars or tupperware. Perfect for breakfast or a snack anytime of day.

 

Coco Granola dish
Coco Granola



Method

  1. Start by measuring all dry ingredients and place them into a large bowl.
     
  2. Use your hands to mix them well together and make sure the bowl is big enough to add the honey mixture later.
     
  3. Next take a big pot and add the olive oil and honey into it.
     
  4. Heat it up and bring it to a boil. When it starts to bubble, bring the heat to medium and stir often for about 2 minutes. Make sure the honey mixture doesn’t turn too dark.
     
  5. Now pour the honey mixture over your dry ingredients.
     
  6. Put your oven on at a low-medium heat around 150 degrees celsius.


Ingredients

Serves seven bowls (Vegan, Gluten Free)

400g Rough oats
150g Almonds
120g Pumpkin seeds
100g Sesame seeds
200g Pecans

150g Hazelnuts
170ml Olive oil
300g Honey
2 tbsp Cocoa powder
 

With food poverty unfortunately on the rise, at the moment, it’s very understandable that affordability is a shifting scale given the uncertainty of COVID-19. Spark & Co has a host of resources for financial support including a variety of food banks and monetary aides that are searchable by gender, age, region location and Ethnic background or race.

You can read Riaz's next recipe Cauliflower and Mushroom Pasta Bake by Nyasha Sakutakwa here.

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5 Amazing Cheap Recipes from Pro Chefs to Sustain you in Lockdown