Pumpkin spice may be one of the most adored flavors in our house. Because it only comes around once a year, I’m happy to go pumpkin spice crazy! This homemade pumpkin spice granola recipe isn’t an everyday recipe, but it’s a healthy treat for those mornings where eggs just won’t do it. It’s also a perfect way to celebrate the changing seasons and use up any leftover homemade pumpkin puree. This recipe uses soaked oats for a healthy, gluten-free breakfast treat.
Why Soak Granola?
All living things have defense mechanisms and other properties that help them survive long enough to reproduce. In animals, these protective properties include sharp teeth or claws and the ability to run away. Plants can’t run away and may not have anything sharp to defend themselves.
One way that grains ensure survival for the next generation is that they can pass through the body of an animal (mostly) undigested. On the other side, it is a pre-fertilized seed ready to grow. Gluten, other lectins, enzyme inhibitors, and phytic acid are what allow the grains to pass through the digestive system without harming the seed (the “grain” itself).
These compounds are beneficial to the plant but they can be harmful to humans, especially in large amounts. Phytic acid is especially damaging to bone and tooth health. It has even been linked to tooth decay. Luckily, there are methods of preparing grains that help break down these compounds, making the grains more digestible. One of these methods is soaking.
How Does Soaking Work?
Soaking grains helps make them more digestible (and more nutritious) by activating phytase, a compound that helps break down phytic acid. Certain grains with high levels of natural phytase (like wheat) can be soaked with an acid medium to reduce phytic acid.
Oats are a low phytase grain. Grains with low levels of phytase need to be soaked with another grain that contains enough phytase. This recipe uses buckwheat groats because they are gluten-free and high in phytase.
Want More? Similar Recipes to Try
If you love pumpkin spice as I do, you’ll want to try these other recipes:
- Pumpkin Spice Latte – A healthy (and inexpensive) version of a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte.
- Gluten-free Pumpkin Pie – Have you ever thought the phrase “easy as pie” sounded strange? I mean, how easy can making a pie from scratch really be? When it comes to this pie, the answer is really easy.
- Easy Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal With Vanilla Glaze – Infused with warming spices, sweetened with pure maple syrup, and drizzled with vanilla glaze, this baked oatmeal is easy to make and so ridiculously yummy.
- Pumpkin Custard Bars – These maple-infused pumpkin custard bars are both delicious and easy to make.
Pumpkin Spice Soaked Granola Recipe
Ingredients
For Soaking:
- 4 cups gluten-free rolled oats
- 2 cups filtered water
- ½ cup yogurt (or kefir)
Remaining Granola Ingredients:
- ½ cup pumpkin seeds
- 2 cups almonds
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ½ cup butter (or coconut oil, melted)
- ½ cup maple syrup (or honey)
- ½ cup dried fruit
- ¼ cup coconut flakes
Instructions
For Soaking:
- In a large bowl, mix together oats and water.
- Mix in the yogurt or kefir.
- Cover with towel and let soak for 12-24 hours.
After Soaking:
- After soaking, roughly chop the pumpkin seeds and nuts and add them to the soaked oats.
- In medium size bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, salt, melted butter/coconut oil, and maple syrup/honey.
- Pour the pumpkin mixture over oat mixture and stir well.
- Dry in a dehydrator at 105°F or an oven at 200°F for 12-24 hours or until dry and crunchy, stirring occasionally.
- Once cool, add the dried fruit and coconut flakes if desired.
- Store in sealed glass jars.
Notes
Nutrition
Are you a pumpkin spice lover? What do you use it for?
Hi,
Do you drain and rinse the oats as you do the nuts? Thanks
Sounds delicious! I think you may have left out the raisins or another dried fruit in your ingredients list, judging from the photo. How much did you add? Thanks!
Hi Cathy, I think she just adds some to each bowl as she serves 🙂
do you know how much this makes? also, is it safe to leave an oven on and leave the house. thats a long time to have the oven on…have never tried it.
thank you
I do, and it doesn’t seem to be a problem. I have an electric range.
sounds wonderful!!
need to pull our dehydrator back out
What a great recipe! I don’t buy cereal and am also the party pooper in the house! Ill definitely be surprising the family with this for the weekend! Thanks Heather!!!
I’ve been reading that oats really need some flour added to the soaking medium since they don’t contain any phytase (necessary to break down the phytic acid). Is this accurate?
I was wondering the same thing, but was thinking about adding some buckwheat too it, since it is one of the grains highest in phytase.
First of all, I love the name of your blog. That’s really clever.
I’m passing this recipe onto my wife. She is in love with “early morning oats”, which is a recipe she makes with yogurt.
I think she will really like this one.
How long do you think this will keep on a pantry shelf?
Thank you Heather and Katja for this wonderful recipe! It looks both healthy and tasty. I would like to second Susanna’s question on whether it is safe to leave the oven on and leave the house since it takes quite some time. And Cathy- there was an optional 1/2 cup raisins at the very end of the recipe.
I was so excited to make this for my husband, who loves granola. However, I just took my first batch out of the dehydrator, and it has a funky bitterish sourish taste and the texture is not granola like. I used whey instead of yogurt, could that be the problem? It tasted amazing when I licked off my fingers after spreading it out on the trays, but now that it has been dried, I don’t think he is going to be willing to eat it. I hate to think of the expense and waste of all of those good organic gf ingredients. What did I do wrong?
I’m excited about the pumpkin spice granola (tried to pin that too but Pinterest says its not pinnable).
What kind of oats did you use: whole groats? steel cut? old fashioned?
Do you drain the soaking water before adding the other ingredients?