Carrot, Apple & Ginger Granola

We have a lot of fruit pulp left over in our cafe, our health juices are on the menu every day and each is made from juiced, raw carrots, apples and ginger. A while ago we decide to find a way to use up this fruit pulp rather than throw it away as it's entirely edible and contains some of the most nutritious parts of the fruit. We developed our, now best-selling, fruit pulp falafels which have been a mainstay on the cafe menu ever since. Recently though we wanted to get creative again, and after discovering the wonderful blog Nibs Etc realised we could make granola out of this fruit pulp. So here we have a recipe for carrot, apple and ginger fruit pulp granola - it's not sickly sweet like normal granola but has a delicious gingery taste, perfect served with some greek yoghurt and stewed or raw fruit, or on the top of banana porridge.

Our ingredients list make 1 big batch. However, take all measurements as estimations, the beauty of granola is you can add or subtract depending on your preferences and how much fruit pulp you have available. If you don't have much fruit pulp use mashed banana instead and reduce the amount of honey/maple syrup. 

Ingredients

500g rolled oats
160g raw almonds, coarsely chopped
160g raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or ground vanilla
1 large pinch sea salt
5 tbsp coconut oil, room temperature
5 tbsp maple syrup or runny honey
Leftover fruit pulp - approx 1kg

Method

Preheat the oven 140°C and line a large baking tray with baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine oats, chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds, vanilla and salt.

In a pan melt the coconut oil and maple syrup or honey. Once melted, remove from the heat and add the fruit pulp (removing any large pieces) and combine together.

Add the fruit pulp mixture to the dry mixture and combine well, using your hands, so all the oats are coated.

Turn out and spread the granola in an even layer on the baking tray. If needed use two baking trays rather than letting the mixture get too thick - this will slow the cooking.

Place in the middle of the oven and bake for approximately 40-60 minutes, check each 10 minutes and turn the granola over with a wooden spoon intermitantly.

Allow to cool completely before putting in a container and storing in the fridge.

Other uses for fruit pulp granola....

Not ones to stop there we also tried the granola in a cake! Now occasionally on the menu in our cafe you can find this banana and granola loaf - made using the fruit pulp granola!