• Home
  • Recipes
  • Inspirations
  • About
  • Contact
Menu

Borrowed Salt

recipes inspired by other people's kitchens
  • Home
  • Recipes
  • Inspirations
  • About
  • Contact
Strawberry-Coconut-Bircher

Crunchy Strawberry Coconut Bircher

June 8, 2014

I've just discovered the bircher.  It's an uncooked mix of rolled oats, fruit and nuts.  Very simple.  Very healthy.  And actually pretty delicious.  But for some reason, the bircher is not a massive thing amongst people I know.  Hmmm.

Let's start with the word bircher.  What's not to like?  It's so quaint and cheery and natural-sounding.  It's like a tiny, adorable breakfast tree.

Then there's the process.  No cooking, barely any utensils needed, and it keeps well?  Yes.  Check.

So I Wikipedia'd the bircher to understand where this hot new trend is coming from.  Turns out, I am severely behind the times.  Back in the early 1900's, a Swiss nutritionist named Maximillian Bircher-Benner was advocating a diet of raw fruits,  veggies and nuts to help patients at his Zurich sanatorium.  This was a massive new concept at the time, colliding with commonly held beliefs that food had to be cooked, and that meat and bread should be the basis of good nutrition.

He went on to invent muesli, which is now known as that less-sexy cousin of granola without the honey and oil.  But his creation differed from what we see on store shelves - it was a mixture of oats and liquid, soaked but not cooked, with fruits and nuts added just before serving.  

Bircher-muesli has come barreling back into fashion - it's raw (how trendy!), low GI (yay for stable insulin levels!) and incredibly, awesomely easy. 

My take has strawberries, coconut, pecans and almonds as flavorings.  Try and toast the nuts and coconut first - it really adds to the flavor.  5-10 minutes in a toaster oven at 400F / 200C will do it.  There are a million other variations to play with.  I've listed a few to try, after the jump.

Strawberry-Coconut-Bircher

Crunchy Strawberry Coconut Bircher

Yield: Serves 1.  1 part rolled oats to 2 parts water per serving.

Prep Time: 5 min     Cook Time: 15 min     Total Time: 20 min

Ingredients

2 Tbs rolled oats

4 Tbs water

4 strawberries

1 tsp toasted coconut flakes

2 tsp flaked almonds, toasted

3 pecans, chopped coarsely

a drizzle of honey or agave

 

In a bowl, soak rolled oats and water for 15 minutes or so.  Mash strawberries with a fork.  Add strawberries and their juices, nuts and a bit of honey to taste.  That's it!

Keeps well in a jar for a day or so - great for on-the-go work breakfasts and late afternoon snacks.

 

Variations

Blueberries, a drop of vanilla extract, and macadamia nuts

Apples, cinnamon, maple syrup and walnuts

Apricots, dried cherries, and pistachios

Flax seeds, raspberries, blackberries and almonds

Chia seeds, blueberries and cherries

Strawberry-Coconut-Bircher
In Breakfast Tags bircher, oats, fruit, nuts
← Zucchini Fettuccine with Chorizo, Tomato, and OlivesChorizo, Fennel and Orange Salad →

Recent Posts

Blog
IMG_4837.jpeg
about 2 years ago
IMG_3575 (1).jpeg
about 2 years ago
IMG_3279.jpg
about 4 years ago
IMG_4958.jpg
about 5 years ago
IMG_4832.jpg
about 5 years ago
IMG_0093.jpg
about 6 years ago
about 6 years ago
IMG_3283 sq.jpg
about 8 years ago
IMG_3225 sq small.jpg
about 9 years ago
about 9 years ago
about 9 years ago
about 9 years ago

Powered by Squarespace