08 Nov Recipe: Bircher Muesli by Naturopath Steph Stack
Naturopath Steph Stack (consulting at Clarity as of Nov 29th!) offers up this yummy breakfast recipe for easy mornings & happy tummies…
This is a favourite breakfast recipe to give to clients. It provides a great supply of protein and carbohydrates to kick off the day, it’s easily digested, and because you make it the night before, there’s no excuse for skipping breakfast. Even if you’re pushed for time to eat it before you get out the door, or if you exercise before breakfast, it’s a perfect travel companion that you can eat post-morning workout or nibble on when you get to work.
Why Soak?
Soaking your oats, nuts and seeds overnight will improve their digestibility substantially. It enables the breakdown of phytic acid, which unless neutralised by soaking, preferably with an acidic medium, will bind to valuable minerals and vitamins making them largely unavailable to your body. This process is especially important for vegetarians and vegans, to make sure you’re getting enough minerals from grains/nuts/seeds and not losing them to that greedy phytic acid. Oats are a wonderful source of both insoluble and soluble fibre, but most of their fame has been attributed to the latter, in the form of beta-glucan. Beta-glucan has been shown to improve glucose and insulin responses, maintain glycaemic control, and regulate blood lipids and lower total cholesterol. It has also shown positive effects on satiety, increasing the feeling of fullness after eating. These findings make oats awesome for most people (unless you are coeliac), but especially people with diabetes, high cholesterol, insulin resistance, or those trying to lose weight.
Why Oats?
And another note on the humble oat; apart from all these fantastic actions, traditionally oats are identified as an incredibly nurturing food, helping to restore the nervous system and reproductive system, and build up qi energy. In herbal medicine, we use extracts of both the oat green and seed as tonics to the nervous system, helping to alleviate fatigue, anxiety, insomnia and depression.
Boom! An original superfood at a fraction of the price! And apparently my cat thinks they’re pretty good too; Bircher Meowsli anyone??!.. Yes, I think my puns are sadly getting worse. But my cardiovascular system is most definitely winning!
Bircher Muesli Recipe
Ingredients
¼ cup rolled oats (or brown rice/quinoa flakes/oat bran)
Juice of half a lemon
½ an apple grated (including peel)
⅓ cup water
½ tsp. cinnamon or to taste
Small handful of sunflower seeds
Small handful of hazelnuts/other nuts chopped
Small handful of shredded coconut
¼ cup plain yoghurt and small handful of blueberries to serve. For dairy-free you can omit the yoghurt or use a dairy-free yoghurt and/or a tablespoon of almond butter to maintain protein content.
Method
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, except for the yoghurt and blueberries. Mix well and press down into the bowl gently. Cover bowl with a plate and leave in the fridge overnight. Remove from fridge, give the bircher a good stir, then top with yoghurt and blueberries to serve. Feel free to omit the yoghurt for a dairy-free version and use coconut yoghurt instead, or a tablespoon of almond butter for a protein boost. I like to take mine out of the fridge about 20-30 minutes before I’m going to eat it so it can lose a bit of the chill from the fridge. You could definitely make double the amount and keep in the fridge for a couple of days so you’ve got breakfast sorted for at least two days.
Nutritional Information
With yoghurt: Carbohydrates 47g / Protein 13g
With 1tbsp. almond butter & no yoghurt: Carbohydrates 49g / Protein 11.5g
With no yoghurt or almond butter: Carbohydrates 42g / Protein 8g
Enjoy!
Steph x
