Golden flax seeds – 2/3 cups golden flax seeds, or brown
Sesame seeds – 2/3 cup raw, unhulled sesame seeds
Ginger – 2 teaspoons, ground
Sea salt – 1 teaspoon
Pistachios – 1 cup
Wheat germ (optional if not gluten-free) – 2/3 cup
Chia seeds (optional) – 2 tablespoons
Water (optional) – ¼ cup
Crystalized ginger pieces – 1 cup diced
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 275.
In a small pot, combine the lemon juice, lemon zest, fresh ginger, brown sugar and honey. Bring the mixture to a simmer and stir until the sugar is dissolved, and then cover the pot and continue to simmer for about 7 minutes while you prepare the dry ingredients. Remove the candied lemon mixture from the heat and whisk int he olive oil and vanilla extract.
In a large bowl, combine the oats, flax seeds, sesame seeds, ground ginger, sea salt, pistachios and optional wheat germ and chia seeds. Mix well.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients a little bit at a time, and mix together until the oats have a wet sheen to them. If the granola looks a bit dry, stir in a bit of water.
Spread the granola on two baking sheets, packing it down with the back of a spatula.
Bake the granola for 1 hour, rotating the trays between racks halfway through (if you’re oven cooks unevenly, as mine tends to heat more in the back, spin the baking sheets around as well).
When the granola is toasted brown in color, remove it from the oven and let it cool completely before transferring to your mouth, um, I mean granola jar. If you break up the granola before it is cooled, you won’t get those tasty, intact, chunky morsels!
Add the crystalized ginger to the batch of granola once it has cooled.