Banana Bread Lentil Granola

I have a confession I must come clean on. I’m not really a granola eater. I’m a savory breakfast girl. A bowl of refried beans, topped with my latest fermentation, maybe a few toasted nuts, ideally some hot sauce, and a runny egg is my heaven.

I call this breakfast a “gut bowl” as it is great for your digestion and gut health, but I’ve been told I need a better name for it.

Realistically, I’ve come to realize that my mission to get the population eating bowls of spicy fermented foods and beans for breakfast might be a bit far-fetched, but maybe I can take all the benefits of those bowls and turn them into a sweet breakfast sensation. That is how my original lentil granola was born.

While the original granola, lemon cardamom version, and the black sesame, buckwheat, red bean granola are all exquisite, I realized I wanted something a bit more familiar and comforting. When staring at a wall of discounted produce, some brown bananas called to me. They said, you love us in Beanana Bread, why not make Beanana Granola? I couldn’t deny this very reasonable request.

Why do I love this granola? It is crunchy from the buckwheat, a bit nutty from the lentils, and packed with so much banana bread flavor without being too sweet.

“Too sweet” is commonly used in this day and age with food, and to be perfectly honest, many of you may say this granola is “not sweet,” but when I was on the phone with my friend this weekend discussing granola, we both agreed that the world of granola has come too far. Why is the expectation that we are putting cookies in our breakfast? So this is not cookie granola, but it is delicious.

Recipe: