Set yourself up for the day with a healthy, roughage rich muesli.  The mix and make up is endless and Turkey has a great range of fruits and nuts cheaply and readily available to zing up your oats.

I noticed the other day that Muesli is hitting the shelves in a wide variety of mixes and prices to match.  It’s easy and more economic to make your own and the raw ingredients are now easier to find in the market or local delis.

Here’s a recipe to get you started and some of the Turkish words to help you find what you need.

Suzeli – you’ll need

• 1 cup - Rolled wheat (Tam Bugday Ezmezi)
• 1 cup Rolled Oats (Tam Yulaf Ezmezi)
• ¼ cup toasted bran (Kepek)
• 2 tablespoons of whole flax seeds (Keten Tohumu) – toast yourself in a dry frying pan
• ½ cup of toasted nuts – hazelnuts (findik), almonds (badem), walnuts (ceviz), etc  - again toast these in a dry pan and bash up a bit in a pestle and mortar
• 1 cup dried fruits – raisins (kuru uzum/sultani), apricots (kayisi kurus parcalari) - chop these with scissors and any other fruits you like.

If you can find it (I haven’t yet) you can also include rolled barley (Tam arpa ezmezi).

Method

Just mix it all together in a bowl and then transfer to a storage jar.

Serving Suggestion

This muesli is delicious stirred into local yoghurt and drizzled with a local village honey. You can also add seasonal fresh fruits as desired.

The added benefit of this is that you’ll be taking on local flavours and ‘friendly’ bacteria which make it easy on the gut.

Flax seeds are one of the 'super foods' and well worth including.  Buy them whole as they'll keep longer than ground flax which can go rancid.