orange banana bircher muesli

This orange banana bircher muesli recipe is so delicious, healthy and easy to make. Start the night before for a quick grab + go breakfast!

I always used to think of muesli as a very boring way to start the day. Muesli seemed so unappealing to me to be honest. I thought of it as a dry and bland mixture of chewy, unpallatable bits and pieces. 

So that’s why in the past, when I wasn’t health concious at all, the crunchy and sugary kind of oats were my go to breakfast. But little did I know that the sugar content of those kinds of cerials were skigh high! It’s almost the same as eating crumbled cookies for breakfast!

Luckily, I don’t feel this way about muesli anymore. I once stumbled on something called “bircher muesli” when I was staying in Germany. It tasted magnificent! That was when I discovered that there are many ways to prepare muesli besides just adding it dry to a bowl of milk or yogurt. 

Bircher muesli requires you to soak your muesli first so it becomes soft and porridge like. Soaking the oats in plant based milk, yogurt or juice makes them taste creamy and sweet. Then, after soaking, you add a grated apple to the mixture. You can make the mix a little thinner with extra milk or yogurt and top it all off with extra fruits and nuts. It’s such a delicious way to start the day!

Bircher muesli is actually pretty similar to overnight oats. The recipes both call you to soak an oat mixture in liquid. But did you know that bircher muesli was the predecessor of overnight oats? That’s because it’s a recipe that dates way back to the 1900’s. It was invented by a Swiss physician called Bircher-Brenner, who wanted to help his patients with a healthy diet and came up with this recipe.

This recipe for orange banana bircher muesli is not the original way to make this dish, but it’s a nice flavor variation I came up with. In this recipe we will add a mashed banana and orange juice for some extra fruity flavor and more nutrients. 

This orange banana bircher muesli is super simple to make but the result is great! Just make sure you start the night before you want to eat your breakfast so the muesli has enough time to soften up. The next morning you just add the grated apple, add the muesli to a bowl with some extra plant based milk. Then you can get as creative as you want by adding delicious fresh fruits and nuts. Enjoy!

Servings: 2-3

Ingredients:

• 130 grams/ 1 cup basic muesli ( with raisins, nut/sunflower seeds, mixed grains) 
• 1 banana
• 1 orange
• 1 apple
• 120 ml. / 1/2 cup  almond milk + more to make the muesli thinner
• pinch of cinnamon
• fresh fruit + chopped nuts

Method:

1. Start the night before. To a large bowl, add the banana and mash it with a fork until smooth. 
2. Juice the orange and add to the bowl with a pinch of cinnamon. 
3. Add the muesli and the almond milk and stir. Cover the bowl and keep in the fridge overnight.
4. The next morning, grate the apple with skins on and add to the overnight muesli. Make the muesli thinner with some extra almond milk until you achieve the desired consistency.
5. Serve the overnight muesli in bowls and top with fresh fruit and nuts.
6. Enjoy!