Many years ago I was living on a student budget in Singapore. We hungry students were literally living off vending machines, Milo milk tetra packs, cardboard box sugary cereals, Subway sandwiches and fried rice and curries from local food courts.This of course was a fry cry from cooking your own food. Those days I fell sick. Often. I slept less. Even more often. Learning about a recipe for bircher muesli or sourdough baking was not on the cards.
Looking back at those times, I wonder whether I could have saved myself from that miserable plight. This is when I wish my interest in food and nutrition should have developed years ago. Today, on this very day I can think of numerous ways to feed my body with food that requires less prep time, with food that is nutritious and delicious and with food that requires no cooking or microwaving. This recipe for Bircher Muesli (originally by the physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner) is just one of these kind of foods – rolled oats soaking overnight in juice or milk topped with grated apple, berries, nuts and seeds. Such a smart recipe!
My Quickstart with Bircher Muesli
Maximilian Bircher invented this style of food for his patients going back to the early 1900s. I learnt it after a century. Sigh! Anyway it can’t get any simpler. You just need a container to mix in everything and let it soak (or cook) overnight in the refrigerator. It saves time during the morning rush hours. Grab and go style breakfast with all the added health and nutrition benefits to kick start your day. Besides its super creamy and feels like having dessert in the morning. Vegans can use almond/coconut milk instead of yogurt and it will turn out just as good. It is an ideal “cold” start to the day when the weather is starting to turn warm. In fact I can’t think of a better breakfast to beat the heat during the warm summer months 🙂
Importance of Soaking Nuts and Seeds
I have mentioned this numerous times but always remember to soak your nuts and seeds in water. Soaking nuts, seeds, grains, pulses and beans help to break down the phytic acid present in their outer shell . This leads to better enzyme activity and absorption of the food’s nutrients in the body. All this results in easier digestibility and better overall gut health. Hence no surprise here as we soak everything in this recipe for bircher muesli.
Jump to Recipe
Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions or if you have any quick and easy breakfast recipes to share. If you like this bircher muesli recipe, please do leave a rating below. Don’t forget to tag #urbanfoodlover and follow along on Instagram for lots of foodie inspiration 🙂
Recipe for Bircher Muesli
Equipment
- Refrigerator
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp rolled oats
- 2 large oranges
- 200 ml almond milk
- 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
- 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 1 tbsp hemp seeds
- 1 tsp spice of choice either vanilla, cinnamon powder or cardamom
- 1/2 cup berries fresh or frozen
- 1 small apple grated
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
Instructions
The night before
- In a bowl, squeeze the juice of the 2 oranges
- Soak the oats and chia seeds in the freshly squeezed orange juice and almond milk. The chia seeds will expand and soak in all the liquid. Also add in the spices right now if you are using them
- Keep the above oat-orange juice – almond milk-spices mixture in the refrigerator
- Separately soak the pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds in a bowl of cold water
In The Morning
- Give the soaked pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and hemp seeds a good rinse in a sieve under cold running water
- Grate the apple
- In a bowl mix well the soaked oats-chia-spice-almond milk mix , rinsed seeds, grated apple and berries
- If eating immediately mix and keep in the refrigerator atleast 10 minutes before consuming. Or pack in food jars to carry along for work which should give enough time for everything to nicely blend in.
Notes
- Many modern recipes call for a very large quantity of rolled oats (app. 50 gm to 100 gm in some cases). I do not think it is necessary since the oats soak so well in the orange juice and then mix in with the liquid mixture. Further the add-on of nuts, berries and seeds also increases the quantity of the muesli.
- If you like to add in yogurt for extra calcium or protein, then plain natural yogurt is better than Greek or thicker yogurts as these tend to make the muesli chunky
- I have been only using fresh orange juice so really not sure how canned orange juice will taste. The original recipe from Bircher uses lemon juice, so a nice sweet citrus juice of any kind should be a good addition. Sweet Lime anyone ? Some recipes also use apple juice but I much rather prefer the citrus counterpart.
- Always remember to soak your nuts and seeds as this totally improves their digestibility. So do your gut some help.
Eva Taylor
I had this breakfast dish for the first time in Zurich, Switzerland in the late 80’s when my husband and I were in Europe on business/pleasure trip and I’ve been making it ever since! Great idea to soak the oats in OJ, great flavour booster.
It’s great that you persevered through your MBA even with all the hardships, congratulations.
urbanfoodlover
Thank you! Yup you are right the Orange juice really adds a nice citrus kick and zing to the muesli .. It’s a great dish!!
fromthefamilytable
Muesli – especially the original version – is delicious and nutritious. Your images illustrate that. Hope your journey is about over.
urbanfoodlover
Thank you! It’s been a ride but great learning along with developing my love for food and nutrition 😃
urbanfoodlover
Easy breakfast recipe – Healthy Recipe for Bircher Muesli that happens to be vegan and vegetarian!