For security purposes, I like to keep a jar of liquorice granola in my cupboard at all times. I’m a better human being when my belly is busy.

The older I get, the more I need my food to fill an emotional crypt too. I get a better burn from lovingly crafted granola than the store-bought stuff. I get a theatrical high knowing my corner café hand-roasts their coffee beans to Shostakovich. Or that my breakfast eggs are served with a wave from the chef. It’s the love and adoration bestowed upon ingredients that really grips me, and makes me want to purr like a homeless kitten at a stranger’s leg.

Food is more than substance. It’s more than fuel. There’s no love in highly processed food – it’s just conveyor belt crap and cannot service you physically or emotionally. Not the way this granola can.

As promised to so many readers, I finally found a worthy way of re-purposing nutpulp, left over from making your very own mylk (inspired by Jodi here). Namaste.

Nut pulp Granola with Liquorice & Cinnamon

Serves 12-16

1/2 cup (125ml) virgin coconut oil

1/2 cup (125ml) good honey or rice malt

1 teaspoon flaky sea salt (sounds a lot, but it reaches 16 portions)

2 cups (300g) nut pulp, left over from making nut milk (or use ground almonds)

3 cups (270g) jumbo oats

5 teabags sweet chai or other caffeine-free tea blend, torn open

1 Fire up your oven to 160 C. Line your largest tray, or 2 smaller ones, with parchment paper.

2 In a big saucepan, gently melt your coconut oil, the honey and decent smattering of salt. You want them to smooch each other, not violently grumble. Parachute the remaining ingredients into the pan, turn off the heat, and thoroughly coat.

3 Spoon onto your prepared tray and bake for 30 minutes. This recipe requires longer cooking time than regular granola, because the wet nut pulp needs to dry in the oven. If it’s not dry, it won’t store well. Don’t be tempted to crank up the heat – this will only burn the oats.

4 Toss the granola tray twice, while baking, to prevent browning edges.

5 Remove from the oven once cooked. Clouds of warm-scented liquorice and honey will waft through your house, reminding you (and the apartment block) of your culinary wizardry.

Can be stored for up to 3 weeks in a tightly sealed jar, sprinkled over despondent salads or languorous mornings. I added some sprouted buckwheat and cacao nibs a week later, to change it up a little (see photo).

Taking the hell out of healthy.

Hit “BOOM” at the top left corner with your email address my friend, to receive new monthly recipes direct to your inbox. Free of charge. Namaste!

If Shakespeare was reincarnated, this would be it. Cold Brew Coffee.

Make it immediately. Today. Now. For wellness junkies, you can offset the caffeine indulgence with a field of kale later. Or try this cold brew cacao instead.

Cold brew is simply an easy way of making coffee concentrate. Instead of relying on heat to extract the flavour from the coffee beans, you’ll be relying on a full moon and pheromones. I leave mine overnight in the fridge, after an interactive chorus of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck. In the morning, all that’s left to do is strain and serve over ice. It’s enough to incite poetry in a three-toed onglet.

Because the coffee beans do not socialise with intense heat, the result is a smoother, lighter, sweeter kava with an unexpected smack of hard rock.

One final FYI; cold brew coffee is bodaciously good with macadamia nutmilk. Just soak 100g of maca nuts in water for two hours. Ditch the soak water, and spin in a blender with 250ml of fresh water or cold brew coffee. Strain through your cheesecloth, chill in the fridge, and summon when required.

Cold Brew Coffee

4-8 servings

1 litre cold filtered water

220g coffee beans

1 nutmilk bag or cheesecloth

1 Roughly grind your coffee beans to a super-coarse crumb.

2 In a tall Kilner jar, or French Press, add the filtered water to your coarse coffee beans. I like to make a ceremony out of it. The soundtrack to Star Wars is not inappropriate.

3 Seal with a lid. If using a French Press, don’t push down – just ensure no oxygen sneaks in through the spout. Leave the beans to fraternise with the filtered water in the fridge overnight, or for up to 24 hours (the sweet spot).

4 When the brew is ready, strain twice through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth (or plunge the French Press). The double filtration ensures every last scrap of silt disappears. Compost the coffee beans, or use them in the shower as a bodyscrub mixed up with olive oil.

5 Refrigerate your cold brew coffee for up to 6 days. Serve with an audience, over ice. Or use this recipe for hazelnut milk, using 2 cups of water in place of 3 cups of water.