Pepita, Almond, and Goji Berry Muesli

Why This Recipe Works

Muesli, a nutrient-packed breakfast dish created by a Swiss physician for his patients, started as a combination of rolled oats, nuts, seeds, and dried fruit soaked overnight in milk or water for improved texture and digestibility. Today's mueslis include all manner of ingredients (we counted as many as 20 in some recipes) but we saw no reason to get fussy. An oat-forward mixture of 3 parts oats to 2 parts add-ins—a nut, a seed, and two dried fruits—offered an ideal balance of flavor and texture. While traditional methods leave everything raw, we found that toasting the nuts and seeds brought greater depth and complexity to this simple dish. For our nut, sliced almonds required almost no prep work. Picking a seed proved trickier. Soaked flaxseed and chia seeds had overpowering flavor. Pepitas were ideal; we loved the big flavor they took on from toasting. To round out our muesli, we added raisins and antioxidant-packed goji berries, which benefit from the soaking, as it softens their chewy texture.