When the richness of yoghurt does not appeal early in the morning, I use a couple of big spoonfuls of unsweetened apple puree to moisten some sort of cereal instead. Recently, tired of oats, I’ve been using cold quinoa, leftover from lunch the day before, or buckwheat flakes I buy from our local health food shop. Both are delicious.

But yesterday, in an untypical moment of self sacrifice, I finished the jar of apple puree on the children’s porridge. And so it was left to my culinary creativity to find a suitable replacement. As so very often the self sacrifice paid off, leading me to discover this gem of a breakfast.

It provides a wonderful balance of protein (quinoa, nuts, seeds), fat (nuts, seeds, coconut), and easily digested carbohydrate (apple, quinoa) – so light and tasty yet substantial enough to keep you going through to at least 12noon, if not beyond.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp of leftover quinoa (in a tub in the fridge)
• 1 apple
• 1tsp desiccated coconut
• 3 dried apricots (brown, unsulphured)
• A few cashew nuts
• A few pumpkin seeds
• Dusting of cinnamon

Method

Place a large handheld grater (one of those boxy metallic ones is probably best) in a shallow breakfast bowl. Chop the four sides off a medium-sized, sharp apple (braeburns work well), leaving only the core, which you can discard. Coarsely grate the four chunks of apple into your bowl, being sure to scrape out any remaining apple shards left in the grater at the end (such a waste otherwise). By grating the apple directly into the bowl, you capture the juice too – so essential in making your breakfast tasty.

Add the quinoa, coconut, nuts and seeds and stir gently with a teaspoon. Then quarter your three apricots using the kitchen scissors and add to the mix. Finally, take a couple of pinches of cinnamon (if you like it – if you don’t, simply leave it out) and lightly dust the top.

I tend to wait for a couple of minutes before eating, so that the quinoa and coconut can soak up some of the fresh apple juice.

Note that the cashews and pumpkin seeds can easily be replaced with any other nut or seed of your choice. Walnuts would be delicious, as would sunflower seeds. Some days, I add linseeds for that extra bit of goodness. Toasted seeds – of any kind – also work very well.

I think the apple puree will only return to my breakfast bowl when I’m just too short of time for those two minutes of grating.