Swiss Bircher Muesli Recipe

TL;DR

Muesli (spelled Müsli in German) is a breakfast bowl which includes healthy grains. Oatmeal is a main ingredient and other dry ingredients are mixed into the oats, such as nuts, dried fruits, and seeds.

The best taste experience can be achieved by adding milk or yogurt and fresh fruits to a Muesli and letting it set overnight.

Muesli is the predecessor to overnight oats, popularized by his inventor, the nutritionist Dr. Bircher-Benner from Switzerland.

Bircher Müsli is a wholesome breakfast that is full of flavors and very nutritious at the same time.

Ingredients

• Rolled Oats
• Milk
• Honey
• Lemon Juice
• Apple — Grated
• Cinnamon — Ground.
• Yogurt — Your favorite yogurt. For a thicker consistency, go with Skyr, Greek yogurt. You can also use homemade yogurt.
• Raisins optional
• Almonds — whole, sliced or crushed.
• Fresh Fruits — As in Strawberries, blueberries, banana, kiwi, mango, papaya.

How to make it?

Step 1

Combine and submerge oats and milk in a bowl.

Keep it in the fridge overnight to soak.

Step 2

In the morning, add grated apple, spices, sweetener, nuts, yogurt and other flavorings to the Müsli.

Mix it all well.

Step 3

Place Müsli into serving bowls.

Slice some fresh fruits, such as strawberries, and place the slices over the Müsli.

Storing

You can keep your complete Bircher Müsli for at least 4 days in your fridge (check milk and yogurt best before date), stored in an airtight container.

It needs, however, to remain in a cool environment until you consume it.

Keep in mind that the refrigerator environment will dry out your muesli, so you may have to add some yogurt to it again or a tablespoon of milk to keep it a bit moist.

Ingredient Variations

While the Bircher Müsli started out with apple, oats, seeds and nuts, it received several spin-offs over the years.

So, in that case, you can add new kinds of ingredients, like Chia and Flax seeds, which the Dr. didn't know about back then.

You can also experiment with different grains, dried fruits, milks, nuts, and seeds.

I like my Muesli with dried cherries, dried mango pieces or berries are suitable as well as in dehydrated blueberries or strawberries.

As an alternative milk, you may want to give it a go with oatmeal milk or thick coconut milk.

In fact, you could also use stevia instead of honey if you prefer. Of course, you are free to toss in some fresh fruits too!

Another idea is to mix in a blend of oatmeal spices or in fall, you can add a dash of pumpkin pie spice to your muesli.

How the Bircher Müsli came to be

The Swiss Dr. Bircher-Benner, who invented the Bircher Müsli, turned it into a main breakfast item in his hospital in Switzerland in the early 1900.

I find Dr. Bircher-Benner rather interesting, as he was one of the first to revolutionize our food habits.

He suffered from jaundice and apparently got better by eating raw apples and that is how he developed, as a food scientist, a mixture of ingredients with apples, oats, nuts, honey, yogurt, and lemon juice.

This was his original Muesli recipe, hence the name Bircher Muesli!

Besides, he was maybe one of the first Vegetarians of his time in Europe in the public eye!