Make Ahead
sriracha trail mix
- Makes 6 -- 7 cups of trail mix
Author Notes
Wild Roots makes a trail mix like this, but it can be difficult to find and is very, very expensive. So I went looking all over the internet to see if I could find a recipe for sriracha trail mix. I found one at "My Bacon Wrapped Life" which looked pretty good, but didn't have the dried fruit cashew and almonds that the Wild Roots mix had. I also didn't like the choice of butter as the oil in the recipe (although I have thought of using bacon fat. . .). All the ingredients in this recipe were available at local stores except for the dried sweet cherries. —EL
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- Dry ingredients
-
1 cup
almonds (I used steamed, unsalted)
-
1 heaping cups
cashews (unroasted, unsalted)
-
3 cups
chex cereal (I used to use 2 cups corn chex and 1 of honey crunch, but switched to Nature's Path Oaty Bites, which works better and is organic, but you choose). I like having a slight sweetness (which the oats add).
-
1 heaping cups
cornnuts or partially popped corn
-
1 heaping cups
dried cranberries
-
1 cup
sweet dried cherries (can use tart, but don't work as well)
-
1 cup
dried tart apples or mangoes (if using mangoes, you should look for the ones that are lighter and tarter than the typical orange ones normally sold). The type of mangoes used by Wild Roots is more similar to tart dried apples than to the usual dried mang
- Seasoning mix
-
1/4 cup
sriracha sauce (I've used both the regular and the organic. They both work.)
-
3 tablespoons
Regular (not virgin) olive oil, unflavored peanut oil or bacon fat (or any mixture). Don't use anything too pungent here as it messes with the taste. The regular (not virgin) olive oil has worked the best for me so far.
-
2 tablespoons
Soysauce (I use Aloha brand)
-
1 heaping teaspoons
grated or powdered ginger (I have been using powdered and it has been just right)
-
1 teaspoon
or as much as your heart/tongue demands (although yograted garlic, pressed garlic or garlic powder (I have used this, as well as the pressed garlic and they have worked fine)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
- Measure the almonds and cashews and place them into a non-stick sheet pan with 1" sides (I use an 11 X 15" pan with 1 1/4" sides). spread them out so that they are 1 nut deep for even roasting.
- Roast nuts for about 20 min. at 250 degrees.
- While nuts are roasting, mix the sauce. Place all the ingredients together in a small (1 pint) bowl and mix them until uniform.
- Place the Chex and cornnuts (or partially popped corn) into a large (4 -- 6 quart) bowl.
- Pull the nuts from the oven and add to the bowl with the chex and corn.
- Mix the nuts and the cereals/corn. Mix in about 3/4 of the sauce and make sure that everything is coated.
- Once evenly coated with flavoring, place the nut-chex mixture evenly on the sheetpan and place in the oven. Time for 15 min.
- While the nuts/cereal mix is roasting, place the dried fruit (cranberries, sweet cherries, apples) into the bowl and mix with the last of the sauce.
- At 15 min, remove the corn/chex mix and add the dried, coated fruit. Mix gently on the sheetpan and then place back into the oven.
- Roast at 250 degrees F. for one more hour. Mix and separate every 15 minutes so that the individual ingredients will be separate (you need to be particularly careful with the apples as they tend to stick together).
- Alternatively you can mix all ingredients together in the large bowl and then roast them for 1 hour 15 min at 250 degrees F, turning every 15 min to separate, but I found that the nuts are lacking taste (they don't get toasted enough) and the fruit gets a bit charred and bitter.
- After pulling the trail mix from the oven, let it cool before eating or storing. Should be stored in an airtight bag or container to preserve crispness.
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