Roasted Pineapple with Toasted Quinoa and Almond Crumble
Fresh pineapple roasted with lime and ginger until the edges caramelize, under a crumble of cooked quinoa clumped with almond butter, chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds, and hemp, baked until crunchy.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
A breakfast that eats like dessert is easy to do badly, and the usual failure is that it turns out to be nothing but sugar and softness. This one has a crumble with real crunch in it and enough almond, pumpkin seed, and hemp to hold up as a meal. Roasted pineapple does nearly all of the sweetening on its own, and the maple in the topping is there to make the crumble clump rather than to sweeten anything. I bake it on a slow morning when heating the oven feels worth it, or on a Sunday for the week ahead, because it comes back in a hot oven better than any soft breakfast ever does.
The crumble is the part worth learning. Cooked quinoa, the kind sitting in a container from a dinner two nights ago, turns properly crunchy when you coat it in fat and roast it until it is dry. Almond butter and melted coconut oil bind the little grains into loose clumps, chopped almonds and pumpkin seeds go in for size and shatter, and hemp seeds fill the gaps between them. It looks wet going into the oven and it crisps as it cools, which is the rule with any crumble. Do not judge it hot, and do not stir it while it bakes if you want big craggy pieces.
Pineapple is the fruit I kept coming back to, because it holds its shape in a hot oven and its acid keeps the dish from tasting like something nobody asked for at seven in the morning. Lime juice and grated fresh ginger go on before it roasts and both stay sharp underneath the caramelized edges. Cold coconut milk poured over at the table is what pulls the two halves together, warm against cold and crisp against soft. If you are making it ahead, keep the crumble in a jar of its own and build each bowl in the morning, and it will taste like it just came out.
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh pineapple, cut into 3/4-inch chunks
- 2 cups cooked quinoa, cooled
- 1/2 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 3 tbsp hemp seeds
- 1/4 cup smooth almond butter, stirred well
- 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 3 tbsp pure maple syrup, divided
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
- 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1/2 cup canned coconut milk, cold, for serving
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt, divided
Instructions
- Roast the pineapple first: Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Toss the pineapple chunks with the lime juice, grated ginger, 1 tablespoon of the maple syrup, and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt in a 9-inch baking dish, then spread them in one layer. Roast for 20 minutes, until the edges are browned in places and the juices are bubbling thickly at the sides.
- Coat the quinoa: While the fruit roasts, whisk the almond butter, melted coconut oil, the remaining maple syrup, the cinnamon, and the remaining salt in a large bowl until smooth and pourable. Add the cooled quinoa and fold until every grain is slicked and the mixture starts to gather into small clumps rather than staying loose.
- Add the nuts and seeds: Fold in the chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds, and hemp seeds. Press the mixture against the side of the bowl with the spatula a few times, which encourages it into pieces the size of a hazelnut. Those clumps are what give you a crumble rather than a layer of gravel.
- Cover the fruit and bake: Turn the oven down to 375°F (190°C). Spoon the crumble over the hot pineapple in an even layer, leaving the surface craggy and not pressing it flat. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until the top is deep golden, the edges are dry to the touch, and you can smell toasted almond.
- Cool it so it crisps: Let the dish sit for at least 10 minutes before you serve it. This is where the crumble actually hardens, as the coconut oil sets and the last of the steam leaves the quinoa. Straight out of the oven it will be chewy, and ten minutes later it shatters under a spoon.
- Serve with cold coconut milk: Stir the cold coconut milk until it is smooth and pour a few spoonfuls over each serving at the table rather than into the dish. Spoon down through the crumble so every bowl gets crunch on top and syrupy fruit underneath.
Variations
- Berry crumble: Swap the pineapple for 3 cups of blueberries and cut the first roast to 12 minutes.
- Chocolate and coconut: Scatter 2 oz of chopped dark chocolate over the fruit before the crumble goes on so it melts into the layer between.
- Deeper spice: Add 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric and a pinch of ground cloves to the crumble for something warmer and more fragrant.
- Peanut butter version: Use peanut butter in place of the almond butter and walnuts in place of the almonds, which takes the whole dish toward toasted and buttery.
- Breakfast jars: Layer the cooled fruit and the baked crumble in jars with a spoonful of skyr between them for something you can carry.
Storage & Leftovers
Kept in the baking dish under a loose cover, this holds for 3 days in the refrigerator. The crumble softens as it sits, because the fruit underneath keeps giving off moisture, so treat the texture on day two as a different and gentler dish rather than a failure of the first one.
Reheating is really re-crisping. Give a portion 8 to 10 minutes in a 375°F (190°C) oven or toaster oven, uncovered, until the top is dry and hot again. The microwave warms it through in a minute but leaves the crumble limp, so use it only when the alternative is skipping breakfast entirely.
For make-ahead, bake the crumble on its own on a lined sheet pan at 375°F (190°C) for 20 minutes and keep it in a jar at room temperature for up to a week. Roast the fruit whenever you like, keep it in the refrigerator for 4 days, and build a warm bowl in the morning in about the time coffee takes.
Notes & Tips
- Cold, dry quinoa: Fresh warm quinoa steams under the fat and never crisps. Cooked quinoa that has spent a night in the refrigerator has dried at the surface, which is exactly what you want here.
- Roast the fruit first, alone: Pineapple gives off a lot of liquid in its first 20 minutes. Driving that off before the crumble goes on is the difference between a crisp top and a wet one.
- Make clumps on purpose: Press the mixture against the bowl before it goes on the fruit. Loose grains bake into a gritty layer, and pieces the size of a hazelnut bake into something you can break with a spoon.
- Let it cool for ten minutes: The coconut oil is liquid at oven temperature and solid at room temperature, and that change is what sets the crumble. Serving it straight away gives you a chewy top every time.
- Stir the almond butter to the bottom: The oil that separates and sits on top of the jar is doing the binding work here, so mix the jar all the way through before you measure.
- Pour the coconut milk at the table: Stirred into the dish it soaks the crumble within minutes. Poured over each bowl, it stays cold and thick against a hot crisp top, which is the best part of eating this.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Pineapple, quinoa, and a handful of nuts and seeds make this what it is. The fruit brings the sweetness and the sharp edge, the quinoa gives the topping its crunch, and the almonds, pumpkin seeds, and hemp are what turn a fruit dish into breakfast.
- Quinoa is a seed rather than a true grain, and it carries all nine essential amino acids along with fiber and magnesium. Roasted in fat until dry it goes crisp and slightly nutty, which is a completely different thing from the soft grain you started with.
- Almonds and almond butter bring vitamin E and unsaturated fat, and they are also the reason the crumble holds together in pieces. Chopped rather than ground, they stay in visible shards that toast dark at the edges in the oven.
- Pineapple roasted at high heat concentrates and turns jammy at the edges while the middle stays juicy, and it is where the vitamin C and the manganese in this dish come from. The lime and fresh ginger added before it goes in keep all that sweetness in check.
- Cinnamon through the crumble and cold coconut milk poured over at the table are what make this eat like something warm and comforting, and the nuts and seeds in every spoonful are why a bowl holds you rather than fading by mid-morning.
- As you eat, listen for the crumble breaking under the spoon and notice how the lime and ginger arrive after the sweetness does, and let the bowl be something you sit down with rather than finish standing up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use another fruit?
Yes. Blueberries and strawberries both work and need only 12 minutes of roasting rather than 20, since they break down much faster. Firm banana sliced thick is good with the cinnamon. Kiwi is the one I would avoid, because it goes gray and slack in a hot oven.
My crumble never got crunchy. What went wrong?
Either the quinoa was wet or the dish came out early. Cooked quinoa from the refrigerator should be cool and fairly dry before it meets the fat, and if yours is damp, spread it on a towel for ten minutes first. Then bake until the top is truly dry to the touch and let it cool the full 10 minutes.
Can I make it without nuts?
You can. Use sunflower seeds in place of the almonds and tahini in place of the almond butter, keeping the amounts the same. The crumble comes out slightly darker and more savory, which is good against the pineapple, and it still clumps the same way.
Does this fit a low-FODMAP breakfast?
It does, at about a cup per serving. Fresh pineapple, quinoa, pumpkin seeds, and hemp seeds are all comfortable at these amounts, the almonds are kept to a modest handful per bowl, and maple syrup does the sweetening. The coconut milk is poured rather than cooked in, so you can measure exactly what you take.