Since discovering this oatmeal cookie recipe I have made it, recreated it, and made it time and time again mostly for selfish reasons so that I could always have oatmeal cookies around the house and partly because the recipe is perfect and should be shared with everyone. There is something so soul searchingly comforting about oatmeal cookies around the Holidays. This cookie recipe is gluten free, vegan, and chewy. Say that again? Yes, gluten free, vegan, AND chewy. Hoorah! Folks, finding a a chewy oatmeal cookie that’s not packed with brown sugar and egg is rare to come by. So Happy Holidays to you and be sure to make this one for all your loved ones this week.
This cookie was inspired by the Texanerin’s original “The Best Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookie” recipe. I have searched high and low for inspiration to the perfectly soft and chewy oatmeal cookie, and I found it. This one I added coconut sugar, cardamom, orange and vanilla, cranberries, and it’s vegan. It’s Christmas in a cookie.
Aruyveda teaches that the winter season is characterized by feeling grounded, slow movement, cold weather, increased moisture like snow or rain and these qualities represent kapha or vata dosha (two of the three functional energies in nature that are found in body and mind). The doshas are like a blueprint for the human experience – providing information about physical and mental processes. Pitta being the third. In aruyvedic medicine, it is said that we have characteristics of all three doshas but have more qualities of two that ideally balance one another. Our daily routine, sleep, diet, the seasons and much more all have an effect on kapha, vata, or pitta alike that then give profound insight into our daily mental, emotional, and physical experience.
I find Eastern medicine to be fascinating. How it relates to our gut, diet, cravings, and nutrition is even more fascinating. Winter is the season where our digestive fire is the strongest. It seems intuitive that the winter requires more fuel to stay warm and healthy. At least it is for me. This time of year I crave all things comfort – from soups, to stews, to root vegetables, mostly cooked foods, potatoes, warming spices like cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and ginger, and oatmeal cookies. These foods and the nutritional value they hold actually better support our digestion in the winter months. Certain foods are characteristic to each dosha and can support the balance or in turn, the imbalance of each.
It just so happens that orange is actually a fruit to favor in the winter. I added vanilla and orange because I love those two paired with cranberries, but it’s pretty cool how those cravings can actually be associated to a greater meaning of health and mindfulness.
I hope you can enjoy this recipe even more now knowing that you are supporting your body. I have said this before, and I am going to say it again, “You can literally have your cake and eat it too” with this one. Don’t you just love when that happens?
[mpprecipe-recipe:20]