Vegan Quinoa Spicy Cookies

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The kitchen can be a such a source of conflict isn't it ? No, No............ I do not mean the type of conflict that some of you are thinking about, I just mean that it can evoke such conflicting emotions:-) .....at least for me, the kitchen definitely evokes conflicting emotions. On some days I just cannot wait to be done with my work there and get out of that place. On the other hand there are days when the kitchen proves to be my solace, it helps to soothe me and helps to re-focus my attention. On stressful days, if I start creating something new and unique, somehow just the act of creating something new itself makes me happy and helps me get over some of my stress.

Recently, on one such occasion when I was having a particularly bad day and was feeling thoroughly restless, I decided to make these quinoa spicy cookies. Ever since I used quinoa in crepes (dosas) I have been thinking that their lightly nutty flavor would work very well in a savory style slightly spicy cookie, so when my bad day brought me into the kitchen I decided that trying spicy cookies with quinoa in them was just what I needed to de- stress :-)

And it worked...... on both fronts, I felt a little better after making the cookies and felt a lot better once I tasted them :-) The nutty taste of quinoa was a perfect match to the slight spiciness imparted by the green chillies and these awesome melt in your mouth cookies were one the best spicy cookies I have ever tasted.

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Ingredients and Method to make Vegan Quinoa Spicy Cookies

3/4 cup quinoa flour (see notes)

1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida) (see notes)

1/2 cup almond meal (see notes)

2 1/2 tsp sugar

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red chilli powder (or according to taste) (optional)

1 tsp aluminum free baking powder (or any other baking powder)

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp dried curry leaves crushed into small bits ( alternatively use about 7 to 8 fresh curry leaves torn into small pieces) (optional)

3 Thai or Indian variety green chillies (cut very fine) (or according to taste)

1/2 cup almond butter

10 tbsp oil (you may not need so much see below)

1 tbsp flax seed meal (powdered flax seeds also known as Alsi in India) + 3 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 350 deg F

Line a cookie sheet/ tray with parchment paper and keep aside

In a bowl add all the dry ingredients ( items 1 through 10) and mix well.

Whisk together flax seed meal + 3 tbsp of water well and keep aside.

In another bowl, add almond butter and this flax seed + water mixture and whisk together gently until mixed well.

Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix well until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

Add the oil last and add it spoon by spoon, mixing the dough continuously. Once in between ( after about 5 tbsp of oil) take a little of the mixture and place on your palm and make a fist, if the dough sticks together means it is pretty much ready, you do not need more oil. This will also depend on the type of almond butter or if you use some other type of butter since the moisture from other butters could be different and a bit more. ( Also some types of store bought butters have some oil in them so that could change the requirement of oil too)
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Roll the dough into small lime sized balls and place about an inch apart on the lined tray.

Bake in the oven for about 20 to 25 mins until the cookies are slightly brown.

Remove from oven and cool thoroughly and store in an airtight container.

Yielded about 22 to 23 cookies

Notes

For the quinoa flour I dry roasted quinoa until it emitted a slight fragrance, then I cooled and powdered it as fine as was possible in my spice grinder ( In case you find quinoa flour at your local store you could try using that too )

I used all purpose flour since I ran out of spelt flour, if you want you can use spelt flour in place of ap flour

Almond meal means powdered almonds, I used my spice grinder to make this. If you want to make this flour, then powder about 1/4 cup of raw almonds in your spice grinder or blender until it turns into a fine powder .Use short bursts of power and make sure not to over grind since the nut butter will cause clumping. You can easily find almond meal in most stores

The cookies were a little crumbly when they were first out of the oven but when they cooled they firmed up. So handle them with care when hot out of the oven.