RECIPE ~ Psyllium Cookies

These little cookies are so full of fibre I should really be calling them "pookies". Psyllium is all fibre so it doesn't get absorbed by the body. Its calories are negligible and they add lots of bulk to help keep your digestive system moving (find psyllium at health food stores). The oatmeal and flax are also great for the gut! Choose a nut butter, sweetener and flour according to your dosha (see below) or to your taste. Makes around 2 dozen. Pictured here using molasses, walnut butter and spelt flour.

8 Tbsp seed or nut butter (almond, peanut, walnut, sunflower, tahini...)*
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch sea salt
8 Tbsp sweetener (maple syrup, molasses, rice syrup...)*
1 egg
1 cup whole grain flour (spelt, kamut, chick pea, rice, or a mixture of these)*
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup whole psyllium husks
1 Tbsp flax seeds

Preheat oven to 325°F and spray a cookie sheet with oil. In a food processor or large bowl, mix together the nut butter, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and sweetener. Mix in the egg. Stir in flour, oatmeal,psyllium and flax seeds, and mix just enough to distribute them evenly throughout the mixture. You should end up with a stiff batter.

Make little balls of dough and press each cookie flat, to about 1cm high, with a fork. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool and store in an air-tight container. I recommend you have a glass of water with each cookie, since the psyllium absorbs lots of water and will expand in the belly, which is how it adds bulk to your system. Otherwise it could leach moisture from your intestines!

* FOR INDIVIDUAL DOSHAS
VATAS choose: any nut butter; whole wheat or brown rice flour; molasses or brown rice syrup as sweetener
PITTAS choose: almond butter; whole wheat or spelt flour; maple syrup or brown rice syrup as sweetener
KAPHAS choose: sunflower or pumpkin seed butters; millet or rye flour; brown rice syrup or fruit puree as sweetener

NOTE
~ Flax is a great fibre seed for all doshas, so feel free to substitute the psyllium husks with ground flax (also better for Vatas).
~ For a gluten-free cookie, replace oatmeal with dry cereal like kamut flakes or puffed rice
~ Cooking with honey goes against Ayurvedic recommendations because honey is a living food. Its nutritional benefits will be destroyed with heating, so in general, choose unpasteurized honey and do not use for baking or cooking.
~ I tried these with just molasses and find they need to be cut with some other sweetener as well, like maple or brown rice syrup (half and half). I also tried these with chick pea flour and they were surprisingly good (suitable for Pittas and Kaphas)!

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POOKIES REVISITED!



There's been some discussion about trying to replicate the Metamucil(TM) psyllium fibre cookies that are on the market. Using Jeniece's guidelines, I've baked them as seen here, with some success! They probably taste nothing like the ones you can buy (sorry, Jeniece!), but they're quite tasty and so full of goodness. Here is the recipe, with my modifications:

1 cup flour (I used barley)
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup psyllium
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup oat bran
1/2 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp molasses
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana or applesauce

Combine all dry ingredients, then liquids separately, and stir together to combine thoroughly. Spread the dough onto a non-stick cookie sheet and roll or press down to a 1/2 cm thickness. Cut with a sharp knife into 16 squares, and bake at 350F for 20 minutes (for a softer and chewier cookie, bake for only 15 minutes). Reinforce the cuts to separate the squares, and let cool. Enjoy each one with a glass of water and let the gut magic begin!