Quinoa Calendula Currant Cookies
These cookies are a take off of oatmeal raisin cookies using toasted quinoa flakes and currants. Added to the cookie is the addition of calendula, my herb obsession at the moment (you can read all about this beautiful herb and the benefits here). These cookies are soft, protein & energy rich without any refined sugar, wheat, nuts and dairy. You will not feel guilty about eating these anytime of the day!
Quinoa flakes in my opinion are a great substitute to oatmeal, many people have food sensitivities to oatmeal and it bothers their digestion so quinoa flakes are perfect. If it’s challenging to find the toasted quinoa flakes I used for this recipe, regular quinoa flakes are good and you can either toast them yourself in the oven on low heat or leave them not toasted. And if you don’t have a sensitivity to oatmeal you can definitely sub organic quick cooking oats for the quinoa flakes.
Currants are used in the recipe instead of raisins, besides them being tinier and easier to distribute in the mixture they contain more calcium, iron, copper and vitamin C than raisins.(1, 2)
The foundation for this easy recipe is….drum roll please…….none other than…….red bananas!
If you’ve seen some of my other recipe posts you’ll know I like to use red bananas.😊 Let me tell you I’m not a big fan anymore of the regular yellow (Cavendish) bananas which are mostly seen in food markets here in the States. My enjoyment of bananas have grown immensely because for two years now I’ve been eating more bananas like Thai Bananas, Manzano Bananas, Burro Bananas and Red Bananas (more info on these bananas will definitely be a blog post in the near future). For me red bananas don’t have that strong “banana” taste, they’re milder. Red bananas also have more nutritious values and because they are sweeter than regular bananas it makes them perfect for any type of sweet creation ex. these cookies.
So enough of the build up let me present to you:
Quinoa Calendula Currant Cookies
2 red bananas
1 cup of toasted quinoa flakes (I used this one)
1/4 cup of currants
2 tablespoons of dried calendula
1/2 teaspoon of ceylon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of baking soda (optional)
pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mash up the red bananas till its a creamy consistency.
Add the quinoa flakes, currants, calendula, cinnamon, baking soda and salt to the bananas.
Mix together.
Then scoop out the cookie mixture on a cookie sheet pan, I used a ice cream scoop and got 6 cookies. Feel free to make the cookies smaller if you want.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes depending on your oven. I used my toaster oven and baked them for 12 minutes, I could have went for 10 minutes. When they are done they should be lightly brown.
To store the cookies if you have any left 😊, place in the refrigerator. This cookie recipe can be doubled and the cookies hold up well frozen. And because they’re so quick and easy to make they can be made everyday!
Enjoy!
