18 Apr How to Make Your Own Homemade Vegan Turmeric Gummies

It’s safe to say turmeric is a super spice, well known for its anti-inflammatory properties.

And as superfoods go, I think most of us are becoming ninjas at sneaking them in wherever we can. While I’m a huge fan of adding chaga in coffee because the taste is so mild, the same can’t be done with turmeric. With this golden spice, there’s no sneaking involved. If turmeric is going into your falafel balls or breakfast smoothie, it’s going to taste potently of Ayurvedic root.

That’s where these little star turmeric gummies come in. If you’re a health nut or in-touch foodie, you’ve probably seen these gummies of goodness cropping up on your feed. My version of this recipe offers you all that anti-inflammatory power, but uses agar powder instead of natural gelatin and date syrup instead of honey to keep them vegan-friendly.

SOME NOTES BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

• Agar doesn’t make the gummies quite as ‘bouncy’ as gelatin does (and what you might be hoping for if you’re searching for a sweet treat substitute for wine gums). They’re still firm turmeric gummies none the less.
• You can either set these in a pyrex glass dish and cut them into simple homemade squares, or you can use an ice cube tray or silicone moulds of your desired shapes. I played with shapes using cookie cutters.

INGREDIENTS:

Prep time:  15 minutes | Setting time:  30 minutes

• ½ cup hot water water
• 2 Tbsp organic turmeric powder
• 2-3 Tbsp date syrup (taste dependent)
• 1 Tbsp grated, fresh ginger
• Juice from 1 small lemon or ½ a big lemon
• 1 cup fresh orange juice
• 2 ½ tsp agar agar powder
• Coconut oil, for greasing

METHOD:

1. Add the hot water to a small pot. Hot liquid helps dissolve the turmeric powder better.
2. Add two tablespoons of turmeric powder. You can, of course, use less if the flavour is too potent for you.
3. Add in the date syrup. I would suggest adding in two tablespoons at first and then tasting to see if you prefer it sweeter before adding in the third.
4. Give it a good whisking.
5. Next, add in the ginger, lemon juice and orange juice.
6. Again, whisk the mixture well.
7. Lastly, add in your agar agar powder.
8. Take your pot to the stove and continue whisking the mixture on a low heat until the liquid thickens into a syrup-like consistency.
9. Pour your turmeric gummy liquid into either a coconut oil-greased pyrex glass dish, or into any silicone moulds of your choice.
10. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then place the dish or trays into the fridge to set for a further 20 minutes.
11. Once cooled, you can pop out your gummies into a container for daily quick health boosts before your cuppa coffee or when you’re feeling immune battered.

If you went the pyrex dish route, I found it easier to slice them into cubes with a sharp chef’s knife while still in the dish and then flip it over and coax them out. I got a little playful with one of my batches and used mini gingerbread moulds I had lying around from Christmas. I simply stamped them out of the gummy sheet while still in the pyrex dish. The offcuts or in-between bits went into a separate jar for snacking. I’m sure I could make an interesting healthy chocolate with chewy gummie bits interspersed or a vanilla ice cream with turmeric jellies in it too. The health world is your artichoke!

OPTIONAL DUSTING: If you would like to transform these into a sweeter dessert treat like those gummy fruits with sugar dusting on them, try grinding cinnamon and coconut sugar very finely and just dip the tops of your turmeric gummies into them. Or for a white dusting a’la Turkish delight you can pulverize xylitol and arrowroot powder. Both make them quite tasty and could help you fob them off as sweets over health snacks.

I must be honest though, unless your kids are used to more natural flavoured foods, I’m not sure they would take to these as a healthy alternative to wine gum sweets in a blink. I ran it by a few dads, and they pretty much laughed at the thought of their kids enjoying these.  While they’re totally palatable for adults – I’d be keen to see how your kids respond to them. Leave us a comment below if you’ve tested these on little humans to great success.