For many years, I focused on health and wellness in terms of achieving a certain look. I was convinced that if I looked a certain way, it would make me feel a certain way. Wellness was synonymous with appearance and, well, in the end it resulted in unhealthy habits and a lack of a holistic approach to my heath.
One of my 2018 resolutions is to refocus on wellness. I recently turned 30. I recently noticed some fine lines creeping up around the corners of my eyes. I recently found what may or may not have been a greyish hair. Gone are the days of fresh-faced mornings after a night out with the girls and “hydrating” with diet soda (yikes!). It’s time to fully embrace what I’ve known (but often ignored) for much of my 20s — health isn’t about a jean size. It’s about understanding the connection between what you’re putting into your body and how it not only impacts appearance but also overall wellness, both mental and physical.
These turmeric and berry muffins are the result of my efforts to focus on bringing more anti-inflammatory foods into my diet. Turmeric has been at the top of the food trends lists for some time now and for good reason. It has been used for centuries in Eastern medicine to treat a variety of ailments and has more recently been recognized in Western medicine for it’s powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It can help boost your immune system, ease join pain, heal your gut, perhaps even help prevent cancer, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you haven’t gotten on the golden milk train, it just might be time to dip your toes in and see what it’s all about.
But why stop there? These muffins are PACKED with anti-inflammatory goodness — raspberries, blueberries, walnuts, coconut oil, chia seeds, apple cider vinegar — and void of many ingredients that so often cause us to steer away from baked goods for breakfast. No butter, no granulated sugar, and while these do contain gluten (majority whole wheat), you could certainly make them using your favorite cup-for-cup gluten free flour mix.
What’s truly special about these muffins is how amazingly indulgent they taste, despite the list of “wholesome” ingredients which can so often produce dense and flavorless results. I’ve honestly never had a healthy muffin that tastes so incredibly delicious. The whole wheat flour lends a hearty texture without being too heavy and the maple syrup lends a light sweetness that satisfies but avoids bringing these muffins dangerously close to cupcake status, as so many recipes do. The turmeric brings a slight smokey, savory quality to the mix, which is balanced by the bright tartness of the berries. Chia seeds and walnuts add texture and coconut oil makes sure they’re super moist, even days after baking. These nutrient-packed muffins are your new powerhouse breakfast on-the-go. Enjoy!
Anti-Inflammitory Turmeric + Berry Muffins
Serves 18 muffins
Anti-Inflammatory Berry + Turmeric Muffins
Prep
30 minutes
Cook
25 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
- 1/2 cup coconut oil + more for greasing muffin tin
- 1/4 cup sugar in the raw + more for sprinkling on top of muffins
- 1 cup almond milk (or milk/non-dairy milk of your choice)
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon grade b maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs, room temperature and well beaten
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
- 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
- 3 tablespoons rolled oats
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F and grease 2 muffin tins with coconut oil.
- In a large bowl, add the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, turmeric and cardamom. Whisk together very well.
- In a separate bowl mix together the coconut oil and sugar for 1-2 minutes to help the sugar in the raw dissolve a little. Add the maple syrup, eggs, almond milk, vinegar, and extract.
- Carefully add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together until blended. There shouldn't be any large pockets of flour in your batter but some lumps should remain. Gently fold in the walnuts, chia seeds, and berries.
- Fill muffin cups almost to the top and sprinkle with oats and reserved sugar in the raw. Let rest for 5 minutes, then bake for 13-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Cool for 10 minutes in the tins then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling.
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Comments (9)
Author
This is not the best recipe to use. Followed directions completely, but the coconut oil and the sugar clumped up completely and did not mix well! Ended up throwing the batter out completely!
You can simply avoid that issue by using room temperature ingredients. I had the same issue but I popped it into the microwave for a couple seconds…. they turned out extremely well!!!! You might want to give them a second try.
These look super yummy!!!
Eva | http://www.shessobright.com
I really enjoyed this recipe!!! For the comment above, that is a simple fix… if you run into that problem you can simply avoid the issue by having your ingredients at room temperature. As I personally love turmeric, and think it goes fluently with the berries for the muffins. I omitted it for this recipe for the pure sake of my husband and 4 year old who are not fans of the spice. I am saying this simply because they still turned out absolutely amazing as a simple, completely healthy, berry muffin. Thank you for the recipe. I’ll be forwarding this to my family and friends and using this from now on!!!!!
Can I substitute Gluten Free flour for whole wheat?
Absolutely! I would do a 1 for 1 Gluten Free flour that can be subbed in equal amounts, like Bobs Red Mill or the one from Trader Joe’s. Let us know how it goes!
my family loves these! I use Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour instead of wheat and flax seed meal instead of all purpose flour (same measurements). It is delicious.