Vegan Oatmeal Cookies — Thandai-Spiced, the Way Holi Tastes

Spring is coming. You can feel it in the light — not warmer yet, but longer. The 6 PM sunsets are becoming 6:30, and the quality of the light is different, less gray and more gold, as if New Jersey is slowly remembering that it has another mode besides winter. Holi. The festival of colors. Growing up, we celebrated at the Edison temple — hundreds of Indian families throwing colored powder at each other in the parking lot while horrified non-Indian neighbors watched from across the street. It's joyful, messy, chaotic, and stains your clothes for approximately forever. This year, I went to the temple celebration with Raj. He was skeptical — "I'm wearing a white shirt," he said, as if white clothing at Holi is anything other than a dare. I handed him an old T-shirt and dragged him to the parking lot where fifty kids were already smeared in pink and green and yellow and the air smelled like turmeric and rose water. Within ten minutes, Raj was unrecognizable — blue on his face, green in his hair, pink on his white shirt that he'd changed into. He was laughing — the real laugh, the one he saves for moments when he forgets to be the serious cardiologist. A child he didn't know ran up and smeared orange powder on his cheeks and he looked so genuinely delighted that I took a photo and sent it to Pushpa, who responded with a string of heart emojis and "He looks like he did at five years old." Amma was there, of course, running the food station with the temple aunties. Jal jeera, thandai, gujiya (the sweet dumplings stuffed with khoya and nuts that are traditional for Holi). She was covered in purple powder and looked ten years younger, laughing with Kamala Aunty about something, and for one afternoon I forgot about the cinnamon and the coffee and the word she couldn't find, and she was just Amma. Bright and loud and covered in purple. I came home and made thandai — the Holi drink, cold milk blended with almonds, pistachios, saffron, cardamom, fennel seeds, and rose petals. It's a drink that tastes like a garden. I added a pinch of black pepper because Amma always does, and she says it "wakes up the milk," which is not scientifically accurate but is poetically correct. The colors took three showers to come off. My ears were still pink when I went to work on Monday. Nobody asked. In Edison, pink ears in March are understood.

After three showers and still-pink ears, I couldn’t stop thinking about the thandai—that cold, floral, spiced glass of milk that tasted like the whole afternoon distilled into something drinkable. I wanted to carry those flavors somewhere they’d keep, something I could bring to the office on Monday with my pink ears and no explanation required. So I baked them in: cardamom, rose water, saffron, crushed pistachios and almonds, folded into a vegan oatmeal cookie that somehow manages to taste exactly like the color-stained, laughing version of Holi I want to remember forever.

Vegan Oatmeal Cookies (Thandai-Spiced)

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 27 min | Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• Pinch of saffron steeped in 1 tablespoon warm water
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar or packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons water, rested 5 minutes)
• 1 teaspoon rose water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup shelled pistachios, roughly chopped
• Optional: dried rose petals and a pinch of cardamom for finishing

Instructions

1. Prep. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment. Stir together the flax egg ingredients and let sit 5 minutes until gel-like. Steep the saffron in 1 tablespoon warm water.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, and salt.
3. Mix wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the melted coconut oil, coconut sugar, maple syrup, flax egg, saffron water, rose water, and vanilla until smooth.
4. Combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until a thick dough forms. Fold in the almonds and pistachios.
5. Bake. Scoop rounded tablespoons of dough onto prepared sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Flatten gently with your palm. Bake 10–12 minutes, until edges are golden and centers look just set.
6. Cool. Let cookies rest on the baking sheet 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack—they firm up as they cool. Finish with a scatter of crushed dried rose petals if you have them.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 148 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 18g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 62mg