Turmeric is an amazing herb. It is called the spice of life and at first glance it would appear to be almost anti-everything; to add to its awesomeness it is also the most potent natural anti-inflammatory.

Just over a week ago our Bunk twisted something whilst on his morning walk… he walked back home but once he lied down, he wasn’t able to get up very easily. Every time he tried, he cried, and we knew he was in pain. After a chat with our local vet we decided to wait it out… it was a good call as the next day he was feeling better and the day after it was like his injury never happened but… thinking about any possible reoccurrences of this potential problem in the future, we have decided to act now, a stitch in time and all that…

I developed this recipe to specifically help with his recovery but then after reading more and more about all the wonders of turmeric I have now decided to feed it to both dogs daily in the form of treats.

The measurements below are perfect for my two large dogs for a week. With the quantities below the mixture will make 65 cookies, so I know exactly how much turmeric is in each cookie. If you have small dogs or just one dog, you might want to halve the ingredients (you can skip the egg) or just reduce the amount of turmeric. Dog can have ¼ teaspoon of turmeric per day, for every 10lbs of its body weight. Please check the dosage carefully so you do not feed too much turmeric to your dog!

Ingredients:

• 300g organic oats
• 65g organic turmeric
• 270g sardines in oil – two tins
• 2tbsp organic wholemeal flour; heaped
• 1tsp black fresh cracked pepper
• 1tbsp organic cold pressed virgin coconut oil; heaped
• 1 egg
• 100ml fish stock

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line two large trays with baking paper.

In a large bowl place the oats, flour, turmeric, pepper, egg and sardines and stir. Add the coconut oil and pour the hot stock over the top of it all (this will help to melt the coconut oil).

Continue to mix all the ingredients until well combined but remember to wear gloves if you are doing it by hand. The first time I made these cookies I didn’t wear any gloves and my hands were a lovely yellow/orange for days afterwards despite multiple washing and soakings in the hope of getting rid of the colour.

Once your dough is well combined move it onto a work surface and roll out flat until your mixture is about 0.5cm thick.

Use a cookie cutter to give your treats the desired shape and place on the lined baking tray. I wanted to make a lot of small cookies, little and often, as it ended up we do not own any small cookie cutters so I was using an upside down shot glass to make my cookies.

Bake in the earlier preheated oven for around 20 minutes. As with any baking they will be done when they have turned a nice golden colour, they should be firm to a light finger press.

Remove from the oven and let them rest for 5 minutes before placing on a cooling rack to allow them to cool completely.

I hope your dog will like them as much as my two do.

What do you use turmeric in?

Have you ever given a pet turmeric before?