728-15

Plant of the Diet Gods: Turmeric

turmeric

turmeric

This is something I discovered a while back shopping at some asian grocers. I usually get the dried and powdered packages (they come in bulk size) and use it for cooking bean/veggie dishes and also one of my favorite health drinks.. turmeric tea. I’ve also used the fresh root to make interesting dishes.

The key to understanding turmeric is that in south asia, people don’t use little bottles of spices that you see at the western supermarkets. No. They load up everything with tablespoons and cup portions of spices. It’s as if spices form the basis of their food pyramid like “grains” form the base of the western food pyramid.  You have spices, and then everything else.  But they are used very skillfully; for example, a good curry doesn’t punch you in the face with heat, it warms up, it builds up, to a raging fire.

Turmeric isn’t a hot spice, it’s not the most flavor-filled, it has a peppery-vanilla-bland kind of flavor. But it’s good with other things and it’s got some amazing health properties, especially for your digestive system. If you are a fatty, then trust me, your digestive system is screwed which is one of the many layers of your obesity problem.

I try to use turmeric, in quantity, either in food or drink at least 4 times a week. I’m still fat right now, but I don’t have GERD anymore, how about that?

Here is a yummy health drink that gives tons of energy and makes your tummy feel wonderful:

COLD Turmeric Tea Kefir

If you don’t have kefir, or know where to get it, or you are vegan, substitute it all with almond milk. Using plain milk is fine too, but if you want to get probiotics with your turmeric, you’ll want to get some kefir to make this. The recipe calls for kefir, but cup for cup, measure the same amount of regular milk, soy, almond, rice, whatever. If you are diabetic and/or  can’t do the sugar or honey, replace it with stevia.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

3-5 tablespoons of loose black tea

3 slices of fresh ginger root

1/8 tsp cinammon

3 cardamom pods

1 pint of kefir

1/2 cup of almond milk

1 well rounded tablespoon of powdered turmeric

2 cups of water

1 large tablespoon of unbleached cane sugar or honey (or both)

—–

Bring the 2 cups of water to a boil, remove from heat. Add tea, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, and sweetner. Allow to steep until cool. Pour one cup each of the tea mixture into 2 glasses, add ice, add even portions of the kefir and almond milk.  Enjoy.  Remember not to add the kefir while the tea is hot as it will kill the probiotic bugs.

This entry was posted in Recipes TAGGED: , , . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 3:02 am
 
| More

 

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>