Turmeric Milk

I drink a cup of warm milk everyday, I love it and the habit developed when I was a child. It was a kind of ritual with bedtime story and helped to have a good night's sleep. The milk we drank was always flavored with some kind of fruity extract or spice such as roohafza, cardamom and saffron. When ever we had cold, sore throat or fever my mother would prepare ginger tea or milk laced with turmeric and almond oil. It would be wrong if I say that I liked turmeric milk at that young age, often times I would make some excuse to avoid it but slowly I started liking it. And, years later I realized it really was a great antidote for many ailments. 

You are probably familiar with the medicinal benefits of turmeric, if not you can enlighten yourself from the links provided at the end of this post. Today I am writing about a concoction made with turmeric and milk.

Turmeric milk, is a natural and simple home remedy to immune against common cold and for general good health. As we age many of our problems are a result of inflammation. My husband plays a lot of sports and drinks turmeric milk every other day. I drink it too, not that I am suffering from cold or have any joint pain or swelling but it benefits when you do exercise or spend hours of time in front of your computer. It is good for decreasing any kind of inside swelling and pain. My daughter does not drink milk at all so she takes a small amount of turmeric paste with a cup of green tea which has ginger steeped in it.

While there are plenty of benefits of drinking  turmeric milk, one needs to be cautious as to not consume the concoction in excess. It can lead to stomach upset if you take in conjunction with certain drugs or never had before or overdose it. 

Although drinking turmeric milk is great by itself but when you add black pepper and almond oil, it taste better, soothes throat and helps turmeric to absorb in our system better. My mother always made turmeric paste out of fresh or dry turmeric roots. She used a steel jar blender or mortal and pestle to grind turmeric. If I have to grind turmeric roots I need to keep aside a blender just for this purpose because turmeric stains everything it comes in contact with and I have not yet seen steel jar blenders in Canada. So the best option I find is to make turmeric paste out of powder. You can also  add turmeric, honey and black pepper to the warm milk but using cooked turmeric paste is the right approach to make turmeric milk, it reduces the bitterness of turmeric and blends nicely with the milk. If you think that turmeric is a spice used in curries and would be overwhelming or bitter in milk then don't be. It is actually yummy and soothing!  Try it today.
 

 
Turmeric Milk

Ingredients:

1/2- 1 tsp turmeric paste (recipe follows)
1 tsp sweetener of your choice
1 tsp almond oil
250 ml milk 

Method:

1. Whisk turmeric paste, honey and 2 tbsp milk (at room temperature) until it is smooth with no lumps.

2. Combine the above mixture with milk and put it on heat. Bring it to boil. Simmer for 1 minute on low heat.

3. Strain before pouring into your cup. Push with a spoon what ever turmeric is left in the sieve. Add oil and enjoy when it is still warm.

Turmeric paste

Ingredients:

1/4 cup turmeric
1-1/2 cup chlorine free or bottled water
1/2 -1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cardamom powder (optional)

Method:

1. Heat turmeric, water and black pepper in a steel pan. Stir and bring it to boil.

2. Turn down the heat and stir constantly for at least 5-7 minutes.

3. Cook until you get a smooth consistency. Once the paste is cooked, turn off the heat and let it cool.

4. Store the paste in steel or glass container. It can be kept in the fridge for upto 30 days.

Note:
This turmeric paste can be added to yogurt, rice, smoothies, marinades or curry.

Some good topics to read on turmeric:
Benefits of turmeric
Turmeric remedies
Turmeric -guide to health
Immune boosting turmeric
Terrific turmeric tricks
Golden goodness

Linked to Hearth and Soul Blog Hop  and Allergy free Wednesdays .