It’s really funny for me and many other Indians to see all the rage about turmeric. In Panjabi, we call it ‘haldi’ and it goes in literally everything we cook, and inadvertently stains many a white shirt!. From aloo gobi to daal, turmeric is in most of our cuisine. So you can understand why I can only laugh at the hype surrounding turmeric nowadays. It’s turmeric latté galore out there!. Unfortunately our friendly neighbourhood coffee shops sneak plenty of sugar into their turmeric lattés and so I’ve devised a supercharged anti inflammatory turmeric tea recipe of my own.
This recipe isn’t just about turmeric though. It’s about all the healthy spices and fats we’ve been hearing about in the news these days.
Ingredients
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- A pinch of black pepper
- A knob of ginger
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- A pinch of marjoram
- Honey to taste
- Chicory root fibre (inulin) to taste
- 1/2 tsp coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp ghee
Method
- Add all the ingredients to your cup
- Add a tea bag or coffee of your choosing, or not
- Pour in some hot water
- Add some coconut milk if you like
- Remove any tea bags and blitz - I use a NutriBullet
- Pour out the golden goodness into your cup and enjoy!
This anti inflammatory turmeric tea is super versatile too. If you like black tea, green tea or coffee you can add those accordingly. If you want to stay caffeine free you can avoid those altogether. And if you like a milky tea you can always make it work. The spices always make for a soothingly warm drink, perfect for winter and full of health benefits:
- Turmeric curcumin has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects thought to help stave off heart disease, cancer, arthritis and even Alzheimer’s
- As well as being an antioxidant, black pepper helps regulate blood sugar thus preventing diabetes; even more interestingly it increases the bioavailability of turmeric, enhancing all those positive effects I jus mentioned!
- Ginger is full of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, ginger can help with a variety of gut symptoms, menstrual cramps, muscle and joint pains as well as preventative effects against heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and infections
- Broadly speaking, cinnamon fights many of the chronic disease already mentioned; most interesting though, is that cinnamon has anti-infective effects which may even fight HIV
- Marjoram is good for the stomach and menstrual symptoms, but also encourages urination and sweating to flush out toxins
- Honey, ideally manuka, although not the most healthy given the calories, it is much better than sugar and can reduce blood pressure and cholesterol
- As a sweetener, chicory root fibre is decent in small doses and is great for digestion due to its prebiotic effects, stabilising blood sugar and potentially lowering cancer risk - careful though, it’s very fibrous so too much will loosen things up from the back passage
- A Harvard professor recently said coconut oil was harmful but it’s actually full of good fats [medium-chain triglycerides or ‘MCTs’], helping your metabolism, reducing your hunger and boosting cognitive function - MCTs breakdown into ketones, our brains’ favourite energy source
- Ghee is best from grass-fed cows and full of fat-soluble vitamins [A, D, E and K] and anti-inflammatory good fats [butyrate and conjugated linoleic acid] - it’s essentially butter but healthier
Hope you enjoy your anti inflammatory turmeric tea!