Tag: turmeric

  • Golden oat milk

    Golden oat milk

    A winner combo: homemade oat milk with turmeric (kurkuma).

    The health benefits of turmeric are abundant, just search the web and you’ll find lots of info. One of the favorite ways of taking it, is the famous drink ‘golden milk’: a mix of milk (any kind) and turmeric with added oils and black pepper for better absorption by the body.

    The recipe is simple: to my 15 minute oat milk (recipe here), simply add a tablespoon of turmeric, a tablespoon of santen (coconut cream, or use half a can of coconut milk, or fresh of course if you are somewhere tropical) and a few twists of fresh black pepper.

    After blending and passing the milk through a sieve, add honey/agave syrup/any other sweetener (I use honey and vanilla sugar) to bring the sweetness to your liking.

    I even like to add this to my coffee sub! Or simply drink as is, a small glass a day, especially when your throat aches as turmeric is a master infection killer when used topically.

    One last advice: this stuff is used for cloth dyeing and with good reason. It stains like mad. Wear something old ;).

  • Detox green smoothie

    Detox green smoothie

    This simple combo rocks my mornings these days:

    1 celery stalk
    1 small apple
    3cm piece of cucumber
    1 handful of spinach*
    2-3 cm lemon grass stalk
    1 piece of ginger (to your liking)
    spoonful of turmeric powder**
    dash of black pepper
    5 cashews
    good, long squeeze of lemon juice
    1 cup of cold green tea***

    Blend it all together.

    What makes this smoothie fantastic to me, is its tangy freshness. It is not too sweet, nicely green, full of fibers and it has great character because of the celery, turmeric and lemon.

    Spinach

    * Leafy greens are great, but it is important to switch every now and then because of their alkaloid contents. Replace the spinach for kale, for example.

    By the way, I often use frozen leafs becaus those are super easy to use and have better nutritional values than ‘fresh’ leafs that are a few days old!

    Turmeric

    ** This stuff is one of the most powerful foods in the world and helps fight inflammations and tumors, among many other health benefits. For some time, I have put fresh turmeric in my smoothie each and every morning until I decided to look up if that was even healthy… which, as it turns out, it isn’t.

    Because it is so powerful, raw turmeric is treated by the body as a poison and I have read some explanations that really make sense and led me to refrain from eating raw turmeric.

    Look up the 1976 (yes, old) Goodpasture and Irrighi study if you want to know more.

    Green tea

    *** Green tea has been proven to reduce ageing, prolong lifespan and improve health in remarkable ways. Every night, I make a pot full of green tea, drink a cup or two and save the rest for the next morning, where part of it ends in a smoothie and Jan uses the rest for a homemade ice tea.

    When brewing green tea, make sure to let the water cool down to 70 degrees Celsius after you boiled it and to take out the tea leaves after 5 minutes.

    This smoothie is my favorite thing to drink after my morning runs. It clears and replenishes and I feel as if reborn.

    I hope you’ll enjoy it, too 💗.

     

  • Rhubarb breakfast bowl & ‘very veggie’ smoothie

    Rhubarb breakfast bowl & ‘very veggie’ smoothie

    I like my smoothies creamy yet light and ‘very veggie’. My love Jan prefers his filling, nutty and just a hint sweeter than I do.

    We both often gladly compromise. Other days, we’ll create the very fruity/veggie base, pour half in a glass (for me) and then mix in some more nuts, seeds and dates to create his favorite.

    Thus, we both get what we need to get us going in the morning <3.

    Cut and put in the blender to create a creamy yet very veggie smoothie:

    • 1 big apple
    • 1 orange
    • 1 inch piece of rhubarb
    • 1 small raw beetroot
    • 2 spoons of fresh fennel (the vegetable, not the seeds)
    • 1 handful of pumpkin or sunflower seeds, or both
    • 2 spoons of flax seeds
    • 1 big spoon of avocado, for creaminess (can be replaced with cashew nuts)
    • 1 inch piece of fresh turmeric, or a spoonful of turmeric powder
    • dash of black pepper (necessary to make the curcumin in turmeric bio-available!)
    • 2 dates
    • dash (or two) of cinnamon
    • water

    Or, the create a breakfast bowl: double the amounts of nuts, seeds, avocado and dates. It’s nice to keep the breakfast bowl grainy by not blending the last addition of nuts etc, all the way. Top off with some more seeds and raisins.

    If you like the concept of the breakfast bowl (a perfect bowl of mixed nuts, fruits and veggies, which I love sooo much better than yoghurt and cereal), read this post, where I feature the favorite recipe of my friend and inspirator of this lifestyle dish: Simone van Putten.

  • Turmeric Coconut Cream

    Turmeric Coconut Cream

    This recipe is for Turmeric Coconut Cream, which has concentrated flavors and a large amount of turmeric. It serves as a basis for turmeric milk: warm one or two teaspoons with a cup of (rice/nut/coconut) milk and you’re set. You could also add the cream to your tea, or porridge, or raw pie filling, or even a curry. Be creative!

    Medicine

    Turmeric has many health benefits, according to ancient cultures as well as modern-day scientific research.

    Check out this article if you want a starting point to know more: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/science-confirms-turmeric-effective-14-drugs. Please let me know if you find a better, more objective overview (i didn’t put in the time).

    How to get the most out of turmeric

    The miracles happen in petri dishes mainly; when you eat turmeric, its effect is more subtle although still amazing. Science is now catching up with ancient knowledge and finding ways to increase the effectiveness of turmeric/curcumin.

    As old cuisines have intuitively known and implemented, there’s some things we can do to reap as much benefit from it as possible: when preparing…

    – combine with some fat,
    – add black pepper
    – don’t cook or heat for too long

    All are taken care of in this recipe!

    Recipe for Turmeric Coconut Cream

    • 1 cup thick coconut milk of good quality (or use santen)
    • 2 heaping tablespoons of ground kurkuma (about 20 gr)
    • 4 cardamom pods or a few pinches of cardamom
    • 1 cinnamon stick
    • 2 star anise
    • 1 clove
    • some ground black pepper
    • a few tablespoons of raw honey or agave syrup

    In stead of the above fresh spices, you may want to use one of these ready-made spice mixes: Chinese 5 Spices or the Indian Chai or Garam Masala. In any case, be sure to add black pepper! Add a tiny pinch or drop of vanilla (essence) to bring out all these flavors even better.

    Slowly heat the thick coconut milk with the spices in a pan. Do not boil. Simmer until the spices give off their taste and the milk has reached the consistency of a rather smooth cream.

    Let it cool down a bit. The cream will set. Then stir in the honey and turmeric. We don’t heat the honey because it would lose its antibacterial power (same reason why we buy real, raw honey and not the cheap one).

    Have you tasted it? It will taste creamy, powdery, spicy, sweet, earthy and delicious. (If it tastes sour, your coconut milk is crappy.)

    Pour or spoon the cream into a clean jar. Sigh… ahhh. I drink turmeric milk every morning and night now. Perfect bedtime drink!