Tumeric Elixir

Make this powdered magic Tumeric Elixir to calm inflammation and provide energy. Adjustable for immediate drinking or storage. 

Description

Sometimes we don’t have access to fresh turmeric but still NEED the magical energy of turmeric to heal our spirit or help with inflammation.  Not to worry — dry turmeric has similar properties and is just as easy to work with.  I love this elixir so much — I often keep the base ready to use, so I can make the tea even quicker.  

I have been drinking this my whole life.  The initial part I was forced! Now as an adult – I relish the tea. Now it is soothing and uplifting.   Looking back, I know that this must be one of the reasons that as children we were rarely sick.  Now I have it often, especially if I feel run down, emotionally or physically.  

When you look at the directions, many people think that the ghee part is strange.  I know it’s off-putting.  I understand.  Believe me, you won’t taste it.  It helps to magnify the properties of turmeric and basically, let’s turmeric do what it needs to do!  The concoction comes together quickly and in no time, you will be enjoying a warming and healing cup of homemade turmeric tea.

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons dry turmeric

1 Tablespoon of organic ghee

1 Tablespoon dry ginger

A couple shakes or grinds of black pepper or 9 peppercorns

4 cups of fresh water

2 Tablespoons fresh local honey

Juice of a half a lemon

Fresh mint

Steps

  1. In a small pot, add the ghee and put the flame to low heat.  As it warms, add the turmeric to let it bloom and its powers manifest.  Stir slowly and carefully.  Add the ginger and black pepper.  Stir some more.  This will all come together in a matter of minutes.
  1. Once you can smell an intense earthiness, this is the BASE.   You can let it cool, put it into a glass jar, and spoon out as needed.  Use within the  week.  You can store it outside on the counter, ready to be enjoyed.

If drinking now:

  1. Add in the water and increase the heat to medium.  Let it come to a rolling boil and then lower the heat, letting in heat for 20 minutes.   Add the fresh mint.  
  2. Take the pot off the heat.  Add fresh lemon juice.  Slowly pour a bit into a mug, add the honey and stir well.  Fill the cup –breath deeply.  Grounding yourself, take a full breath and set an intention for the rest of your day.  Will you approach the rest of your day with an assumption of the positive?  Will you remember the abundance that you already have?  WIll you KNOW in your soul that good things come to you? 

Refreshing and Energizing Indian Lemonade

Simple, refreshing lemonade perfect for cooling off on a warm day.

Description

Looking for a quick, simple REFRESHING drink to make to drink on a hot day or when you have friends over?  This lemonade is just the thing because it has only a few ingredients, it’s likely that you have them at home AND guaranteed.  It’s energizing and hydrating – perfect to sip while lounging by the pool or getting ready to have a challenging game of tennis!

Nani or NaniMa is mother’s mother in our Indian language, Gujarati.  My mom makes the most delicious and best best BEST lemonade or limbu pani.  It’s fresh, contains just the right balance of tart and sweet, with the added flavor profile of the cumin seeds.  It’s simple to make and makes that perfect summer day THAT MUCH more perfect.  Not only good for you, it tastes FANTASTIC as well. How about that – a two for one that we can all celebrate.

Even if you aren’t sitting poolside at a fancy resort enjoying a relaxed and wonderful Sunday afternoon, reading Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri — this can put you there energetically. Take a moment to let your mind really go there – beautiful blue sky, the sun shining at JUST THE RIGHT amount of brightness – perhaps a slight breeze – a deep blue infinity pool.  You – under an umbrella, legs long, immersed in a book, perhaps the latest Ann Patchett, with this cold, refreshing drink in your hand.  Dreamy sigh…..You are really living life!

I always feel like a heroine when I make fresh lemonade — but truly, it really is the embodiment of the saying –” easy peasy lemon squeezy!”  It’s THE reason to have a large glass pitcher and a serving tray — how Perfect Hostess will you look when you serve friends a beautiful pitcher of this delicious lemonade?

While store-bought lemonade can be easy to have on hand and lasts a long time,  it’s loaded with bad sugar, such as high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, food coloring, stabilizers, and other unhealthy things we don’t want in our bodies or in our children’s bodies.  I encourage you to try this recipe.  It lasts a week in the fridge – so you can keep it on hand…if you, your kids, and friends don’t drink it all in one afternoon!  

My kids still prefer when Nani makes it – so do I.  She makes it so effortlessly and her flavors are always perfectly balanced.  I make it often – but I must admit, I still have to taste test it multiple times to get the flavor exactly how we love it.  NO matter.  It’s such fun to make and even more fun to drink and EVEN that much more fun to share with your family and friends. I even love beginning with the rolling of the lemons.  Touch is so important and adds to our cooking.  Here, simply rolling the lemons connects us to the main taste in this refreshing.

I remember having it in India when visiting our extended families during the oppressively hot and humid summer.  My mom or favorite aunt, Shama Mami would always serve it as soon as we arrived.  She was such a loving person and would remember all of my favorites – snacks, drinks, and meals.  I still recall with wonder how touching that kind of love is – caring enough to really consider what another person loves to eat.  How that balance of the sour with the sweet was always able to bring up my energy from the journey and the heat.  

If you don’t want it to taste “Indian”,  simply leave out the cumin seeds and you will have fresh homemade lemonade! Do still add in the tiny pinch of salt as it subtly balances the lemon flavor.

Take a moment to close your eyes.  Grounding through your feet, take a deep, smooth inhale.  Let your mind go back to a favorite childhood memory.  Remember the childhood joys of summer and RELISH this moment.  Smile. Find a way to add PLAY and wonder to your day.  Share the story with your kids or friends.  Feel grateful for childhood happiness and memories.

Equipment

  • Lemon juicer, if you have it
  • Strainer if you don’t have juicer, to catch the seeds
  • Tall glass pitcher
  • Tall spoon to stir
  • Mason jar
  • Bowl

Ingredients

  • Juice of one lemon
  • Juice of one lime
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • ½ teaspoon cumin powder
  • Pinch of black salt or himalayan salt
  • 1 Tablespoon of honey, or more to taste
  • 8 ounces of water
  • Ice
  • Optional: fresh mint or basil from the garden.

Steps

  1. Roll the whole lemon on the counter with the palm of your hand.  Additionally, this helps you to connect to the lemon, which I think makes the juice that much sweeter.  Juice a lemon and remove the seeds.
  2. In a mug, put in a few tablespoons of warm or hot water, add honey, stir to combine well.  You are making a small batch of very simple, simple syrup! 
  3. In a mason jar, add all the lemon juice, cumin seeds, cumin powder, himalayan salt. Mix well.  This is now your magical base.
  4. In a tall glass, add 1 tablespoon of the fresh lemon juice BASE, 1 Tablespoon of the honey simple syrup.  Fill with the desired amount of ice and water. Stir quickly three times.  

Remember the childhood joys of summer and RELISH this moment.  Find a way to add PLAY and wonder to your day.

Tip:  Roll the lemon and the lime on the counter with the palm of your hand three times to help release more juice.  Then, wash the lemon, slice in half, and watch the juice FLOW!

Substitutions

If you are out of lemons, you can certainly use limes.

Storage

This will store well in the mason jar for a week.  It will be very simple to mix up a fresh glass at your whim.  If you make a pitcher of lemonade, it will last in the fridge for 2 or 3 days.  But again – if it’s HOT – it’s unlikely to make it for very long before being consumed.  It’s that good!

Lucky Leftovers

You could add this to freshly made ice tea for the most delicious Arnold Palmer.  As well, this would taste FANTASTIC for cocktail hour with gin, tequila, or vodka.

CCF tea – AKA Your Digestion’s Bestie Tea (Cumin, Coriander, and Fennel Tea)

If you are seeking an herbal tea to adopt into your routine to aide and soothe your digestion track, Cumin Coriander Fennel Tea is the perfect elixir. Quick and simple to make with good, whole ingredients, this tea will ensure everything is running smoothly and at an optimum level.

Did you overeat? Are you feeling bloated? This is a simple, quick herbal tea infusion to make for yourself to get your digestion back on track.  When used regularly, it helps your digestion work at an optimal level. It’s the simple and powerful trick that you always wanted!

This herbal infusion is an old ayurvedic recipe to aid in digestion. I remember my mother making it for us whenever we had a stomache–usually after too much Halloween candy or too much COTTON CANDY from a carnival. 

I started incorporating it into my life again when I began my Ayurveda studies in my 40’s – having completely forgotten how powerful it is.  I won’t lie.  It was certainly not love at first sight.  The first time I thought….hmmmm.  This isn’t what I want to be drinking.. However, SHE PREVAILED, as we now know say! 

I love how it promotes healthy digestion, and helps with the discomfort of indigestion, or too much eating.  I try to live a balanced life — but I am very human and NOT PERFECT.  I have eaten too much at that delicious restaurant I have been trying to go to for months!  You know the one…that makes the delicate pasta by hand.  Or had a few too many bites of my mother in law’s flavorful chicken biryani. Or too many bites of my daughter Anisa’s homemade chocolate pudding…it is so silky and luscious. 

It’s this magical potion that saves me EVERY TIME.  This tea has so many benefits that make it worth adding to your daily habits. Or, you can also just incorporate it when you “need it the most”, for example after a too heavy to digest meal or a meal that you indulged in too much!  CCF Magical Tea to the rescue.  Even too much of a balanced and healthy meal can cause digestive distress. This Ayurveda tea is here to save the day by doing wonders for your gut health.

Confession —  It may take some getting used to the taste, it’s a very different taste than most of us are used to.  It is not going to taste like your usual mint tea!  But it really does the JOB!  Believe me – it’s a gamechanger.  An easy new habit to add into your daily practice, have this tea daily for 7 days and see how you feel.  You will feel lighter and less bloated, I promise.  

I know it sounds strange…these are spices I cook with (or don’t cook with! Ha ha!).  How can this be tea? Technically, it’s more of an infusion.  The combination of these three spices come together and create something bigger with profoundly healing properties.  It’s one of those, wow! If I had known it could be so easy, I would have done it years ago. 

Healthy Hint to make your life easier – Once I mix a jar of this, I  keep it right there with all my teas. Let them be tea Besties!  It makes it much quicker to have it when I need it and it lasts several months.

In the beginning, I advise you to try it a few times, maybe make it a few different ways as your taste buds adjust.  I drink this many afternoons, it’s especially comforting during the first chilly days of Fall.  I like to add a tiny taste of local honey and some fresh lemon, especially in the beginning as you get adjusted to this taste.  You can also add a sprig of fresh mint from your garden.

Luckily, we live in a world where many spices are available at local supermarkets.  Most likely, you will be able to find all three spices at your Whole Foods, Kroger’s, Ralph’s, Gristede’s or wherever you market. You will certainly save yourself money by visiting your closest Indian store.  These spices are versatile and long lasting, so do yourself a favor and pick up a larger bag of all three.  Or, you can always order online.  If you feel so inclined, there are smaller spice purveyors who are making sure working conditions and wages are fair that I highly recommend looking into for the future, including Diaspora Co., Curio, SOS Spices, and Zameen spices, among many others.  I love spending time at SOS Spices in the East Village of New York.  Atef Boulaabi’s shrine to  spices and cooking is tiny, crowded, and beautiful.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Most often there, she is welcoming and ready to talk cooking whether you are a celebrated chef, or a home cook looking to try something new.  I love sharing what I’ve been making, what I want to try, and what I am afraid to try!  Single source spices are super fresh, and she also makes blends that I love.   

Take a smooth, deep breath.  Close your eyes.  Feel the warmth inside you.  Connect to that love that you have for yourself.  Self care can look many ways.  Take good care of yourself.

Equipment

Kettle or pot to boil water

Ingredients

  • -1 tablespoon cumin seeds
  • -1 tablespoon coriander seeds
  • -1 tablespoon fennel seeds

Steps

  1. Add one tablespoon to a mug of just boiled water.  Cover.  Let steep for five minutes. 
  2. Set a timer and meditate for 5 minutes.  
  3. What a relaxed and focused afternoon you will have!
  4. Strain into a mug, using your strainer.
  5. Add local honey to taste.
  6. Breathe it in and toast your health!

Substitutions

You really can’t substitute – but, if you only have fennel, just chew on that.  A handful or two will help.  

If you only have two out of three, give it a steep – a little is better than nothing.

You can certainly ADD things – ginger, mint, chamomile, tulsi, to round out the flavors and add additional benefits.

Storage

Mix up larger quantities in a glass mason jar.  It will last for several months.

Healthy Hint:  I mix a jar of this and keep it right there with all my teas.  It makes it much quicker to have it when I need it and less to put away.

Healthy Hint: Add a small spoon of local honey and a juicy squeeze of lemon to help you adjust to the taste.