Are you familiar with turmeric milk, golden milk, or if you’re feeling fancy a ‘golden milk latte’? They may be popular at your local cafes and in the health food community, but they’re easy enough to make at home too. Whatever you prefer to call this special drink, let’s have a closer look at the ingredients and method for making your own healing cup.
The most prominent tradition of drinking turmeric infused milk comes from India. On the subcontinent a traditional ‘haldi doodh’ simply calls for warming milk with turmeric before serving. However, now that turmeric is becoming increasing popular outside the region, you’ll find popular versions mix in Indian spices like what you would find in a recipe for Chai, including: ginger, cloves, green cardamom and cinnamon. This makes the tea more fragrant and tasty, and possibly distracts newcomers to turmeric from the pungent, unfamiliar flavor. Turmeric aficionados however, can feel free to veer from the recipe, making your turmeric milk with as few or as many spices as you fancy.
But why do we call turmeric-infused milk, ‘golden milk’? No one seems sure, but we shouldn’t underestimate the possibility of the culinary world simply appropriating a common Indian drink and renaming it. If this is the case, whether the term originates as a clever marketing campaign, or an intentional attempt to obfuscate or mystify the origin of the milk tea, we should have strong reservations about what we call it. Keep this in mind if you’re deciding to add it to your menu.
Controversy aside, we should all be including turmeric more regularly in our diets, as recommended in the tradition of Ayurvedic medicine. Long before the hundreds of research studies commissioned in the past decades, traditional healers in India recognized the benefits of consuming this brightly colored root. Thanks to the volume of research the western world now also associates turmeric with a long list of health benefits including being a powerful blood cleansing, inflammation reducing, brain boosting, heart healing, and cancer resisting rhizome.
For those not already very familiar with turmeric here are a few tips for maximizing the potential uses in your daily life:
1) Avoiding Yellow Hands & Utensils
One of the first things you’ll learn from using turmeric, especially the fresh version, is that the color is incredibly strong. While the skin on the root is usually a dull black, once gently scraped away, you will reveal the surprisingly deep orange color. Beware though, because this enchanting orange-yellow color can stain your hands, cutting boards, kitchen countertops, and anything else the root may come in contact with.
2) Understanding Powders and Supplements Pills
Outside of Asia, one of the most common ways to consume turmeric is as a powder or supplement. Be sure you have it from a reputable source, and understand whether you’re having dried turmeric powder, an extract like curcumin, or some variation. This is important to know as the potential benefits and use may vary. If you’re using these products to battle a specific illness, consider consulting your doctor about the appropriate dosage
3) Increasing Bioavailability
In addition to not being widely grown in many western countries, the other reason turmeric is often taken as a supplement is that turmeric may be less bio-available to your body in other forms. Bioavailability means your body can easily digest and put to work the most healing chemical components. Some foods require us to prepare them a certain way to make the nutrients in them more bioavailable. To improve the bioavailability of turmeric, for instance, prepare with healthy fats sources like coconut milk. This is because turmeric is more easily fat-soluble than water-soluble. Another tip is the use of black pepper, which can give the body more time to circulate and process the turmeric
If you think about how turmeric is typically consumed in places around Asia, we know local traditions have dictated this bioavailable method of consumption for hundreds of years. The best example can be found in many of the curries you love. Typically most any yellow colored curry you can think of, regardless of the nation of origin, is so colored because of the addition of turmeric. Those curry pastes contain many ingredients, but two not often excluded are coconut milk and black pepper. One of the tips in our green curry recipe calls for adding a small nob of turmeric to enhance the color, not to mention the health benefits!
Turmeric Milk Recipe (Golden Milk)
Ingredients
2 cups of coconut milk (or the milk of your choice)
5g turmeric, smashed (or 1 tsp of turmeric powder)
5g of sliced ginger, smashed
2-3 black pepper pods
1-2 green cardamom pods, smashed and seeds removed
1 small cinnamon stick
1 tbsp of date syrup (or other natural sweetener)
Instructions
1) Smash any fresh or whole spices in a mortar and pestle, or with another heavy tool. This isn’t a pulverizing smash, but strong bruising that will allow the essential oils to come out more easily.
2) Add dry spices to a small pot over low heat. Briefly toast until fragrant.
3) Pour coconut milk (or the milk of choice) over spices and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Don’t let your milk boil too vigorously.
4) Add your sweetener and stir.
5) Turn off heat and allow to cool for another 5 minutes or longer before serving. This gives the ingredients more time to steep into the milk.
6) Strain out your spices are you pour into a glass or mug. Serve hot, or over ice.
7) Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top if desired.
We hope everyone will incorporate more turmeric into their diet, and continue to look for more creative uses for this healthy herb. If you’ve enjoyed this recipe, consider donating in support of the work of Courageous Kitchen, or signing up for our online classes.
