Turmeric, or Curcumin- which turmeric contains, has SO many health benefits. This yellow root is packed with anti inflammatory powers and is recommended by doctors as a supplement for patients with arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. It is good for your hair and skin and great for healing so many ailments temporary and chronic. It has even been used in studies healing patients with cancer. Really the list goes on and on. There are so many posts out there explaining more about the benefits of turmeric and why your should add it to your diet. Here in this post I want to talk about HOW to add it into your daily diet.
Add it to your smoothies-This is probably the easiest way to add turmeric to your diet, if you are a frequent smoothie drinker, that is. I usually mix protein powder along with flax meal, almond milk, banana and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and sometimes a spoonful of peanut butter or a swirl of organic chocolate syrup to my smoothies especially after a workout.
Mix into Muffins- Pumpkin muffins with a dash of turmeric added in- yum! Pumpkin muffins would work great with turmeric for 2 reasons. one, the spices in pumpkin muffins will mask any flavor from the turmeric and it may even enhance the flavors and two, the golden yellow color of the turmeric will be hidden due to the orange yellow color of most pumpkin muffins!
Turmeric Milk-This one I have yet to try but there are tons of recipes out there raving the benefits of turmeric and it is very easy to prepare.
Put it on chicken- When I season my chicken I usually a) mix my dry spices in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly on top of the chicken before I cook it, or b) place my chicken, all spices and usually a swirl (about 1 tsp) of olive oil into a zip lock bag, zip the bag closed and massage until it looks well mixed. I recently made chicken fajitas and added it to my seasoning blend and we really liked it.
Add it to rice- Turmeric is one of my favorite additions to brown or basmati rice- Anytime I cook with Indian flavors in mind (which is actually a lot) I always add turmeric to my rice while it cooks. I avoid the quick cook stuff as much as possible for a few reasons- it is more processed(which generally means it looses nutrients), it doesn't taste as good in my opinion, it's more expensive, and it's really not that much "quicker". Indian inspired rice is not the only option for adding turmeric, I really think any rice dish would benefit. The flavor I find is quite subtle and not spicy at all. The biggest difference is it will turn your rice bright yellow. Here is one of my recipes with chicken, turmeric and black beans!
Add to salad dressing-For me this is one of the easiest and most common ways we use it. I make all of my salad dressing at home and adding turmeric boosts my confidence that my salad dressing is even healthier. Check out my favorite homemade salad dressing here.
Mix into Spaghetti Sauce-I recently tried adding turmeric powder to spaghetti sauce and it worked great! I couldn't taste it at all and I was able to add a good amount so we were getting all the nutritional benefits without even knowing it.
**Note: Turmeric has many healing powers, traditionally it has also been used to dye clothing a bright yellow color. This being said, it WILL turn most foods yellow. I recommend using caution when using it to cook with and if you're a messy eater I wouldn't wear a white shirt. I have white counters that now have a few highlighter yellow spots on them (they do fade over time- the best way I have found is to scrub with a paste of baking soda and water) Unfortunately that didn't work for my t shirt :( This is why I recommend using caution when using turmeric but don't let that stop you from using it, the health benefits are far too great to miss out on.
I want to hear from you! What are your favorite ways to use turmeric and do you know any good stain removal tricks?
As always, thank you for reading.
Until next time,
Rachael
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