“Each spice has a special day to it. For turmeric it is Sunday, when light drips fat and butter-colored into the bins to be soaked up glowing, when you pray to the nine planets for love and luck.”
~ Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Mistress of Spices
Turmeric Milk is a traditional Ayurvedic drink, often called by the wonderful name Golden Milk. I use cows milk to make mine, but have also used other milks including coconut and almond very successfully for those of you who are dairy-free. As a warm drink before bed it comforts and soothes.
Turmeric has many health benefits, and is one of the herbs that has truly helped me get on top of Lyme disease. It is very detoxifying and protective for your liver, as well as being anti-inflammatory, a powerful anti-oxidant and a natural pain-killer. Combined with warm milk and a few other spices, you get a nurturing drink that helps you sleep and heals your body at the same time. It is also soothing for upset tummies, and helps relieve cold and flu symptoms.
You can make this recipe with just the milk, turmeric and honey, but the addition of ginger, pepper and cardamom gives additional health benefits and a whole extra earthy dimension to the drink. Well worth the little extra effort, I think!
Ingredients for one serve:
1 cup or mug of milk (cow, almond, goat, soy, rice, coconut – whatever works for you!), 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of powdered turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 4 black peppercorns, 2 slices of fresh root ginger, 4 cardamom pods – lightly crushed, 1 teaspoon of honey or maple syrup (or stevia for sugar-free and diabetic friendly)
Method:
Add the cold milk and spices to a small saucepan and place over low heat. Gently warm the milk to just below boiling point and then turn off the heat, cover and let the milk sit for a few minutes to further infuse the flavour.
Strain into a cup and enjoy. I find it sweet enough, but you may add extra sweetener to your personal taste.
Oh, and did I mention it’s yum? 🙂
I love golden tumeric mild Nicole, and adding a drop each of Young Living Black Pepper, Cardamom, Cinnamon Bark, Ginger and Nutmeg essential oils add a burst of live flavour too! 🙂
That’s interesting – I’ve seen quite a bit about this drink lately. I love a home brewed chai (in fact, I’m having one now 🙂 ) at this time of year, but this looks yummy too. A great way to get lots of turmeric in.
Never heard of tumeric in milk , I always put it in curries , sounds good . I have a hubby with gout at mo it might help . Loved yesterday’s meditation ….soooooo good thank you .
Cherryx
Thank you for this! I’ve just decided to become vegetarian so I’m always on the look out for new recipes and this is brilliant 🙂
Thank you for the recipe. I read somewhere that your body cools down at night naturally and it recommended not to eat ginger at night because it’s against the yin yang. I think tumeric is cooling but the rest of the ingredients are heating. Would it still be heating to drink at night?
I read ‘The Mistress of Spices’ many years ago when it was first published and fell in love with it 🙂 WIth the turmeric, one of my friends who has early onset dementia swears by it for her memory, so I’m going to get Jewel onto it. Yum! xoxo
OMG, sitting here in the morning kimberley sunshine sipping my turmeric milk and thinking wow I’ve just found myself a new drink. Thanks for sharing, Turmeric milk has a new fan.
Very interesting recipe! 🙂
you can also add a tiny sprinkle of cardamom or cloves for extra benefits to turmeric milk……. treats and prevents colds and lung inflammation