I admit it. I am a health nut. I’ve written extensively about the things I do to keep healthy, but basically I just eat real food. Fruits and vegetables of course, with as much organic as I can find. I drink a ton of water and seldom have sugar or processed foods. I make, eat and drink a lot of fermented foods. I choose sea salt or Himalayan salt over table salt. I choose coconut or olive oil over canola. A lot of people I know are making some of the same changes, but I have started making and taking a healthy tonic every day that I thought you’d like to hear about.
I imagine you’re read about the health benefits of turmeric. It really is an amazing root. It grows in clumps underground similar to ginger and is a perfect addition to our tropical gardens. (I finally got some store-bought turmeric root to sprout and have started a patch in my garden!) I have been buying it at the grocery store in the area by the ginger and including it in my smoothies.
I’d seen a few recipes for cold chasers, honey bombs, and golden pastes and knew I wanted to try to make a concoction for our use. One thing I knew was that in order to make available all the health benefits of turmeric it needed to be accompanied by a fat and also black pepper. So I came up with the following recipe, and have a couple of spoonfuls every day. I highly recommend it, but do be careful and wear an apron and protect your countertops and hands from potential yellowization of everything it touches!
Select a glass jar to use. For a jar the size of my pickle jar above:
1/3 jar honey
1/3 jar coconut oil
a couple tablespoons grated dry ginger
a teaspoon or so ground pepper
about five or six tablespoons turmeric powder
Stir and stir until it’s all combined. It will continue to separate for a few days until the dry ingredients get fully absorbed by the oil and honey. Just stir before use. No need to refrigerate.
(As an aside, coconut oil is liquid here in Mazatlán year round except for a couple of weeks in the dead of winter. I’m not sure how it will work for those of you in colder climates but I would sure give it a try.)
Theresa Diaz Gray
July 9, 2015Thanks Nancy!
I have been adding turmeric powder to our scrambled eggs. Just a couple of dashes at a time, so more turmeric would be a good idea.
Did you know that brushing your teeth with turmeric mixed with coconut oil will make them whiter? I tried it, but decided it’s too easy to get it on other things, and the coconut oil is yucky in the basin when I spit. Yeah, I know too much information.
Here in Yucatan, turmeric is called cúrcuma which is it’s scientific name too.
I have several recipes that call for coconut oil because “it’s solid at room temperature”, really? Hardly ever in my experience, except maybe in December. I jokingly call it my thermometer, it’s like a weather rock, if it’s solid then it’s winter. If I put it in the refrigerator then it’s too hard to use, any tricks that you know of to get an in between consistency?
regards,
Theresa
Nancy
July 10, 2015Hi Theresa, I have read about the turmeric tooth cleaner but I was too afraid it would turn my teeth yellow! I haven’t been able to figure out an in between consistency, wish I did.
Kim, Hi there, I love curry and we do have a very good Indian restaurant here but not every day and I wanted to make turmeric a part of my daily intake. Make popcorn in your coconut oil and add a glug to your smoothie. It’s a great oil… a friend’s husband has memory issues and on the days she gives him coco oil he is better… kind of like lubricant for the brain.
Judith, Hola! Hope you found everything, let me know what you think!
Wendy, It’s hard to describe what it tastes like, kinda coconutty turmericy honeyish. 🙂 I buy it at Mega, Mercado Verde, the organic market for sure. Can’t remember if Soriana has it. Ha ha I thought you asked where it is SOLD and you said SOLID ha ha ha! Yes, if you were anywhere in the US or Canada anytime except summer it would be solid as shortening!
Kim G
July 9, 2015Wouldn’t it be easier and more fun to just eat a lot of curry?
And Theresa, your comment made me laugh several times. LOL
Saludos,
Kim G
Boston, MA
Where we’ve experimentally bought a jar of coconut oil, though have yet to do more than open it and sniff the contents.
judith
July 10, 2015Thanks so much for this recipe, Nancy. Going out to get the ingredients this morning!
Wendy Kain
July 10, 2015V interesting Nancy, thanks. How does this taste?
Also, there are places where coconut oil is solid?
Sandy
July 11, 2015I take Curcumin 2K twice a day that has Black Pepper Extract for absorption. It has helped greatly with the pain in my hip (joint is good) and I can walk pain free. Have been taking it since April of this year. It is 1330 MG and it sure works for me.
Sandy
July 11, 2015Forgot to say it is the Bursa that is so painful for me.
Peter-B
July 19, 2015Hi,
Was looking for great blogs about living in Mexico when I came across your blog and more importantly this story.
I thought I invented my Turmeric and Ginger Tea but obviously I am wrong! I’d classify myself as more of a coffee drinker but I’d gladly drink my Turmeric Tea over coffee most days. I use Xyla (the alkaline sugar substitute instead of honey or other sugary things but that not so important).
On the health front, I recently learned about Iodine’s health benefits and how most of us are iodine deficient. My Ex, her sisters and now a niece have suffered from hypo or pyper thyroidism and breast cancer issues and they all seem to be related to lack of enough iodine. I have a little ADHD, but don’t most of us, if we are honest, and I have found adding iodine has helped. So has getting off processed carbs (for that matter).
Also trying to eat fermented foods for the probiotics. In fact I have combined that with the whole phytate issue with nuts and seeds by making my version of morning muesli. I started with a bowl of seeds, I like pumkin, sesame, poppy with raisins and a few spoonfulls of plain yogurt and sometimes a splash of milk. I put the covered bowl on the counter over night and then take out half for my breakfast and replenish the bowl and mix things up for it to ferment for tomorrow and repeat. With the stuff I took out, I add a couple more spoonfuls of yogurt (as the stuff from yesterday has all been absorbed by the seeds and fermented. I add a scoop of whey for protien and flavour bit that is not required. This is great because the new yogurt and in my case the whey may it tasty and it has lots of probiotics and the probiotics have eated/converted or something the phytates so they are no longer a negative to eating the seeds.
Sorry for going on a bit. Hope its of interest.