– healing every day with ancient spices
– Turmeric Tea recipe
– delicious Turmeric Tea Cake using sediment from Turmeric Tea!

Turmeric is a phenomenal healer, and so are many spices cultivated by humans for thousands of years.  Now, more than 600 scientific studies show turmeric to be a healer for a range of illnesses – superior to pharmaceuticals.

Turmeric tea has become the way I begin my day.

Most teas bore me quickly, but I LOVE turmeric tea, because it’s substantial, and it has a “bite” that reminds me of coffee — but it’s more than that.  I feel like cells throughout my body jump with joy that I’m giving them what they need.

A recipe I found online (below in this post) gives me almost 2 quarts of liquid, half of it viscous sediment we call “sludge” – which I don’t find appealing, so I began pouring my tea off the top and leaving the sediment in the pan.

After throwing the sediment in the compost twice, I decided to invent a use for it.

My favorite so far is (gluten-free!) Turmeric Tea Cake, which we make in variations, such as:
– pineapple up-side-down cake
– with sunflower seeds, fresh banana, and agave syrup
– pancake varieties with toppings of fresh or frozen strawberries or blueberries
– chocolate cake!

If you’ve been throwing away your turmeric tea sediment/”sludge,” try this recipe and let us know if you like it as much as we do!

Turmeric Tea Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine dry ingredients:
– 2 C organic gluten-free flour (I like millet and oat, but I’ve also used blue or other cornmeal)
– 1 T baking powder
-1/2  t salt

Mash 2 frozen bananas (replacing sugar and oil in typical recipes).
Add bananas and most or all of a quart of turmeric tea sediment/“sludge” (most or all depending on how well it’s settled) to the dry ingredients.  Be prepared to quickly add more tea or water if you use less than a quart and the dry ingredients absorb it quickly.

Mix only long enough to combine wet and dry (a dozen strokes?), no extra, but quickly mixing in more tea or water if necessary (quick judgement needed) to make a stir-able batter that can “pour” into your baking pan.  It will move as an amazing (not difficult) single, viscous mass.  Do not try to make it more pourable.

(Always) treat batter gently with as few strokes as necessary to assure it’s mixed, but no extra.  Bake (in 9×13 pan) at 350 for 40-50 minutes.  Finger depression test, then test with sharp knife.  When it comes out clean, it’s done, even if the knife appears wet.

Because of its moisture, refrigerate when cool.  Bake with pineapple on the bottom, or top with fresh fruit and maple or agave syrup.

Recently we made a chocolate cake version, adding 1/4 C sugar (instead of the common 1 C) to the banana bread recipe, plus raw sunflower seeds and chia seeds.  We top it with a little agave syrup, plain goat yogurt, bananas and/or mango slices, and chopped walnuts.  Looks like a brownie sundae, is delicious, and medicine packed!

This stuff is so intense, as I already said: It makes my cells very happy.

If you don’t have a tea recipe, here’s one I found online, with a couple of changes:

Turmeric Tea

3 heaping T turmeric powder

2 heaping T cinnamon powder

2 heaping T ginger powder

2 heaping T cardamom powder

1/4 t or more cloves, ground

1/4 t or more black pepper

2 quarts water

Add spices to water in large saucepan, whisk to mix, bring to boil, then simmer, covered, 10 minutes.  Pour slowly to allow sediment to stay in pan, more or less, depending on preference.  Add sweetener of choice:  stevia, agave syrup, maple syrup, honey, etc.  Add some sort of fat – cream or coconut milk is nice – to assimilate the benefits of the turmeric.

Pour left-over tea into jars and refrigerate.  2 quarts, half tea, half “sludge.”  I drink 1 quart of tea in three days.  And my man and I eat one large cake for breakfast, snacks, or dessert every three days too.

Make your cells happy!