Home-made iced ginger tea for scorching summers

Ginger, if you see it in the store, looks quite ugly. It looks like a tiny, sallow, unattached hand. But it also has to be the most deceitful spice ever. Once you peel it, ginger has a charming flavor, like flowers and scrubbed clean cotton. There's no end to how many purposes you can find for ginger in the kitchen. I've become addicted to cooking with it, not just in curries but also in adaptations of Romanian and New Mexican foods.

Nutritionally, ginger has very powerful anti-inflammatory and analgesic (painkiller) properties. Since ancient times, it has been used in many cultures to alleviate heartburn and also menstrual cramps (bet you didn't know that!). Ginger tea is not only tasty and refreshing, it also helps digestion, so it's good to have any time of day.

This ginger tea recipe is the result of much trial and error. It's sweetened with Stevia, which is a natural sweetener and has zero effect on our blood sugar level. Let this be one drink in your life that you don't add sugar to. 

Iced Ginger Tea with Stevia

~ makes 1/2 gallon (64 oz)

1 3-inch piece ginger root

8 cups (64 oz) filtered water

juice of 1/2 lemon (2-3 Tbsp)

4 caffeine-free tea bags (Oolong tea works great, I personally like the Triple Leaf Tea brand)

5 drops Stevia or another natural sweetener

Peel the ginger root with a teaspoon. Wash it well and cut it into small pieces. Set the water and ginger root in a stainless steel pot on medium heat. Stainless steel works well because it does not react with the ginger. Try to catch it right before it boils and take it off the heat. The ginger will be stronger in the tea if you don't boil it. 

Set the teabags in a heatproof glass bowl and pour the hot water and ginger over them. Cover and steep the teabags for 10 minutes and then remove them. Cover again and let the ginger steep for another 1 1/2 hours. After that, sweeten with 5 drops of Stevia extract or the sweetener of your choice. Add the lemon juice and stir. We add the lemon after the tea's cooled down so as not to kill the lemon's valuable enzymes. Pour into a pitcher through a strainer and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Gluten-free week - day 3

Okay, some days are hurrying days. On hurrying days, I usually pull out things from the fridge, tear pieces out of them and eat standing up in the kitchen. A 3-minute caveman meal. And to be perfectly honest, on days like these I even skip breakfast (gasp). I don't recommend that anyone either eat standing up in the kitchen or skip the most important meal of the day. But sometimes, well, we must.

Luckily, nature's been thoughtful about us hurried ones and designed a fruit that's perfect in these situations: the banana. It has a handle, it lends itself easily to being consumed on the go and thanks to its incorporated wrapper it's entirely messless. The banana is also a great source of Potassium, Manganese, Vitamin B6 and fiber. I am a fan.

Alas, yesterday I didn't have a banana. Instead, I went for a quick grilled meal for lunch and an exotic soup for dinner. I have to admit, having soup is when I miss bread the most...

A fitting lunch-in-front-of-the-computer: grilled chicken with grilled asparagus and fresh cucumber.

Don't forget about the ginger tea! I could sit here and rhapsodize about the benefits of ginger tea, but I'll keep the mystery for now. It looks damn pretty though.

Ginger-orange carrot soup. That's all I'm going to say.

The orange-carrot soup is made with Chardonnay, which also gives it a tangy taste. It's not for everyone. The orange flavor is very strong and granted, the idea of orange soup is a little strange. But the sour cream definitely makes it a winner.

Recipe for ginger-orange carrot soup from here.