Recipe Credit: Darshana Muzumdar
Makes 2 cups
This is a wonderful replacement for the tea that we usually make with dairy milk. It’s not only delicious but also refreshing and gentler on the digestive system. This is actually a traditional infusion made without the tea leaves. Once you have this for a few days, you won’t want to go back to your old habit of tea with milk. However, a better replacement would be a green smoothie or some delicious ripe sweet fruit. I believe that eating fruits helps in achieving our optimum health. Please learn more from Gaurav Goyal and his group Eat Fruits and Heal. The conversation is usually in Hindi and here’s a simple explanation that Gaurav Goyal shares. You can also check their English FAQs and Hindi FAQs to learn more about eating fruits as a species specific diet.
Ingredients
- 1″ piece of fresh ginger
- 2-3 cloves
- 1 cardamom
- 2 tbsp jaggery (palm sugar) or 2 tsps sugar
- 1/2 tsp tea leaves
- 400 ml water
Method
- Wash and crush the ginger and add it and the jaggery to the water in a steel pot. There is no need to peel the ginger. Bring this to a boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Meanwhile pound the cardamom and cloves with a mortar and pestle into a rough powder. There’s no need to peel the cardamom. Add these spices to the simmering water and let it simmer for a couple of seconds more.
- Add the tea leaves and immediately turn off the heat. Cover and let the tea brew for two or three minutes.
- Strain and serve while still hot. This can even be cooled and chilled in the refrigerator as an evening drink in the warm summer months.
For the Whole-Food Plant-Based (WFPB) version:
Do not use any jaggery or sugar. You can have the tea with a date, a few raisins, or a dried fig.