Turmeric is an incredible, powerful ingredient. It’s many, scientifically proven, health benefits including being an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant are very interesting to read up on. Anecdotally, I have terrible knees from a combination of hyper-mobility, multiple dislocations and corrective surgery that went badly wrong, and I find, when I remember to have a tsp of my turmeric paste at least a few times a week, be that in porridge, smoothies or golden milk, my knees do feel less swollen and painful at the end of the day. As a chef, I love it for it’s vibrant colour and interesting flavour. Curcumin, the compound responsible for most of turmeric’s potential health benefits, unfortunately doesn’t absorb well into the bloodstream so I always add black pepper and oil to anything with turmeric in to increase it’s bioavailability. You can read about the science behind the bioavailibity of turmeric here. So don’t leave the black pepper and coconut oil out of the recipe!
Ingredients
- 100g fresh, organic turmeric roots
- 100g fresh, organic ginger roots
- 2 heaped tbsp coconut oil
- maple syrup (or sweetener of your choice)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
Method
Peel the turmeric and ginger roots using the edge of a teaspoon.
Slice the roots against the direction of the fibres and put them in a strong blender.
Add coconut oil, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and ground black pepper.
Cover the ingredients with maple syrup and then blend until smooth.
Transfer the mixture into small jars and refrigerate. They should last in the fridge for about a month, so freeze what you won’t use up in that time. Use the frozen turmeric paste within 6 months of making it.
Did you make this recipe? Let us know how it went in the comments or over on our friendly Facebook group. Don’t forget to share this blog post with your friends. Liz x