When I wrote the post regarding anti-inflammatory foods, I decided to buy some Turmeric. At the time I was not able to claim knowing what it tasted like. I figured since it was used a lot in curries I would be ok with it. I thought that it would be a good thing to add to our diet. Since there are so many things that work as an inflammatory, I am always trying to add anti-inflammatory foods and ingredients into our diet. I wasn’t sure exactly how to use it, but I was wanting to give it a go. Turmeric has been used in food and as medicine for centuries. Seems like the West is doing a lot of research to see what health benefits it has.
According to the University of Maryland Medical Center: “Turmeric has been used in both Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine as an anti-inflammatory, to treat digestive and liver problems, skin diseases, and wounds. Curcumin is also a powerful antioxidant.”
Remember Curcumin is the phytochemcial that give turmeric its color.
And Eat This! has a list of 20 Health Benefits contributed to Turmeric including;
-When combined with cauliflower, it has shown to prevent prostate cancer and stop the growth of existing prostate cancer.
-Has shown promise in slowing the progression of multiple sclerosis in mice.
-May aid in fat metabolism and help in weight management.
Well, I’ve had it for a while now and I really like the flavor. I’ve added it to soups, to veggies, and to meat. You know my standard ground turkey and whatever veggies I have? Well, it really makes that taste wonderful. I had cooked broccoli, mushrooms, and ground turkey for dinner a few nights ago, today I decided to have the leftovers in a tortilla. Since we have a few cucumbers I decided to use some up by slicing it really thin and putting it in the tortilla with the meat and a bit of parmesan cheese. WOW! The turmeric and the cucumbers were a party-in-my-mouth flavor. It was really good. So now I am going to serve cucumbers with my turmeric ground turkey. Many people can describe flavors, I can sometimes, but I cannot describe the flavor or turmeric. I would say that it is somewhat mellow so it won’t necessary overpower what you are using it with. It is not hot or bitter. I think it can be used with anything savory.
Wiki says “it has a distinctly earthy, slightly bitter, slightly hot peppery flavor and a mustardy smell” but I don’t agree. Maybe I will give it the mustardy smell, but not off the top of my head.
But there is a problem with turmeric. It dyes everything yellow! I now have several bowls and utensils dyed yellow because I used them to stir, serve, or store something with turmeric in it. It is just as bad as tomato sauce when it comes to dying things!
I am familiar with turmeric in its powdered form, but it is a root like ginger, so if you get it in root form you can use it just as you would ginger. You could chop it, grate it, cut it up . . . the same as ginger.
If you like the flavor it seems like a great thing to add to just about everything. Since it is touted as an anti-inflammatory, an antioxidant, help in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), helps treat the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, improves liver function, prevents some cancers, lowers cholesterol, helps treat and prevent Alzheimer’s, reduces risk of childhood Leukemia among other things — why not add it to things?
Do you cook with Turmeric? If so what do you add it to?
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