Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Turmeric Ginger Soda

I've been reading allot about the long list of health benefits packed into the small but powerful turmeric root. Up until recently I had only seen it in powdered spice form, but stumbled upon a basket full of fresh whole roots at the Columbus Circle Whole Foods. I grabbed a bag and whipped up this delightful Turmeric Ginger soda recipe using my roommate's juicer. Seriously, it looks and tastes like sunshine! A word of caution though, I'd recommend wearing rubber gloves to peel and chop the turmeric; my hands were yellow for a week.

I used a large 2" chunk of fresh ginger root and 7 to 10 pieces of the largest turmeric roots you can find (but you can change the portions according to taste).


Wash, peel and roughly chop everything.


Feed everything into your juicer, 2 or 3 pieces at a time and pausing (the stringy-ness of the roots can clog the machine if fed to rapidly). Once everything has been juiced, turn off the machine and gather the pulp from the waste basket. Process this through the juicer again as there is still allot of liquid in this. You should end up with about an inch of very concentrated juice. If you don't have a juicer, I think it would work to just blend or food process everything and then to strain the juice through a very fine sieve.


In a small bowl, completely dissolve a heaping tbsp. (more if you want a sweeter soda) of honey in a small amount of hot water. Pour this through the juicing machine, to clean out ever drop of the ginger turmeric and to sweeten the juice concentrate.


Pour the concentrate into a large Ball jar or something similar. Slowly top off with as much seltzer water as the jar will allow.


Very gingerly turn the jar upside down several times to mix the concoction. Chill and enjoy!

Drink with-in a few days as I'm not sure how long it keeps.

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