HOMEMADE GINGER EXTRACT is a concentrated liquid made of ginger, jaggery/sugar and water. Ginger is a unique flavor source. It is pungent and spicy and can add a nice complexity to any drink. Ginger is used in Ayurveda for treating many ailments and used as a medicine.
Ginger is a great digestive tonic, which improves gastric motility. It helps in treating constipation, vomiting, acidity, and protects gastric lining against acidity. Ginger is widely used in ayurveda that it is an entire medicine chest in itself. There is an Ayurvedic sutra (verse) that says that everyone should eat fresh ginger just before lunch and dinner to enhance digestion.
I’m not a tea or coffee person, but any day I’m up for an healthy spiced herbal tea or Herbal decoctions. As a kid I used to love a healthy and spicy decoction known as KASHAYAM made by my Father which has ginger, tulsi(holy basil), peppercorns, turmeric, and honey. It is just a perfect medicine for the cold, which helps in soothing the itchy throat and clearing the nasal congestion.
Is Drinking Ginger Juice Good For You?
Ginger root has been known for its various health benefits dating back thousands of years ago and also widely used in Ayurveda. With its great great digestive abilities, GINGER is packed with lots of health benefits especially one with Gastric problems.
Some of Health Benefits of Ginger Juice I’ve known from my elders back home.
- Relieves Cold and Congestion – Trust me, Ginger works wonders when you intake this during cold or cough. It helps in soothing itchy throat and clearing the nasal congestion.
- Improves Digestion – Back home my mom used to make Ginger supari/Ginger mouth freshener as it helps in digesting the food along with providing many benefits for the gut.
- Pain Reliever – As per AYURVEDA ginger juice is widely used and well-known for its anti-inflammatory properties that also acts as a pain reliever and for toothache, just keeping a small piece of clove and ginger will work wonders.
- Controls High Blood Pressure – My mom has high blood pressure and this has been suggested by one of the Ayurvedic doctor she consulted to increase the intake of Ginger in daily diet to help in reducing the hypertension and also helps in lowering the bad cholesterol in your body.
How did I make this extract ?
I have used the Ginger peels/skin which is usually thrown away by many of us and in order to make a zero waste/reduce wastage I made this GINGER EXTRACT with peels of Ginger root. Although many people discard the ginger peels thinking that it tastes bitter but it also need to be noted that the peels have health benefits too.
What all can you make with this GINGER EXTRACT?
As I said earlier I’m not a tea or coffee person but I LOVE herbal teas specially the one I make with Ginger and lemon. So this extract is definitely comes handy when I’m in a hurry. Also these below are few recipes in which you can use this ginger extract
- MasaIa chai – Simply add this couple tbsps of extract while making masala chai and you get the same flavor and taste with fresh ones.
- Herbal teas – Make a simple hot or iced teas with this extract by diluting with hot or cold water accordingly and add a dash of lime juice for refreshing taste.
- Kashayam – Kashayam is a Healthy herbal decoction made of many medicinal ingredients like tulsi, ginger, peppercorn, turmeric and fennel seeds. Just use this extract and add the remaining ingredients and boil for couple of minutes. Healthy herbal decoction is just ready in few minutes.
- Ginger lemonade/ale – Just use couple tbsps of this extract and lime/lemon juice for the lemonade and along with lime/lemon juice use soda/seltzer water to make ginger ale.
- Ginger flavored juices – Add this extract to make refreshing juices with a pack of spicy punch from this extract. Like pineapple ginger juice, litchi ginger lemonade.
Also check out my healthy HOMEMADE DATES SYRUP
HOMEMADE GINGER EXTRACT
Equipment
- Saucepan
Ingredients
- 1 cup Ginger peels
- 2 tbsp Ginger freshly grated
- ¾ cup Palm jaggery
- 2½ cups Water
Instructions
- Wash the ginger root before peeling under running water until you see all the dirt has been removed and clear water running under.
- Peel the ginger root and keep aside.
- Now heat a saucepan and add 2 cups of water and let it come to a rolling boil.
- Add the peels to the boiling water and lower the flame and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and let the juices of peels get infused in the water overnight or for at least 6 hours.(This helps extracting the maximum flavor from the peels)
- In the morning soak the jaggery/sugar in ½ cup of water and let it dissolve completely.
- Now turn on the heat for the saucepan, add 2 tbsps of freshly grated ginger again and bring it to a rolling boil.
- Now add in soaked jaggery/sugar water and let the mixture reduce by 40% to make a strong concentrate.
- Turn off the heat now and let it come down to a room temperature.
- Later sieve the mixture and transfer it to a glass jar, refrigerate and use up to 2 weeks for maximum freshness.
Notes
- As I had huge amount of ginger peels, so in order to put them to good use I made an extract with it instead of using fresh ginger root.
- If you want to use the fresh ginger root, use 6 tbsps of freshly grated ginger root to make the ginger extract and use the same procedure as stated above.
- You can also add turmeric, peppercorns, fennel seeds to make a healthy elixir which helps in ailing cold, cough and relieving headache and many other minor ailments.
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