Turmeric belongs to the ginger family . The part of the plant used to obtain the spice is the root, with a look and color similar to that of ginger, in fact.
Thanks to simple precautions and a few recipes it will be possible to use turmeric in the kitchen even for those who do not know it or are not familiar with it.
5 easy recipes to use turmeric
Turmeric oil
The first simple way to use turmeric is to prepare a homemade oil .
Preparation : just use half a liter of extra virgin olive oil and add, slowly to avoid lumps, 2 tablespoons of turmeric powder . Mixing well you can use this oil as a cold seasoning on both cooked and raw dishes.
Curcuma and gomasio
Another way to take turmeric through food is to prepare a mix of spices for dishes with homemade gomasio.
Preparation : homemade turmeric can be added to the gomasio, toasting the sesame seeds with a little salt and a tablespoon of turmeric powder. Once cooled, you can grind a tablespoon of the mix in a coffee grinder and add it to the remaining whole seeds.
Turmeric marinated tofu
With turmeric, and with the help of other spices, vegetable cheese can be marinated . Natural tofu absorbs spices well and is particularly suitable for this marinade.
Preparation: just cut the tofu into pieces, after having dried it, put it in a jar together with a tablespoon of turmeric, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a spoonful of soy sauce and the gomasio. It is then closed with a lid, shaken and kept in the fridge.
It is excellent added to vegetable salads or cold cereal salads.
Turmeric in the kitchen: veg uses and recipes
Soy cream sauce and turmeric
You can prepare a sauce of soy cream and turmeric, used in the preparation of vegetarian carbonara, because it remembers, for the color and consistency, the egg yolk.
Preparation : just add a tablespoon of turmeric to a soy cream packet and emulsify well with a whisk. If you want it thicker you can add chickpea flour. The cream can be used either cooked or raw .
Mix of spices and turmeric for baked vegetables
A final piece of advice is to use turmeric in a mix of spices with which to season baked vegetables : to get the feeling of grilling outdoors and recall its Mediterranean flavor, you can mix together dried thyme, turmeric and black pepper . Dusting before cooking helps vegetables to release succulent flavors and aromas. And healthy.
Preparation: the turmeric to best exert its nutritional characteristics should be taken together with a pinch of black pepper . This is why curry, which contains both turmeric and black pepper, is one of the ideal mixtures; however, it is always possible to make curry at home, or opt for a garan masala, another mixture of spices that contains turmeric.
At home it is possible to combine turmeric with cumin, cloves, chilli, pepper, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg etc. depending on your personal taste. Turmeric is a versatile and very adaptable spice.
The thousand properties of turmeric
The discoveries on the properties of turmeric are increasing day by day: numerous studies have already hypothesized that turmeric can be included among the super foods able to prevent tumors, thanks to its qualities of induction of apoptosis (abnormal cells' ability to commit suicide) ) and angiogenesis (ability to inhibit the vascularization of anomalous cell clusters, and stop their growth or induce their death).
Among the main healthy properties of turmeric we have the anti-inflammatory and purifying function of the liver, it counteracts the formation of the so-called "bad" cholesterol, and prevents cellular aging thanks to its antioxidant qualities.
One of the simplest ways to exploit these properties is to put the turmeric in the normal diet, enhancing the flavor but avoiding overloading the palate with its taste, which is often not very used to.
