This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.
Turmeric, or yellow powder as I’ve heard some call it, is an essential spice in my kitchen and life. It’s got a distinct flavor that’s a little bitter and earthy, and it lends a very vibrant yellow color to foods (and your hands). Some people even use it to dye clothes! Most folks are familiar with turmeric in its ground form, but if you ever get a chance to see fresh turmeric you’ll notice it looks a lot like ginger but orange. Actually, when sliced, it reminds me of the look of a baby carrot! Turmeric in its whole form looks like ginger because… they are related and they’re called rhizomes! Rhizomes are similar and are often mistaken for roots. They are more like horizontal, underground stems. There are other rhizomes that are related too — galangal, some lotuses, and actually the underground stem of cardamom too!
How to Use It
This eye-catching spice has seemed to get widely popular in the last decade or so due to things like the rising popularity of golden milk, “ethnic food” (or as many of us would call “food”), and the health and wellness craze.
But in many a home, including the one I grew up in, turmeric has just been a common staple that lends subtle flavor (because we use it sparingly) and color. We’d sometimes use it to ward of colds and zits because… ayurveda! Now as a full grown adult, I use it in my home kitchen. And my bottle of turmeric proudly stands in my spice collection, bright and beautiful.
If you are in search of ideas to get you on the turmeric train, here are some easy ways to incorporate it into your life:
- Golden Milk (a fav!)
- Curry Powder (so much better than store bought)
- Turmeric Wellness Toddy (much less spendy than what you buy at a cafe)
- Golden Bubble Tea (a fun fusion!)
- Ginger Turmeric Smoothie Shot (fiberlicious and really good for the bod)
Making Ground Turmeric
This video of people in India making ground turmeric is so cool and fascinating! There is no way I was going to top the quality and effort, but I still wanted to give it a homemade try.
I washed the fresh turmeric really well. Boiled it in water for almost an hour. Sliced it thinly with my mandolin and laid it out on parchment paper. Then I dried it in a 200 degree oven for a couple hours until it was super dry. I pulled out the dried turmeric and let it cool and then added it to my spice grinder (which is just a coffee grinder). I ground it until it was fine powder and then put it through a sieve. Then I put the remnants that remained in the sieve back in the coffee grinder to give it another whirl. And after I lost my patience, I just popped the remaining pieces into a mug and made a turmeric drink with hot water. And it was really good. Also, please note, my hands and fingernails were as orange as oompa loompas after all this.
The ground turmeric I made was good and was also a deeper orange than the turmeric I buy. I wonder if it’s because I did that boiling part first? Or maybe it’s the type of turmeric I used. I’m not really sure. I need to look into it more I guess.
Make no mistake. Making the ground turmeric was a fun process, but at the end of the day, I ended up staining all sorts of things including my hands, my counters, and a light switch (what even??!). So as much as I’d love to do this every time I want to refill my stash, I will stick to a trusted source for my turmeric needs.
