golden milk paste

Golden milk has been all over the net for quite a while and praised as really, really, I mean really healthy and very tasty too! Drinking Golden milk daily is anti-inflammatory supports healthy joints and your digestive system, supports a calm sleep and helps to detox your body.

A few days ago I shared my love for Golden milk with my friend Courtney. She had tried a few store-bought versions and found them all just ok. So she was curious about my take on Golden milk and was challenging me to come up with a recipe. Well, I took it on and got right to it.

This was the goal

I wanted a ready-made staple, easy to make and to use, and dissolves fast in hot milk. But of course, it has to be delicious, right!

These are all the 8 wonderful ingredients for the Golden milk paste

Medjool dates, coconut oil (or sub with MCT oil), turmeric, ginger, Ceylon cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla and black pepper

In case you just want to know how to make this delicious Golden milk paste, continue on to the recipe and fully enjoy this delicious Golden milk!

But if you are also curious and always wanted to know what this hype about Golden milk is all about? Or why Golden milk latte is so highly praised as a healing drink? Come on and follow along on a journey of inquiry.

Oh great, you are still here?

lets dive into our quest

For the base of this Golden milk paste, I chose Medjool dates. They are a healthy and vegan sweetener. In combination with the herbs and spices it makes the Golden milk, an Ayurvedic classic so very delicious. Let’s start with

the dates

Medjool dates are the fruit of the date palm and is favored all over the world. They are a wonderful healthy sweetener without the acidic nature of other sugars. Dates are rich in iron (helps fight anemia), rich in potassium (controls diarrhea) and has lots of fiber that helps with constipation. It also supports the joints health due to its anti-inflammatory properties. Now, let’s dive a bit deeper into the spices, starting with

Turmeric – the golden goddess,

also known as Curcuma or in Sanskrit it’s called “Haridra”, means the yellow One! This is what gives this milk its rich, deep golden color whether you are using turmeric powder or freshly ground turmeric. Be aware – turmeric will stain anything it touches hands, nails, clothes, plastic tools…! So, wear cloves and an apron when you are grating fresh turmeric. Just sayin’!

In Ayurveda medicine turmeric is used for over 5.000 years and modern science is now recognizing what was known in India for many centuries. Just to name a few of its wonderful properties. With its strong anti-inflammatory properties, it is perfect for your joints treating arthritis. It is anti-bacterial, for various kinds of infections, bronchitis, and common colds. Turmeric is also used to treat irritable bowel syndrome and other intestinal inflammations and helps for a better blood circulations. Do you recognize a theme here??? I love this turmeric from Diaspora Co. because it is a direct-trade women owned company. This heirloom turmeric powder is organically farmed and from single origin.

Next in line is ginger

Ginger is also a rhizome from the same family as turmeric. It is used in almost all cuisines around the world for both savory or sweet dishes from China to Japan Southeast Asia, India, from the Caribbean to North Africa. Its taste can be described as spicy and warm, aromatic, peppery, lemony and slightly sweet.

Its health benefits are anti-inflammatory. And it is mostly used for all common diseases of the digestive system like flatulence, bloating, nausea, stomach colic. Ginger normalizes blood cholesterol and blood circulation and is heart friendly. It helps with common colds, cough and sore throat in combination with honey and lemon juice.

One of my favorite spices is cardamom

Cardamom has an herbal, spicy, strong aroma, with a citrus flavor and can be used for savory as well as for sweet dishes (see my spiced coconut-almond granola or my espresso cardamom butter). Cardamom has as many of the same healing properties as ginger has. It helps counteract digestive problems like nausea, acidity, bloating, gas, heartburn, loss of appetite and constipation.

Black pepper

Black pepper or piper nigra is widely used as a seasoning in the west with its warming and pungent taste. But in Ayurveda medicine it is an important healing spice. It has cleansing and anti-oxidant properties, combats free radicals that helps to fight cancer. Pepper alleviates rheumatism and arthritic conditions and relieves digestive disorders. It supports the free flow of oxygen to the brain, enhances digestion, stimulates the appetite and helps maintain the health of the respiratory system and the joints. But most of all, black pepper helps to transport the benefits of other herbs throughout the body!

Are you still with me?

Wonderful! Let’s continue with

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is the peeled bark of an evergreen tree. Ceylon cinnamon is the one “true” cinnamon and is more subtle, finer in taste than other varieties, including Saigon cinnamon that is closer to cassia. Which is similar in taste but much stronger. Cinnamon is a warming spice, and consists of sweet, pungent and bitter tastes. Its wonderful fragrance can scent an entire room we especially enjoy in the colder months around the holidays.

Cinnamon has been proven to fight fungal, bacterial, and viral elements thereby preventing foods from going bad. Studies have shown that just half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day could reduce total cholesterol by 12 to 30 percent, while it also boosts the body’s ability to store blood sugar. Adding cinnamon to your diet can help treat certain types of pain and headaches, as well as arthritis pain because it helps stimulate and push circulation to the joints.

Cinnamon helps with digestion and is calming for an upset stomach. Just sprinkle it on your morning oatmeal, on coffee, tea, or in your hot cocoa. Just add a stick of cinnamon when you are cooking chili, sprinkled the powder on sweet potatoes, and add it to baked goods.

Now last but not least let’s explore vanilla 

You might know that vanilla beans are the dark green, almost blackish, ripened, pleasantly fragrant edible fruit of a tropical orchid, the “Vanilla planifolia”. Along with saffron, vanilla is one of the world’s most expensive spice. It is non-pungent and well-known for its sweet and warm flavor. But you might be surprised to learn that it has some amazing health benefits too. Vanilla has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, antidepressant and aphrodisiac properties, which shows therapeutic benefits in reversing several medical conditions.

Raw vanilla bean powder or raw whole vanilla beans are rich in powerful nutrients with more health benefits than the liquid vanilla extract you are using for baking. The sweet aroma of vanilla helps in relieving neurological stress and its antioxidant properties prevent nervous damage. Besides reducing anxiety, tension and depression, it is mood lifting and calming for the brain. But vanilla, as many other dark fruits (like blueberries or cacao beans for instance) has powerful antioxidant properties. It help in scavenging free radical damage and reduce the risk of almost all chronic inflammatory diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Research suggests that vanillin helps in reducing cholesterol levels, prevents inflammation in the arteries and helps to speed up healing. The analgesic effects of vanilla are found beneficial in providing relief from fever and common inflammation (cough, cold, or respiratory infection) to chronic inflammatory conditions (like rheumatoid arthritis)

In the meanwhile I have made quite some batches of Golden milk paste and just love it! Now I am pondering how I can I tweak it for traveling. Or as a healthy gift to my friends they can snack on. So I am working on this now and will let you know as soon as I have figured it out.

Stay tuned!

Print

golden milk paste

This Golden milk paste with turmeric and Medjool dates is so easy to make and gives you a quick start for your daily super healing anti-inflammatory and cleansing Golden milk latte ritual. Drinking it daily is anti-inflammatory for healthy joints, supports a calm sleep and helps to detox your body.

Course drinks, hot drink

Cuisine Ayurvedic, Indian

Keyword golden milk, Golden milk latte, golden milk paste,

Prep Time 15 minutes

Servings 10

Ingredients

• 1 C tightly packed Medjool dates, pitted about 12 -15 dates
• 1/8 C organic turmeric powder or 4 Tbsp. freshly ground turmeric
• 1/8 C ginger freshly grated with juice good if you find organic ginger or use 2 Tbsp ginger powder
• 1/8 C coconut oil melted or use MCT oil (from coconut oil) instead
• 1 tsp cardamom powder best taste if freshly ground
• 1 tsp vanilla powder or use liquid vanilla
• 1 heap tsp black pepper, freshly ground
• 1 tsp Ceylon cinnamon, powder
• 1 Tbsp. hot water more if needed just add by the tsp

Instructions

Golden milk paste

1. Put all ingredients in a blender or a food processor . First puls then blend everything until you have a homogenous medium thick paste. Stop in-between to scrape the paste from the sides. If the paste is too thick just add filtered water 1 tsp at a time to get a soft, medium thick paste.

   

2. Fill the paste in a glass jar. It keeps fresh for at least 2-3 weeks in the fridge 

   

Golden milk latte

1. Heat up 1 cup of plant-based milk of your choice (Almond/Coconut or a mix of both) and whisk in 1 full Tbsp. of Golden milk paste until fully dissolved and the milk is hot but not boiling. Fill the Golden milk latte in a cup and enjoy this healing and nourishing drink while it is still hot. 

   

2. Enjoy the warm smell of the Golden milk latte and it's beautiful, rich, golden color

3. Guten Appetit!

Recipe Notes

Drinking it daily in the evening might help your sleep.

Other use for the Golden milk paste

Overnight oats:

Prepare 1 C of Golden milk latte and pour it in a Mason jar. Add 1/3 C of rolled oats (GF if needed) and 1 Tbsp. of roughly cut almonds (or any nut you like). Let it steep overnight. The next morning you can enjoy your oats cold or warm. Just add 1/4 C plant-based milk to make it soft and creamy. Top it with some fresh mango or banana slices (or any fruit you prefer). Add 1-2 Tbsp. of yoghurt (I like coconut yoghurt) and sprinkle a tsp. of hemp seeds on top. Enjoy!

Golden pancakes

Mix 1 Tbsp. of Golden milk paste with your eggs and milk and add it to the dry ingredients of your pancake mix. Make your pancakes as usual

Want to add more healing power to your Golden milk latte? Mix in 1 tsp. of Ashwagandha, Reishi or Chaga mushroom in powder or liquid form to the paste.