The best chai of all time

I’ve had quite a few requests from you for my chai recipe, seeing I rave about it all the time. Here goes!

Medicinal Chai tea recipe

I love adding vanilla to my chai mix, it gives it a sweet aroma plus it’s my favourite spice/ smell of all time. Chai is great for soothing digestion, improving blood circulation, treating colds and flu, and improving energy levels. It really is like making your own custom blend medicinal beverage except it taste great. This particular recipe fixed my cold, so quickly! By the end of the day I was feeling good again…

Ingredients…
1 star anise
8 cardamon pods (but I always put in more)
1/2 vanilla bean
1 cinnamon quill (or 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon)
8 peppercorns
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 bay leaves
1 of 2 slices of ginger (I add a lot more but I’m a total ginger fan! And I can deal with it suuuuper spicy)
8 cloves
1 tablespoon orange peel
pinch of grounded nutmeg
2 teaspoons rooibos tea
1/2 teaspoon of ground turmeric
2 and a half teaspoons black tea (omit if you want it caffeine free)
2 cups of water
2 cups of fresh milk

Method…
Add all the ingredients (except tea leaves) to 6 to 8 cups of water and boil in a saucepan. Turn on low heat to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes then turn off the heat and add tea leaves. Let sit for a few minutes then pour through a strainer. Sweeten with honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar or stevia and dust with cinnamon powder. Other milks you can use are almond, soy, oat, rice.

Chai Energy Balls

Chai is one of my favourite things in this world. Its warming mix is just what I need on a cold day but also on Spring days like today, when the weather can’t make it’s mind up and goes from hot to cold. This is very bad for my vata, when the weather changes a lot, and chai helps me keep in balanced and feeling grounded.

The chai I’m talking about is an ancient Indian spiced tea, traditionally known as Masala Chai and is said to have dated back some 5,000 years ago. Its unique flavour comes from a blend of Ayurvedic herbs and spices. Ayurveda is the traditional Vedic Indian medicine which means “knowledge for life” and is said to be the sister science to yoga. Yoga has so much theory intertwined, it is considered a “science” or body of knowledge.

Chai helps fight off colds, keep you warm and provide immunity.

You can re-create other recipes that are based on the concept of chai, like chai cakes and these chai energy balls. They are like my amazeballs, but an ayurvedic version of.

You will need:
300g of dates
as many cardamom pods as you want (I put in a bunch as you can see in the photo, it’s one of my favourite spices and it’s not overpowering in this mixture)
a big chunk of fresh ginger, skinned
a couple of teaspoons of cocoa
a pinch of nutmeg
two tablespoons of coconut oil
almond meal and desiccated coconut

soak the dates and cardamom pods overnight. Take out the pips of the dates and put them in a mixing bowl. Squeeze out the seeds of the cardamom pods and throw away the pods. Put in all of the other ingredients, apart from the almond meal and desiccated coconut and blend until completely smooth. I sometimes put in a shot of good quality coffee to make the flavour richer. Add in the almond meal and desiccated coconut until the mixture is firm enough to roll into balls.

Makes 12 energy balls.

Weekend Bliss

Spring arrived this weekend- at long long last. I pulled out my lace tops and sunnies to celebrate and got some flowers to decorate the apartment.

While Spring is here, it’s still important to keep looking after our immune systems as our bodies are adjusting to the change. This is why I had lots of spicy chai tea and an immunity smoothie. For this smoothie you’ll need:

Frozen berries, organic
a cup of fresh green tea
super greens
matcha
a chunk of fresh ginger
turmeric
a spoon of raw honey
a few spoons of yoghurt

Turmeric needs either honey or some kind of “fat”, like yoghurt, for it’s properties to be activated. It’s a fantastic blood cleanser and is an anti-inflammatory. It’s good for everything really!

I’m Australian- vegemite on toast goes without saying.