Battling the winter ick? Tomato tea might be just the thing to set you right!
I came down with some serious winter ick this week. Usually, I don’t get sick until later on in the winter, so this completely caught me off guard. As usual when I need natural remedies or food and drink advice, I turned to the awesome EDB Facebook community, and you guys had lots of awesome suggestions for natural food- and drink-based home remedies.
Fresh ginger steeped in hot water with a little agave nectar soothed my throat, and I was really intrigued with one other suggestion: Jean Woolhiser’s tomato tea! I called my husband at work to pick up some veggie juice and lemons, and when he got home I had a couple of steamy hot mugs full. I woke up on Wednesday morning feeling worlds better. I was still sick, but I was definitely past the phase that involves curling up on the couch and making groany noises.
My recipe was slightly different from Woolhiser’s, so I thought I’d share it here!
Healing Tomato Tea
Ingredients
- 1 mugful vegetable juice (I used Knudsen’s, since it doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup in it.)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- juice of 1/4 lemon
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh or 1/8 teaspoon dried ginger
- hot sauce, to taste
Cooking Directions
- Heat just the juice up in the microwave for 1 minute to 1:30. You want it steaming hot. If you’re not crazy about the microwave, the stove top works just as well, but let’s be honest: when you’re sick, convenience rules.
- Stir in the rest of the ingredients.
- Like Woolhiser says, you want to not only sip the tea, but breathe the fumes deeply, as well.
It sounds a bit odd, but it basically tastes like a mugful of extremely garlicky tomato soup. I had two mugs on Tuesday and already felt much better on Wednesday. Like she suggests in her instructions, I am still drinking the tea, because I’m feeling better, but not 100%. Call me a tomato tea convert!
Woolhiser has a couple of recipes and more detailed Tomato Tea instructions over at Earth Clinic. I definitely recommend checking them out!
Image Credit: Mug of Vegetable Juice photo via Shutterstock
