Each meal is usually made up of multiple ingredients that either are going to work well together or won’t.
It depends on what ingredient you are going to work with because not all of them are created equal. Some will help enhance your meal, while others won’t. It depends on the ingredient in question.
This might make people wonder just what these ingredients taste like. One ingredient people might wonder about is turmeric.
In this article, we’ll discover what it is, how much it tastes, if you can eat it raw, and finally, the best ways to eat it.
Contents
What Is Turmeric?
If you are wondering what turmeric is, then this section is the one for you. Turmeric comes from the ginger family and is usually grown in India, an area where it also happens to be native too.
If you have heard of turmeric before, you might have heard that it’s used for a multitude of things. This includes cooking, dietary supplements, and even used in Eastern medicine.
For spice, it’s used especially in curry powder. Curry powder is a powerful spice that is often used in curry dishes, a staple in many Asian cultures.
When you are using it for medicine, it’s used to treat certain disorders of the skin, joints, and digestive systems, to name a few.
Finally, the reason it’s used as a dietary supplement is that it can help with conditions such as allergies, depression, arthritis, sinus issues, and liver disease.
If you are going to use turmeric outside of cooking, it is best to talk to your doctor just so they are aware of what you plan to put into your body.
Always best to be safe rather than sorry when it comes to certain things, which include your health.
How Does Turmeric Taste?
Turmeric comes from the finger plant, so you might be thinking that this spice has a bitter and strong taste. The thing is, you aren’t wrong because this is exactly what it tastes like.
Both fresh and dried turmeric have a bitter and earthy taste.
This spice does a great job of mixing with any other spices you are using. It enhances those other spices’ flavors, making for quite the experience for your taste buds.
You will get this effect with fresh turmeric and dried turmeric, though the amount you use might depend on what type of turmeric you decide to use with your cooking.
Can You Eat Turmeric Raw?
Recall we mentioned that turmeric is used for more than just cooking. It is used for dietary supplements, able to help with many health conditions as well as used in medicine.
When it is used in dietary supplements and medicine, you are technically eating it raw.
Most of the time, it’s been ground into a powder or some other supplement, but it’s still being ingested raw. The form is simply different.
So, it can be eaten raw. If you do want to consume raw turmeric, you don’t have to worry about falling ill or something along those lines.
Just remember to talk to your doctor if you intend to take any turmeric supplements.
Ways To Use Turmeric
For those that want to use turmeric, fear not because we have you covered with these few recipes and methods people will use turmeric for. They include:
- Curry Sauce is the most classic way to use turmeric, and yes, this is because turmeric is used to make curry sauce in the first place! So, if you are making some curry, you are going to need to add some turmeric to your curry sauce so it gets that flavor that kicks your taste buds whenever you eat curry.
- Stew is another great food to add turmeric to. It will give your broth quite a kick and mix great with the garlic, onions, and other spices you happen to add to the stew. Also, if you add some meat to your stew, it will mix wonderfully with that as well!
- Tea is a simple but creative way to make use of turmeric. The easy way is to just buy some turmeric-flavored tea at your local grocery store. However, could also just add some turmeric to your tea if you happen to be making it at home.
- Soup is similar to stew in the sense that the broth of the soup will become infused with turmeric, making it very flavorful. Don’t be afraid to add some garlic or onion, which will intensify when mixed with the turmeric.
- Scrambled Eggs are something you may have never thought could work with turmeric, but you should consider it. Normally we tend to season our eggs with salt, which can be a problem if we have too much of it. So, a good way to ditch the salt is to substitute it with something healthy but also flavorful. This is where turmeric can come in!
Hopefully, one of these recipes will appeal to you should you ever decide to use turmeric.
Final Thoughts
And there we go, all you turmeric lovers out there! Now you know not only what turmeric is but also how this food happens to taste.
We also covered if you could eat it raw along with ways to cook it, so you’ll be able to cover all your bases depending on your preferences.
Luckily, it’s pretty easy to get your hands on turmeric. It’s available at grocery stores and even places like Walmart and whole foods.
This spice is common in curry, so if you’ve ever had curry, you’ve eaten it without even knowing that it was in it.
So next time you are at a store, consider getting some turmeric for your pantry. It might end up coming in handy for one of your future meals, which could just now wow you but also your guests.
I have been smoking and grilling meat from an early age and enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise through the hundreds of articles I have written about BBQ. I hope to make everyone’s BBQ journey that little bit easier.