Vibrant Botanicals: Transformational Recipes Using Adaptogens & Other Healing Herbs [A Cookbook]
240Vibrant Botanicals: Transformational Recipes Using Adaptogens & Other Healing Herbs [A Cookbook]
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Overview
“With unique and enticing recipes, Jennifer McGruther shows readers how easy it is to welcome healing herbs into their homes and food traditions.”—Rosalee de la Forêt, author of Alchemy of Herbs and Wild Remedies
When used properly, plants provide a wealth of healing powers. Adaptogens (plant extracts that help the body adapt to stress) and herbs are some of the most potent sources of such energy and immunity—plus they have a host of additional health benefits. Cookbook author and blogger Jennifer McGruther of Nourished Kitchen expertly guides readers through the properties of herbal energetics and how to gain the most from these dynamic sources. Jennifer explains each function and application, and how to extract their benefits into tinctures, infused oils, teas and tisanes, vinegars, and more. And while store-bought adaptogenic powders and elixirs from popular retailers may be a hefty investment, Jennifer’s creations cost only a few dollars to make at home.
Vibrant Botanicals provides more than 70 recipes for helping you feel your best when using herbal infusions. You’ll discover how cacao and licorice naturally awaken the body and can be incorporated into granolas, beverages, and breakfasts to jump-start your day. Garlic, astragalus, reishi, and more are showcased in homemade broth and fire cider to help build immunity; while passionflower, ashwagandha, and chamomile are mixed into creamy milk blends and teas to ensure peaceful sleep.
Whether you are looking to fortify digestion, lift your spirits, or just enjoy a good night’s rest, Vibrant Botanicals provides the natural solution, through nourishing and herbal-rich recipes.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781984858962 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed |
Publication date: | 04/27/2021 |
Sold by: | Random House |
Format: | eBook |
Pages: | 240 |
File size: | 198 MB |
Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
introduction
Growing up, I had a fascination with plants. I sipped sweet honeysuckles freshly plucked from the vine, nibbled on violets and dandelions, and sampled the herbal tisanes an elderly neighbor brewed. Each herb resonated for me on an energetic level. They spoke to my hunger for nature, connection, and deep nutrition.
Later, I began growing my own herbs: I tended terra-cotta pots filled with odd mints, speckled sages, lemon thyme, purple basil, and rose geraniums. Feverfew and chamomile grew like tiny daisies in the garden alongside angelica, valerian, anise hyssop, lavender, and unruly bushes of rosemary. By the time my oldest son turned four, he could recognize a few dozen plants by their leaves alone. In spring, we’d head to the woods to gather nettles, wild rose, and self-heal. Then in fall, we’d pick rosehips and cinnamon-capped bolete mushrooms.
Herbs are essential in our kitchen, and they satisfy a genuine hunger for connection. More than just satisfying flavor, herbs hold a profound and transformational power, tapping into your body’s innate healing wisdom. Moving with intention and grace, you can harness these properties to support immunity, ease a headache, boost your energy on drowsy mornings, or help you relax on restless evenings. When used as an adjunct to a nutrient-dense diet, adequate sleep, and gentle movement, herbs can also enact even more powerful transformations: lifting the mood, boosting memory, and blunting the effects of stress.
While herbs aren’t cure-alls, they are powerful tools that bring life to your meals while drawing on ancient healing traditions. Most important, they empower you to get in touch with your intuition, take the lead in your health, and reclaim lost culinary traditions in which food and medicine were synonymous.
As you work through this book, remember that every herb you toss into your stockpot or scatter over a platter of freshly sliced fruit brings a gentle botanical medicine to your dishes. The botanical profiles throughout these pages will help acquaint you with the herbs you can use in the kitchen, what they do for the body, and how they work energetically.
It’s a powerful feeling to toss a palmful of wild and unruly herbs into your sauté pan with the knowledge that you’re nourishing yourself and the people you love in a deeply connected way. Choose the herb-forward recipes with mindfulness and strategy. Sip on a mug of Immunity Broth (page 108) when you feel under the weather. Start your day with a bowlful of granola spiked with cacao and stress-busting adaptogens (page 28), or make a batch of Iced Sencha tea (page 59) when you need to concentrate.
Lastly, keep flavor at the forefront of your mind because good flavor is good medicine, too.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Kitchen medicine 3
Chapter 2 Recipes to start your day 23
Herbs for the morning 25
Cacao 27
Dark chocolate granola with raspberries 28
Licorice 31
Cherries poached in licorice and black tea 32
Flaked rye porridge with sautéed apricots 34
Eleuthero 35
Energizing morning elixir 37
Chicory and dandelion latte 38
Rhodiola 39
Bircher muesli with rhodiola-strawberry syrup 40
Stinging nettle 43
Baked eggs with nettle-pumpkin seed pesto 44
Nettle chive vinegar 47
Breakfast salad with lox and herbs 48
Nettle mint infusion 51
Chapter 3 Herbs for mental clarity 53
Herbs to enhance memory and concentration 55
Tea 57
Iced sencha with spearmint and ginkgo 59
Melon in matcha-honey syrup 60
Ginkgo 63
Three-herb ghee 64
Rosemary and sage oil 67
Roasted butternut squash soup with sage and rosemary 68
Maple-rosemary pecans 71
Sage 72
Garlicky white beans with sage and tomatoes 75
Blackberry sage limeade 76
Saffron 78
Slow-roasted saffron chicken with rosemary 79
Raspberries with saffron-rose cream 81
Turmeric 82
Honeyed turmeric-cardamom milk 85
Turmeric turkey meatballs with cilantro-chile sauce 86
Chapter 4 Recipes to support immunity 89
Herbs for immunity 91
Garlic 92
Roasted garlic and onion bisque with sage and thyme broth 93
Honey-fermented garlic with bird's eye chile 94
Fire cider with rosemary and sage 97
Fire cider-roasted chicken breasts 98
Thyme 99
Garlic and thyme oxymel 100
Thyme and sage tisane 103
Medicinal mushrooms: reishi, shiitake, chanterelle, and oyster 104
Sautéed wild mushrooms with garden herbs 107
Immunity broth 108
Wild mushroom pâté 111
Hibiscus 112
Hibiscus rosehip popsicles 113
Hibiscus pineapple punch 114
Elder 117
Elderberry hibiscus jelly dessert 118
Elderberry ginger syrup 119
Astragalus 120
Echinacea and astragalus tincture 121
Spiced astragalus tea 122
Chapter 5 Recipes to support digestion 125
Herbs for digestion 127
Ginger 128
Ginger mint fizz 131
Citrus ginger bitters 132
Cardamom 135
Spiced ghee 136
Mulled cranberry cider 137
Sweet potatoes and apples with fennel-cardamom dust 138
Fennel 141
Herbed new potato salad 142
Roasted carrots with dukkah 145
Mint 146
Honeyed oranges with cardamom, coriander, and mint 149
Carrot salad with mint and cilantro 150
Snap pea salad with mint and feta 153
Dandelion 154
Braised dandelion greens with white beans 155
Dandelion green salad with lemon-caraway bread crumbs and herb dressing 157
Chapter 6 Recipes to lift your spirit 159
Herbs to lift your spirit 161
Tulsi 162
Cinnamon tulsi chocolate pops 164
Tulsi and lemon balm lunar infusion 165
Raspberry tulsi vinegar 167
Lemon balm 168
Stone fruit salad with lemon balm 171
Grapefruit lemon balm tonic 172
Peach compote with almonds and herbs 175
Lemongrass 176
Lemongrass turkey bowls with fresh herbs 179
Oysters with lemongrass mignonette 180
Schisandra 182
Strawberry shrub with shisandra and chamomile 183
Motherwort 184
Joy tisane 186
Motherwort tincture 187
Chapter 7 Recipes for a good night's rest 189
Herbs for sleep 191
Ashwagandha 192
Ashwagandha white chocolate bark with berries and rose 193
Lavender ashwagandha milk 194
Rose 197
Vanilla rose petal honey 198
Sour cherry and rose sorbet 201
Passionflower 202
Passionflower pear chia puddings 205
Bedtime tisane 206
Lavender 207
Blackberry lavender tonic 209
California poppy 210
Sleep dust 213
Midnight flower tisane 214
Chamomile 217
Chamomile poached pears 218
Blueberry apple compote with chamomile whipped cream 221
Bedtime bitters 222
Herbal safety 224
Resources 226
Bibliography 227
Gratitude 228
Author bio 229
Index 230