Carrot Tea

Wait, what?! Carrot tea?! Oh, yes.

I’ve been sitting on this recipe for a while, but it’s been such a busy couple of weeks that I haven’t had time to actually sit down and write it up until now. You may think I’ve gone nuts during that hiatus and that my carrot obsession has crossed a line – carrot breakfast pudding and carrot lokshen kugel were fair enough, I guess, but carrot tea? Really?

Yes, really! I urge you to reserve judgment until you try the recipe. It’s really quite lovely.

You can make your carrot tea savory or sweet, hot or cold. I recommend the savory version hot and the sweet version iced. If you have kids, see if they like the iced version – it has a lot less sugar than juice or soda but tastes like a new kind of lemonade, if lemonade wasn’t tart.

I love to drink the savory version when I’m feeling like my system needs a bit of extra help  – there is something very healing about it, and the celtic sea salt provides mineral support.

So, am I crazy? Let’s find out!

A couple notes about the recipe:

-This recipe will make two 10-oz cups

-Try to use carrots that are fresh, so their peels aren’t too bitter. A little bitterness is actually quite nice, just as in black tea or coffee, but you don’t want the carrots to be very old or your tea won’t be that appealing. If they aren’t very fresh, you can always peel the carrots but I prefer not to since a lot of the nutrients are in the peel.

Carrot Tea

• Two large carrots (12 ounces total), washed and unpeeled
• 5 cups water
• A knob of ginger (about ½ an ounce), unpeeled
• Celtic sea salt (for the savory version)
• Maple syrup (for the sweet version)

Directions:

Place the carrots in a saucepan with the water and bring to a boil. Boil rapidly, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Add the ginger, cover, and boil 10 minutes more. (If you want a stronger ginger flavor, cut the ginger into a couple pieces before you do this.)

For the savory version: add a couple generous pinches of celtic sea salt to your mug of tea and stir to dissolve.

For the sweet (iced) version: skip the salt and instead add a drizzle of maple syrup, to taste. Let cool on the counter to room temperature, and then pour into an airtight glass jar and place in the fridge until chilled.