“Simple remedy to take care of your eyes and throat during the bad hazy weather. Boil and serve this to the whole family, every other day, please.”
Haze hit a severe unhealthy level of over 200 PSI this morning. My windows and door were all closed, but I was still feeling dizzy, sore throat and eyes discomfort. Everyone was supposed to be out there enjoying the public holiday, but the road seemed quieter than usual, looking down from my windows.. Yes, it was best to stay home, especially young children.
To ease my throat pain and help in strengthen my lungs, I have been boiling this super convenient homemade herbal tea. Sorry that I did not post to share earlier, I did not expect the haze to be that bad.
I hope my post still come in handy. It really is super easy to cook. No matter how busy you are, or for someone who doesn’t know at all how to cook herbal tea, make this and drink as if your usual plain water. It’s good for your eyes, great to flush out toxins in your body through urination as well as soothing your throat. For those who cannot take cooling stuff, the addition of aged ginger in this recipe will help to balance the cooling effect.
For the utmost convenience, I used store-bought dried Chrysanthemum flowers which easily available at major supermarkets (dried goods compartment) and Chinese medical halls at the neighbourhood estates.
Same goes to aged ginger, I bought the instant ginger & red date tea cubes which I have gotten from my last Taiwan trip. Of course, if you do not have this, use any instant ginger tea sachets, sweetened or not. If you still prefer the more natural ones and do not mind to take a little extra step for it, cut and add 1-2 slices (0.5cm in thickness) of the aged ginger. Add also 3-4 pieces of red dates, if you do not feel like adding any rock sugar in it. I preferred not to.
Serves 1 large pot
Ingredients
20-30g of dried chrysanthemum flowers (about a handful)
1 sachet of instant aged ginger cube (or 1-2 slices of age ginger)
3-4 pieces of medium red dates
1 large pot of water (about 1-1.5litre)
Method
(1) Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add rinsed chrysanthemum flowers and red dates. Cover lid and reduce heat to low fire to simmer for 10 minutes.
(2) Heat off and add aged ginger cube/ slices. Immediately put the lid on to let the remaining heat to continue simmer the herbal tea for another 10 minutes. Sieve petals, and serve tea warm or chilled.
A cup of my herbal tea has less than 25kcal.
Tips: The amount of ingredients are adjustable, depending on how string you want the herbal tea to be.
* Any type of dried Chrysanthemum will do. No particular brand. If you are feeling generous, get the white chrysanthemum with small petals type (Chinese: 杭白菊). Not exactly white, but off white in colour, I heard it has better nutrition value in these effects. Of course, price are slightly higher.
Thank you . Ms. PatriCa for sharing the herbal tea recipe, its useful at this hazy time.
Best regards.
Nancy Yeoh.
(Malaysia)
Hello Ms Yeoh,
You are welcome!
What is aged ginger cube?
Thanks for sharing your recipes.
Dee
Hi Dee,
The aged ginger cubes are those prepacked ginger drinks come in cubes which meant for drinking. Usually people disrobe 1 into boiling water as beverage. I got the unsweetened type from Taiwan.
In Singapore, most of these kinds of ginger beverage packs come in sachets, powder types which could be used in my recipe, too. Or simply use fresh aged ginger, if desired.