We love sipping a hot cup of tea and enjoy the different rich aroma and intriguing flavors from this wonderful herb.
Tea will surprise you in many ways when they impart their extremely elegant taste to your recipes. From spice rubs to baked goodies to marinades, food will taste better. Here’s how to eat more tea.
Add to a Spice Rub
A spice rub is a seasoning mixture of herbs, salt, flavors, and at times with brown sugar. The rub is smeared onto fish, meat, or poultry to add zest and crispiness. Enjoy the magic flavor of spice rubs when the food is barbecued, broiled, baked, or roasted.
The fewer calories in a spice rub make it a healthy option to rich flavored sauces or greasy marinades.
Add tea to your spice rub to make tasty food tastier.
The mild taste of green tea will go well with fresh seafood, crispy veggies, and delicious white meat. Oolong tea’s earthy flavor and aroma will rub onto white fish, shrimp, or chicken. Try the rich, complex flavors of black tea or the velvety taste of Lapsang souchong on grilled steak, pork, or portobello mushrooms.
Infuse Butter, Oils, and Salts
Teas are essentially herbs, and herbs make your dishes more unique and delectable. Be adventurous and infuse tea to recipes.
Use tea as spices or herbs
Tea is used as herbs and rarely as a spice. Grind tea leaves and make your own tea spice rubs or tea spice blends. Add salt, black pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, and dried thyme. Mix it with any dish of your wishes for a spicy, bold taste.
Bake tea cookies
Tea and butter are a perfect match. If you’ve tried matcha cookies, you’ve experienced the taste of tea cookies. You can make your own concoction to fuse a more unique flavor to baked cookies.
Tea for the green salad
Chamomile Lemon tea isn’t just for sipping. It can be used as a dressing when mixed with extra virgin olive oil, lemon, water, and honey. Choose your favorite veggies, fruits, and nuts, pour the dressing on top. You can’t get enough when the flavors and sweet fragrance blend together.
Use in Marinades and Dressings
Tea as marinades and dressings sounds strange but the results are delicious.
Marinating meat with tea is a sure way to bring out the flavor and unique taste in every meal.
- Boil jasmine tea; add/ chipotle, salt, pepper, vinegar, and ice cubes to the blender. Pour the mixture into the salmon and refrigerate it to about 45 minutes. Take out the salmon and spice with chili powder and jasmine tea leaves. And it’s off to the grill.
- Delight carnivores with this green tea mustard marinade on steak. Marinate meat up to 24 hours with tea, stone ground and Dijon mustard, oregano, marjoram, and olive oil.
There’s nothing quite satisfying like biting into a veggie salad with tea to spice up the dressing.
- Mintea Mediterranean dressing consists of olive, lemon juice, and spearmint tea drizzled over crisp greens and chickpeas.
- Your green salad will taste great with easy-to-make Ginger Tea dressing. Mix 2 tbsps. green tea into 1/2 cup canola oil, 1 tbsp. sesame oil, 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce, 2 tbsps. maple sugar, 1 tbsp. ginger powder and 1/3 cup rice vinegar.
Use in Baking
Tea is for sipping, but adventurous foodies found ways to incorporate tea in baked goodies.
How about tea bread for breakfast? Make your old white bread recipe pop by infusing finely bagged black tea flavors like pumpkin spice ginger, chocolate teas, and pomegranate. Leave it overnight for tea to seep in, turn on your bread machine in the morning, and start your day on a high note.
Substitute matcha for cocoa and you want everything chocolate to turn green. Cakes, cookies, cupcakes, waffles… the possibilities are endless.
Use as an Herb
There’s a distinction between herbal and true teas.
Herbal tea is an infusion of herbs, spices, dried fruits, and flowers. Aside from its delicious taste, it has health benefits to cure various ailments.
In contrast, true teas are made from the cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis tea plant such as green, black, oolong, white, and yellow types. Most are caffeine-free.
Teas for your drinking pleasure
Chamomile Tea
It has a calming effect and is popular among people with sleep problems and also has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and liver-protecting properties.
Women use chamomile tea to reduce premenstrual symptoms. Some studies show improvements in type 2 diabetes.
Peppermint tea
One of the most widespread herbal teas and considered to support digestive tract health, and said to have anticancer, antibacterial, antiviral effects.
Ginger tea
Aside from relieving nausea associated with early pregnancy, cancer treatments, and motion conditions. Studies found ginger to relieve period pain and aids diabetics.