Draft
How to make golden milk
Golden milk is warm milk with turmeric, an old comfort drink from the Indian kitchen. Here's how to make a cup, and why a pinch of black pepper goes in.
Golden milk, or haldi doodh, is a warm turmeric drink from the Ayurvedic kitchen, the kind people reach for when the evening turns cold, or a cold is going around. It takes a few minutes.
What you'll need
A cup of milk, dairy or plant.
A teaspoon of turmeric.
A sprinkle of black pepper.
A small dab of ghee, or another little fat.
Honey or sugar to taste, added at the end.
Optional: a little grated ginger or a stick of cinnamon.
Method
1. Warm the milk in a small pan and bring it to a gentle, low boil.
2. Stir in the turmeric, black pepper and ghee, with the ginger or cinnamon if you are using them, and simmer a few minutes so the spices infuse.
3. Take it off the heat and let it cool to drinking temperature.
4. Only now stir in honey or sugar, if you want it sweet. Sip it warm.
Good to know
The pepper and the fat are not incidental. In Ayurveda, turmeric is carried better alongside a little black pepper and a fat like ghee, which is why the two go in together. And the honey waits: in Ayurveda, heated honey is held to be hard to digest, so it goes in only once the milk has cooled to drinking temperature, never into hot milk.
People have drunk turmeric this way for generations, often when something is going around. Make it a few evenings and notice how a warm cup sits with you, before bed or when the cold creeps in.