I saw this at the store and my first thought was, “those are big maggots. Why are they selling maggots at my grocery store?” Walking closer to the package, I saw that they were fresh Tumeric, a spice I’ve used for cooking but never seen in the raw.
I got home and put the package on the counter. My daugther said, “please would you put away the maggots.”
“They are not maggots.” I said.
“I don’t care. They are grossing me out.”
Now, this is halloween week so if you want to freak out your children, show them a couple of these roots and then toss them into a soup. Be careful. The amount you need is not a full root. You will need to use slight of hand with the kids. The ratio for using fresh tumeric in your recipe is as follows:
1 inch fresh turmeric = 1 tablespoon freshly grated turmeric = 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
If you don’t have a soup recipe that uses Tumeric, here is one that is easy and should be edible for the kids.
Carrot Tumeric Soup
Ingredients:
- Carrots
- Clove Garlic
- white onion
- Ghee butter
- 2 Tsp Tumeric
- 1 TBSP Ginger
- Vegetable Stock
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions:
- Cut carrots, peel garlic and dice your onion.
- Fry onion in Ghee butter. Add tumeric and ginger. Crush the garlic into the pan and stir. Add carrots and then vegetable stock.
- Simmer until carrots are soft (approximately 30 minutes.)
- Use a hand blender and blend until the soup is smooth. Add additional seasoning to taste.
- Server with Rye bread. If you want, you can add cheese to the top of this soup.
Note: Please skip the ghee if you are on a strict phase of metabolic balance. Add fresh Tumeric roots to the side of any dish to gross out the kids and the adults for Halloween. You could think about putting them into a roast or letting a few float on the top of a bowl of chilli.
The photo with fresh tumeric chunk showing the inside is by Connie Ma
