NIGHT NURSE TONIC
Serves: 8
This herbal tea remedy combines comforting, sleep-inducing spices with a homemade cough syrup, to relieve tickly coughs and sore throats. The medicinal pantry is full of sleep aids. Combining spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg creates a synergistic sedative effect on the body, that helps to restore clam. Honey also facilitates a good night's sleep, by stabilising blood sugar levels and contributing to the release of melatonin in the brain, a hormone responsible for inducing sleep. Recipe taken from Tonic: Delicious and Natural Remedies to Boost Your Health by Tanita de Ruijt (Hardie Grant, £12.99). Photography by: Patricia Niven.
Ingredients:
3 cinnamon sticks1 tbsp cloves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
15 bay leaves
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
5cm piece of fresh ginger root, finely sliced
2 lt filtered water
1 tbsp DIY Cough Syrup (optional) FOR THE COUGH SYRUP:
180ml extra-virgin olive oil
3 lemons, sliced
fresh sprigs of sage, rosemary and thyme
180ml honey or fermented honey
2 1/2cm piece of fresh turmeric or ginger root, grated (optional)
method:
- Combine all the ingredients together (except for the cough syrup and honey) in a large saucepan.
- Bring to the boil, then reduce to a very low heat, and allow the ingredients to steep for 2-3 hours.
- Strain, and serve with a tablespoon of DIY cough syrup stirred into your mug. Feel free to add a dash of your milk of choice too, if you wish.
- For the cough syrup, add all the cough syrup ingredients, except for the honey, to a small saucepan set over a medium heat. Infuse for five minutes, then remove from the heat and let it cool. Once cool, strain, mix the honey in well, and store in a sterilised preserving jar or other container with a tight-fitting lid. it will keep in the fridge for three months, or keep on your kitchen counter for about 1.5 months.
Did you make this recipe?
Share your creations by tagging @livegreenandgood on Instagram with the hashtag #livegreenandgood
