Ginger is filled with benefits that we will go into later, but it also acts as a tasty extra to add to meals or drinks. You can find ginger in every supermarket, but most recently, ginger shots are appearing on the shelves, especially through winter. Ginger has a distinct spicy, fresh taste that can be used for 101 things as well as giving you a lot of nutrients.
Ginger Shot Benefits
Just like its sibling's turmeric and cardamom, ginger is great to incorporate into other foods because of its distinct taste. It contains essential oils and good bacteria that all support its superfood status. For years ginger has been used for traditional or alternative medicine because of the bioactive compound Gingerol. The list of benefits is endless:
- Can help symptoms of arthritis
- Relieves soreness after exercise
- Is an anti-inflammatory
- Antiviral (reduce nausea and help fight the flu and common cold)
- antiseptic
- antihistamine
- Will help with fat digestion
- Helps protect lungs from respiratory viruses
- Beneficial for the digestive tract
- Helps suppress appetite
Ginger Shot Recipes
We could not recommend buying organic ginger enough as it is by far the tastiest. The flavour is much more powerful which means you will only have to use a small amount to get the benefits.
If you want to try making your own ginger shots, don’t peel it, as many of the benefits of ginger lie in the skin. Make sure to wash the root before juicing as you could get a nasty underlying taste.
If this is your first time making a ginger shot, be prepared for it to taste exceptionally strong. Make sure to juice enough for a full shot, this usually around 25 grams. If you're feeling brave just close your eyes and get it down or you can save that experience and add apple juice. This will take the edge off and make it much more pleasant.
Below are some great recipes to help you incorporate ginger into your diet.
Juice Recipes
Ginger and Lemon
This recipe isn’t for the faint hearted and will definitely put a spring in your step
- 2 inches of ginger
- 1 large lemon
- 1/2 carrot
- 10 ml water if you're not feeling so confident
Green Ginger Juice
This recipe still has a bit of a kick but is much sweeter
- 2 inches of ginger
- 1 small green apple
- 1 handful of spinach
- 1 small lemon
- 1/4 mango
Really when it comes to juices you can add ginger to most, as it just gives your juice more of an edge.
Smoothie Recipe
- 2 handfuls spinach
- 250ml of water
- 1/2 avocado
- 1 banana
- 3 dates, pitted
- 1 inch of ginger
- 1 lemon
Pineapple and Ginger Smoothie
- 1/3 frozen pineapple
- 1 inch ginger
- 4 tbsp of vanilla yoghurt
- 1tsp cinnamon powder
- 80 ml coconut water
If you aren’t a fan of smoothies and juices add 10ml of ginger juice to your coffee and create a ginger latte.