Cold Remedy: Honey, Lemon & Ginger Syrup
Inspired by: Nifty Thrifty Things' "Lemon Ginger Syrup"
*This is my post for Whimsical Wednesdays. Since my whole family has been dealing with horrible colds I thought I would share this:
My poor kids have had horrible coughs and runny noses all winter long. They can't seem to rid themselves of these colds. So I was on a search for a cold/cough remedy. I stumbled upon Nifty Thrifty Things Blog (through Pinterest) and saw her post for Lemon Ginger Syrup. I changed a few things but based it off of her recipe.
Ingredients:
1 Cup Shredded Fresh Ginger Root
1 1/4 Cup Honey
2 Lemons (Zest & Juice)
1 1/2 Cups Water
Now I'm no expert on how to properly shred or grate fresh ginger. (I should have googled it first!) At first I was going to attempt to use a carrot peeler to remove the outer casing on the root. But that didn't work out so well....so you can just SKIP that step. :-D
Start off by bringing your water to a boil while you grate the ginger and zest your lemons.
I used a larger cheese grater to grate the ginger and later read that a microplane grater works better (I actually have one so I will definitely need to use this next time).
Then you need to zest your lemons. This I DO know how to do and have a "zester" on hand.
For those who have never "zested" make sure you don't dig too deeply into the white rind. You want just the outer yellow part of the lemon.
Cut the lemons in half....
Remove the seeds and squeeze the juice from both lemons in a bowl. Set the bowl aside. (You will want to add this in last AFTER the mixture is done cooking).
Combine the zest and ginger (save the juice for later).
Measure out your honey.... The original recipe calls for sugar instead of honey. Sugar is bad for your immune system; especially when you're sick. Honey has many great benefits which can help aide your body when sick. So I replaced the sugar with honey. :-)
Photographing honey is fun! :-)
Love the little bubbles in this liquid gold.
Okay back to the syrup making......Add the zest and ginger to the boiling water.
***IMPORTANT***Now with my first batch I added in the honey and lemon juice WHILE the mixture was cooking (as you can see in the picture below) as the original recipe instructed to add the sugar into the cooking liquid. Since honey is already in syrup form I decided for future batches to add in the honey and lemon juice AFTER cooking to help prevent enzymes and nutrients in the juice and honey from "cooking away" during the boiling process. :-)
Bring the liquid mixture to a boil and cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally on medium low heat.
While the mixture is cooking you can prep for straining the liquid. I set out my sieve and ran a pyrex bowl under hot water (I never like to pour boiling hot liquid into a cool glass whether it's heat safe or not).
Pour the liquid mixture into the sieve and strain until you have a thick pulp with very little liquid.
Pour into a jar. Now you can add in the honey and lemon juice while the mixture is still warm to dissolve the honey. I found that mixing 1 Tbsp of Syrup with 1 cup of water was about the right mixture for my kids so the ginger was not over powering for them. The original recipe states that this mixture can be stored in the fridge and last for 1-2 weeks. :-) Enjoy!!
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