Cooking With Green Tea
Cooking With Green Tea
Cooking with green tea is healthy, delicious and easy. Here are a few tips to add a gourmet touch of tea to your next meal.
Cooking with brewed leaves
An easy way to cook with green tea is to save your used tea leaves and incorporate them into dishes. In Japan, it’s common to used leftover brewed tea and tea leaves to make omelets, stir fries and other dishes.
To cook with used green tea leaves, simply save the brewed leaves and
add them to dishes as you would add fresh herbs. For example, you can…
- Chop them up and toss them in as you finish cooking a stir fry or omelet
- Simmer them with fresh fruit to make a tea-flavored fruit reduction sauce
- Chill brewed Organic Sencha or Gyokuro leaves, drizzle them with tamari or soy sauce and add a dab of wasabi
Cooking with brewed tea
You can also use brewed tea to boost the flavor and nutritional value of all sorts of foods. In fact, almost any recipe that calls for water can use green tea instead!
One of our favorite ways to cook with brewed green tea is to make ochazuke (Japanese green tea soup). To make this healthy and tasty soup, simply combine some leftover rice, some brewed green tea and the ingredients of your choice (such as steamed veggies, smoked salmon, chopped scallions, shredded dry seaweed, chopped tofu, soy sauce, etc.). Reheat if needed and enjoy.
Here’s an even easier way to cook with green tea
All these ways to cook with green tea are downright elementary, but there’s one way that’s easier still: cooking with Matcha. Matcha is a powdered green tea that’s famed for its health benefits. Luckily, since it’s powdered, it’s absurdly easy to get its flavor and nutrients into all sorts of dishes.
To cook with matcha, simply add it to dishes as you would add a powdered spice. You can:
- Blend it into smoothies and shakes
- Sprinkle it over yogurt, ice cream or sliced fruit
- Mix it into cakes, cookies and other baked goods
- Use it as a rub for grilled meats or tofu
- Flavor frosting or ganache with it, or to make a tea-flavored salt or sugar
Another delicious way to use Matcha in cooking is to make a Raw Matcha-Chia Pudding. Here’s how:
- Whisk together some coconut milk / almond milk and a teaspoon of Matcha powder.
- Stir in a few teaspoons chia seeds, a bit of honey or other raw sweetener, and any flavorings you’d like to infuse / add (such as a piece of vanilla bean or some sliced fruit).
- Place the mixture in the fridge and let it sit overnight.
- Enjoy it the next day as a healthy breakfast, snack or dessert. You can top it with fresh fruit (as pictured above) for more color and flavor.
You may just find that this healthy, make-ahead breakfast becomes a new favorite. (We did!)
