Vegetable Tea
My mom introduced me to vegetable tea a few months ago. I was in my parents’ kitchen and she offered me some. When I asked her what was in it, she listed a bunch of vegetables in addition to water. I took a sip, told her that it’s vegetable broth and dismissed her. I didn’t consider making some for myself and drinking it seriously until I heard that my dad recovered from a flu within three days of my mom’s tea and getting lots of rest.
My mom has a history of adding anything to hot water and calling it “tea.” Several years ago, she served me pear honey tea to get rid of a cold. It’s essentially hot water and Asian pear that has been steamed with honey. She insisted that or ginger, lemon, and honey in hot water would cure me. I was skeptical, but preferred to drink those teas rather than take medicine. While I can’t guarantee that it got rid of the cold 100%, I don’t recall being sick for very long. I’ve been drinking honey lemon ginger tea almost every day and I can’t remember feeling under the weather since then.
I quickly looked up “vegetable tea” online to see whether other people were drinking it and found several sources, much to my surprise. Most of the sources were blogs dedicated to homeopathic remedies and macrobiotics. They of course claimed that it has huge health benefits. Having been raised by a mom who firmly believes in the medicinal properties of food, I do believe in this stuff. Still, I can’t help but remain somewhat skeptical... So, I am going to set a trend for the new lunar year by drinking it every day (when possible).
You can find various recipes online. My mom just boils whatever vegetables she has on hand. Finally following her advice, I did the same. Mine consists of:
- acorn squash
- beet stems
- carrot
- kale ribs
- napa cabbage
- onion
- oyster mushrooms