Turmeric Spice, Uses + Recipes

Turmeric spice can be easily included in your cooking. I show you how in this post.

Also, why is turmeric such a great spice, which one should you buy and a selection of recipes with turmeric to choose from.

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📕 What is turmeric?

Turmeric is a yellow-orange root that has been used as a spice in Indian and Asian cooking for centuries.

Turmeric is also known as Curcuma, Kurkuma in other western countries. The roots are called Haldi in the hindi language, in India, where it originated.

The root is moreover dried, ground and used in almost all Indian dishes in India.

💡 Advantages

Yep, turmeric is good for you and it has great health benefits!

The root has been popularized in the past 10 years all over the western world because it is known to have anti-inflammatory properties.

People like my mother take in turmeric capsules and tabs on a daily basis because the curcumin properties can reduce joint inflammation and help skin health.

Turmeric has been used for thousands of years in India in food and as a cosmetic. In fact, I can totally recommend Turmeric soap bars (from Khadi, Medimix or Himalaya)!

I had a German-Italian friend of my age who was born in Goa, and she would mix small quantities of milk with turmeric spice powder to create a paste to treat her face skin breakouts.

Yet the most common and best way to use turmeric is in your food!

🌶️ Spice combinations

Turmeric compliments and combines well with the following spices:

black pepper - main course meals, soups, salads. Pepper helps to absorb the curcumin in turmeric.
red chili pepper - frequent addition in Asian and North African meals
ginger - teas, soups
cumin - Indian food
coriander powder - Indian food
garlic - main course meals, soups, salads

That said, most Indian dishes use turmeric with all the mentioned spices. The result is a well-flavored and complex dish.

🥣 Turmeric Recipe Uses

Ever wondered how you can incorporate this amazing spice into your daily food?

I was super intimidated when I was introduced to turmeric more than 12 years ago.

Today I use turmeric all the time and I love the bright colors and flavors it gives my food and my mood!

Here are some of the best, no-nonsense, ways for you to use your yellow turmeric spice.

Chicken Tikka Masala Recipe

Easy Chicken Tikka Masala with a handful of spices so that you can recreate this dish at home. This is my quick weeknight dinner meal. The tomato-based curry is a real comfort meal.

Easy Indian Lentil Soup Recipe

Flavorful not hot spicy Indian lentil soup with split red masoor dal lentils, a couple of spices and other healthy ingredients. This soup is great all year round but of course most suitable when the days get shorter and cooler. See notes for ingredient advice.

Turmeric Roasted Cauliflower

Roasted Cauliflower flavored with turmeric makes a great low carb and low-calorie side dish.

Moroccan Chicken Tagine Recipe

Aromatic slow-cooked chicken tagine with preserved lemon slices. This is a low carb family meal.

Turmeric Sourdough Bread

Turmeric in bread is a new trend! The yellow spice is turning this bread into a pretty healthy sight and it tastes great.

Baked Turmeric Oatmeal

This baked turmeric oatmeal can be prepared with fresh or dried turmeric.

Chicken Mulligatawny Soup Recipe

This hearty Mulligatawny soup recipe will be your go-to dish this season. It's easy to recreate the Indian inspired soup at home.

Turmeric Latte

Turmeric enriched latte is hot spiced milk, which is also better known as golden milk.

Homemade Turmeric Pasta

Homemade Pasta flavored with turmeric powder. This pasta will be your golden favorite.

Vegan Scrambled Eggs Recipe

Flavorful vegan scrambled eggs recipes is a quick tofu scramble prepared without eggs and dairy products. It tastes and looks like a real egg scramble. This vegan egg scramble is gluten-free. low-carb and a healthier breakfast/brunch recipe

Healing Turmeric Soup

Healing Turmeric Soup - immune-boosting, wholesome and beautiful clear soup.

Morning Turmeric Detox Drink

Your drink to kickstart the day!

Quick Indian Lemon Rice Recipe

Lemon Rice Recipe - How to make South Indian Lemon Rice [EASY]

This vibrant lemon rice side dish is best served with seafood and meats. Prepare it with leftover cooked rice to save time!

Turmeric Chickpea Buddha Bowl

Nourishing Buddha Bowl with chickpeas, avocado, kale, beet, quinoa, turmeric.

Turmeric Smoothie

Creamy and bright turmeric smoothie. Dairy-free breakfast smoothie.

One Pan Spiced Chicken and Rice

Aromatic one-pan chicken and rice that comes together effortlessly within 25 minutes. Add this to your weekly dinner rotation!

Turmeric Spinach and Eggs

Make this for breakfast or this could also be my lazy dinner meal. 🙂

Almond Turmeric Dressing

Trader Joe copycat dressing recipe.

Spiced Cream Cheese Spread

A spiced cream cheese spread to amuse your senses during snack or break time. Spread over bread or crackers, the choice is up to you.

Vietnamese turmeric fish with noodles

Vietnamese turmeric fish with noodles (Cha Ca La Vong) is a delicious dish of Hanoi. Chunks of fish are plated on a bed of aromatic green scallions and dill.

Golden Turmeric Crackers

Golden Turmeric Crackers - a delicious way to add more turmeric to your diet.

🛍️ Buying

Look out for ground turmeric and if possible get organic high-quality turmeric.

I like to use and recommend turmeric from Conscious food.

You can get those packaged raw turmeric roots, which made an appearance in grocery stores in America and Europe, but most probably you won't really use it much.

Raw turmeric doesn't get moldy and bad that fast compared to ginger but it's still a waste if it's lying around in your fridge over a longer period of time.

Most dishes call for dried turmeric powder as a seasoning spice and to be honest, Indian households nowadays use dried turmeric in their daily cooking.

So go for dried ground turmeric if you are trying to incorporate this spice more into your daily food preparation.

If you are totally into turmeric and you use it frequently in your cooking, I recommend you use fresh turmeric.

Fresh turmeric is not as strong (and bitter) and is great in sweets too.

turmeric spice and other spices at an Indian market — turmeric at a spice market in Goa India

🌱 Growing

I just wanted to add my experience with growing turmeric too.

Turmeric grows wild in India, a tropical and subtropical country close to the equator.

We grew our first successful batch in Goa, India during the rainy season in our tropical garden.

The soil wasn't the best of mud but the turmeric plant mainly grew out of a piece of fresh turmeric when we had forgotten about it.

We had planted a piece in February, which was almost the end of the winter season.

The root only sprouted beginning July when the rainy season started.

We had watered it for months but nothing ever grew. It only came to live with the rainy season. That means the rainy season is the turmeric season.

The cycle continued the same way every year for more than 6 years.

The roots sprout, the leaves grow out and by the end of October or whenever the rainy season ends, the leaves die-off.

The turmeric plant needs tropical warm weather to thrive and plenty of monsoon rain. We tried growing it in Europe and we failed.

You can try to grow turmeric from a fresh raw root by planting it into a pot but I only recommend this when you live ina warm climate.

turmeric plant growing in mud — turmeric plant

💭 FAQs

What does turmeric taste like?

Turmeric tastes pungent, bitter and kind of like sawdust if you have ever tasted sawdust. 😋

Turmeric VS Curry Powder VS Saffron

Turmeric is a dried root that is ground and used as a plain yellow spice. Curry Powder is a blend of spices, which also includes ground turmeric spice. Saffron is the flower bud thread from the crocus flower and it's also a spice that adds a yellow color to your food.

Is curcumin the same as turmeric?

Curcumin is a raw compound that can be found in turmeric.

Are turmeric leaves edible?

The leaves can be used in curries but we personally haven't tried it. Hindu houses might be using the leaves in a stir fry in Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. The main use for the leaves in Goa is to wrap the turmeric leaves around a sweet steamed rice dessert called Patoyo. The rice dessert takes in the spiced flavors of the leaves, which tastes amazing!