Recently, I've been feeling a little under the weather. I've been diligently taking my supplements and trying to make sure I'm getting enough sleep, but yesterday it felt like whatever bug I had was starting to get ahead of me. My body was really craving some chicken soup and something warm to drink so while my husband sweetly headed off to get me some soup, I decided to have a look around the house to see what I could pull together for a warm drink. We had some apple juice left from a recipe I made last week, and mulled apple juice popped into my head. I've actually never made apple cider and it's been years since I've sipped on any, but for some reason it sounded sooo good.
While deciding if I should muster the energy to try to make the mulled apple juice, I had some inner turmoil going on: The scientific nutritionist in me was saying "No! There's sugar in apples which will not help you get better any faster!" but the mind-body nutritionist in me was saying "Listen to your body's cravings!". I decided to listen to the mind-body voice and went to work looking for recipes online.
Now, I don't want to give off the impression that I'm suggesting that listening to your body means you should just eat whatever you want whenever you want. I think that along with being able to identify exactly what your body is craving, there also needs to be an aspect of rationally looking at why your body is craving those things. In this case, I think that my body was craving warm apple juice not because of the sugar in the apples, but because I knew that I could add ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom pods, which have all been shown to aid in kicking a cold or flu to the curb. The sweetness of the apples was just an added bonus.
I eventually found a couple recipes online that looked like a pretty good starting place: Jamie Oliver's Incredible Mulled Cider and Mountain Rose Herbs Mulling Spice Recipe. I didn't have all the ingredients on hand, so I improvised keeping in mind the overall tone of both recipes. The end result really hit the spot and I'm glad to say that today I am feeling like I'm ahead of the bug, so I guess I was right to listen to my body.
I'm actually kind of glad that I was feeling sick, because now I have a yummy new recipe to pull out on a cold night.
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Mulled Apple Juice
8 cups organic apple juice (the ingredients list on the bottle should just read: apples.)
8-10 cardamom pods
1 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise
1/2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and halved
dash ground cinnamon
Optional: 4-5 cloves
Optional: sliced fresh lemon or orange
Combine all ingredients. You can either put the spices into a cheesecloth bag or just throw them in on their own. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15-20 minutes. Remove the spices and ladle the juice into mugs. Drink while still warm.
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Let me know if you make my mulled apple juice recipe!