Root cause

There’s a lot more to turmeric than the golden powder we grew up with that was used to colour yellow rice, season brawn and tripe, and maybe even make ginger beer. The real thing is a fresh root similar to ginger, with an earthy, slightly bitter flavour.

I didn’t know fresh turmeric until quite recently, but once I had discovered it at my local Indian vegetable and spice shop, I started having a lot of fun experimenting – and it’s now one of my favourite spices.

I like turmeric in both sweet and savoury dishes. I slice it thinly to brew as a tea with lemon, or I add a pinch to my breakfast smoothie along with frozen banana, cinnamon and cayenne pepper. (It’s believed that black pepper and cayenne pepper help the body to absorb curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, which has anti-inflammatory properties and is a powerful antioxidant.) When it comes to savoury recipes, I grate the fresh root into a red lentil soup or chicken curry, and I turn it into a paste to spread over cauliflower before roasting it.

(Wear kitchen gloves when you grate turmeric, or it will stain your hands golden yellow. – Eds)

Ginger, on the other hand, is an old faithful in the kitchen. Just think of chunks of ginger preserve, ginger pudding and ginger biscuits – my mother even boiled pieces of fresh ginger in her koeksister syrup. Often, once the koeksisters had been made, I would fish out the ginger and nibble on it. I still