If you happen to follow Healthyish, our sister brand, theres a good chance you've seen the word "turmeric" thrown around more than a few times, probably attached to some sort of sunny, fluorescent-orange beverage or another. But what is turmeric, WTF is the fuss all about, and how are you supposed to cook with it? Let's break it down.
Turmeric, like it's cousin ginger, is a rhizome—which is, more or less, a root. It's native to Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, and is most often found in the cuisines of those regions, but it can grow anywhere warm with plenty of rainfall. Flavor-wise, it is overwhelmingly earthy and bitter, almost musky, with a bit of peppery spice. That deep, kind of implacable flavor in most curry powders? Yep: That's turmeric.
And while the flavor turmeric offers is huge, its color is just as remarkable. A spoonful or two is enough to tinge an entire soup, pot of rice, or spice rub a vibrant shade of yellow-orange. In fact, it's often added to things like prepared mustard as a natural food dye. (Yeah, that's what makes French's Classic Yellow Mustard so...yellow.) Which is also to say: This stuff stains like crazy. Turmeric will leave just about all Tupperware with a lingering golden glow, and will do the same to your fingers if you're getting handsy with it. Are you standing in the kitchen right now, wearing a white shirt and getting ready to make some curry? A costume change may be in order.
Turmeric is most commonly sold in a dried and powdered form, usually in the section of the grocery store with the rest of the spices. Dried and powdered, its easy to mix into marinades or spice rubs, or sizzled with aromatics like onions and garlic as the base of a soup or stew. Because it's so bitter, it usually wants to be balanced out by other big flavors and textures—think sharp, spicy curries enriched with plenty of ghee, butter, coconut oil, coconut milk, or other fat.
You can also sometimes find fresh turmeric, which looks a lot like mini knobs of ginger. (That photo up top is of pieces of fresh turmeric that have been split in half to expose their fiery orange interiors.) Fresh turmeric is still quite bitter, but has a brighter...fresher flavor than its dried counterpart, and is almost a little bit citrusy. You can treat it almost the same way you would treat fresh ginger: Peel it, then slice, mince, or grate it to your hearts content. Fresh turmeric is less potent than the dried stuff, so if you're using fresh in a recipe that calls for dried, you'll have to use about four times as much. (And, yeah, it will turn your hands the craziest color; latex gloves FTW.)
So, yeah, that's what turmeric is. But why does it feel like it's everywhere all of a sudden, from lattes to tonics to baked goods? Well, in addition to being used as a flavoring and coloring, it's also prized in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for its anti-inflammatory properties, among other things. Which is all kind of out of the Basically purview, tbh. So we'll leave it at that.
