Cooking with tea is underrated: Here's the easy way to do it

Whether it is to help you get up and going in the morning or to help you relax mid-afternoon, tea is the ultimate fail-safe beverage we reach for. According to Penn Medicine, drinking tea also has several health benefits like boosting our immune system, aiding digestion and even helping to prevent heart disease and cancer.

Tea is also a surprisingly easy element to incorporate into your cooking. Here are some creative ways to use tea in cooking.

Tea in baking

Baking is a great way to incorporate the flavours of tea into food. You can use tea to complement other traditional baking flavours such as vanilla, orange extract, coffee liqueur etc.

Grind dry loose tea leaves into a fine powder or brew up a cup of oolong tea, and add it to your baking batter to make delicious tea-flavoured cookies, cakes and muffins.

Use tea to spice things up

Ground tea can also be used as a spice. Mix powdered tea with your usual spices of choice such as cinnamon and cardamom to create a uniquely layered spice mix, or use it as a dry rub with salt and pepper, while grilling your meats.

Tea can also inject aroma and depth of flavours while preparing broths and stocks. Loose tea leaves and tea stems can be steeped in hot liquid to create infusions, which can then be used to flavour anything from rice to soups and stews. You can also use brewed tea as stock in itself.

Tea in desserts

Tea also makes for an excellent ingredient in desserts. We have already mentioned baking with tea above, but tea can also be used to flavour ice creams, different kinds of mousse and candies.

While one can drink tea at the end of a meal in lieu of a dessert, a slice of tea-flavoured cheesecake or an Earl Grey-infused crepe can be a fun addition on the side.

Read more:

⋙ 5 best teas to soothe a sore throat

⋙ Here are the health benefits of adding honey in your cup of green tea

⋙ Sleep: Try these teas before bed if you struggle to fall asleep