Cooking with Tea

The uses of tea are endless! It's not only a warm, comforting drink but it can be used for beauty, health, baking, and more.

In this post, I want to inspire you to not just drink tea, but to cook with tea!

Here are four different recipes and ways to incorporate tea into your everyday cooking .

1) Earl Grey Sugar Cookies

You can add crushed tea leaves to many different things. One very common use of crushed tea leaves is in butter cookies.

Find my recipe for Earl Grey Sugar Cookies here: http://lexalexrecipe.blogspot.ca/

2) Darjeeling Mousse Tart 

Another way to use tea is to steep it in any liquid ingredients. If you're making pancakes, steep tea in the milk. Likewise, if you're baking a cake you could steep tea leaves in the cake batter. In this particular recipe, I steeped Darjeeling in the cream before I made it into mousse.

Find the recipe here: http://lexalexrecipe.blogspot.ca/





3) Jasmine Tea Rub Ribs 

I'm sure you've heard of coffee rubs but there's also such a thing as tea rubs! These amazing ribs are made with jasmine tea leaves. You could use tea rubs in all sorts of meat recipes.

Find this recipe here: http://thewoksoflife.com/2014/07/jasmine-tea-rub-ribs/

(photography from http://thewoksoflife.com)

4) Miso Green Tea and Ginger Tofu Soup

One last way to use tea is in soups. You could steep a bag of tea in almost any kind of soup. Peppermint and green tea would pair lovely with many types of soup. 

Find this recipe here: http://www.sheknows.com

(photography from http://www.sheknows.com)

Peanut Pad Thai

After a bit of experimenting, my Mom and I came up with the perfect Peanut Pad Thai recipe. It has been my family's favorite dish since we first made it. It's actually easy to make and is extremely delicious.

Peanut Sauce 

1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar

1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup and 2 teaspoons soy sauce

1/4 cup and 2 teaspoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root

2 tablespoons and 1-1/4 teaspoons minced garlic 

2 tablespoon Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce (optional) 

2 tablespoons Sanbal Oelek Ground Fresh Chili Sauce (optional)

I found this sauce recipe (originally meant for Asian Coleslaw) at this website: allrecipes.com

I changed the recipe a little by adding the Sriracha sauce and the ground fresh chili. 

After the Peanut Sauce....

1) Finely chop 2 or 3 cups of red or green cabbage 

2) Finely chop 1 or 2 tablespoons of cilantro 

3) Fry 2 eggs in a pan with some of the fresh chili sauce 

4) Stir fry shrimp or beef 

5) Cook rice noodles (bring water to a boil, let noodles sit in hot water until soft, drain and rinse noodles with cold water immediately)

6) Add all the ingredients together in a pan or bowl and mix together. I typically don't use all of the sauce. 

7) Sprinkle chopped peanuts and cilantro on the top and enjoy.

In the pictures below, I made a vegetarian pad thai which is just as delicious!