Warm Quinoa Salad with Salmon, Asparagus and Kale
It’s cold and flu season, and Fire Cider is one of our favorite remedies. It even has enough kick to replace coffee for some of our patients.
Fire Cider is a popular herbal folk preparation: a flavorful blend of vinegar infused with herbs. It’s a pleasant, easy way to support natural health processes, support immunity, and warm yourself up on chilly days.
Because this is a traditional folk remedy, the ingredients can vary from year to year depending on what’s growing nearby and when you make it. The standard base includes apple cider vinegar, garlic, onion, ginger, horseradish, and hot peppers. From there, you can add other herbs for extra flavor and potency. This year, our garden offered plenty of spicy jalapeños and vibrant rosemary, so we included those along with organic turmeric powder and fresh lemon peel.
Beyond immune support, these ingredients also act as powerful epigenetic modulators, helping to promote healthy gene expression and longevity. For example, curcumin, the active compound in turmeric, has the remarkable ability to influence gene expression by modifying DNA methylation, which is why it’s a staple of the Younger You program. Many of these beneficial compounds are polyphenols, key drivers of the Younger You protocol’s ability to support healthy epigenetic aging as discussed in this article.
Epigenetic Nutrition Spotlight
- Diindolylmethane (DIM) – horseradish
- Kaempferol – ginger
- Myricetin – turmeric
- Luteolin – lemon, rosemary
- Hesperidin – lemon
- Apigenin – horseradish, rosemary
- Rosmarinic acid – rosemary
- Sulfur compounds – garlic, onion, ginger, horseradish
- Quercetin – turmeric, apple cider vinegar
Fire Cider can be taken straight by the spoonful, added to organic vegetable juice (try adding olives and pickles for a non-alcoholic, health-boosting Bloody Mary), splashed into fried rice, or drizzled over a salad with good olive oil. You can also save the strained pulp and mix it with shredded vegetables like carrots, cabbage, broccoli, and fresh herbs to create delicious, aromatic stir-fries or spring rolls.
We like to take a tablespoon each morning to warm up, and triple that if we feel the sniffles coming on. Some people even bury their jar of Fire Cider in the ground for a month, then dig it up during a seasonal feast to celebrate the changing of the seasons.
This recipe originally appeared on Mountain Rose Herbs.
| Fire Cider |
Fire Cider
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup fresh grated organic ginger root
- 1/2 cup fresh grated organic horseradish root
- 1 medium organic onion chopped
- 10 cloves organic garlic crushed or chopped
- 2 organic jalapeno peppers chopped
- 1 Lemon juice and zest
- 2 tbsp dried rosemary leaves
- 1 tbsp Turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp cayenne powder
- Apple cider vinegar to cover all ingredients
- 1/4 cup raw local honey or to taste
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Ingredients
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Instructions
- Prepare your roots, fruits, and herbs and place them in a quart-sized glass jar. If you've never grated fresh horseradish, be prepared for a powerful sinus-opening experience!
- Pour the apple cider vinegar in the jar until all of the ingredients are covered and the vinegar reaches the jar's top.
- Use a piece of natural parchment paper under the lid to keep the vinegar from touching the metal, or a plastic lid if you have one. Shake well.
- Store in a dark, cool place for a month and remember to shake daily.
- After one month, use cheesecloth to strain out the pulp, pouring the vinegar into a clean jar. Be sure to squeeze as much of the liquidy goodness as you can from the pulp while straining.
- Next comes the honey. Add and stir until incorporated.
- Taste your cider and add more honey until you reach the desired sweetness.
3 Comments
besides all the excellent ingredients, we can use elderberries to make a most excellent
remedy to ward off colds and flus and such. I would suggest making the elderberries in
alcohol / or glycerine would be additional ways to prepare the elderberries
Could you provide me with some evidence based research for fire cider? It would be most helpful.
I’m not sure there’s a broad body of research on Fire Cider considering recipes might be variable. When you look at each ingredient individually it’s interesting to see how they might com together to promote immunity. For example traditionally fermented foods, like raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar, are well known for modulating the immune system by boosting pre- and probiotic in the diet. Garlic and onions have been long studied for its antimicrobial properties, as has ginger. And local raw honey is also known to help boost immunity and fight infection. It helps that it also tastes great!
Here are a few citations for reference:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29866009
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29109311
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21859350