Cardamom Ginger Chai Recipe Card
Ready to elevate your tea time? Dive into the world of Cardamom Ginger Chai! This low-carb version of soothing Indian tea, made with unsweetened almond milk, offers a relaxing escape after a busy day. With bold flavours from cardamom and fresh ginger, it’s the perfect blend to warm your soul. Let’s brew some magic!
Equipment
- Saucepan Or Instant Pot
- Ladle
- Tea Strainer
- Mug
Ingredients
- 2.5 Cups Water
- 1 Tbsp Black tea leaves or 1 tea bag
- ½ Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
- 2 Tbsp Whipping cream omit for non dairy
- 12 Cardamom pods (or 1 tsp cardamom seeds), crushed or 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 1 Inch Fresh ginger root or 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 Tbsp Monk Fruit or sweetener of choice
Instructions
STOVETOP METHOD
Prepare the cardamom and ginger
- Crush the cardamom pods or cardamom seeds gently using a pestle and mortar or rolling pin. Alternatively, you can just use two teaspoons of ground cardamom, which makes making this chai super easy. Simply adjust the amount according to preference, as the ground spice can be pretty intense.
- Cut washed and peeled ginger root into cubes or slices; it’s fine to chop it roughly. If you’re short on time, you can even use unpeeled ginger. Fresh ginger is preferable when available, but ground ginger can be used as well, just be careful with the quantity, since it can leave a strong aftertaste.
Boil and Simmer the Chai
- Start by bringing water, tea leaves (or a tea bag), and fresh ginger to a rolling boil in a saucepan.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium. Then, add the unsweetened almond milk and whipping cream to the mixture.
- Allow the tea to return to a rolling boil, ensuring you keep an eye on it to prevent overflow.
- After it reaches a boil again, reduce the heat to medium once more and allow it to simmer for about 5 minutes.
Chai sweetness
- Now, add your preferred sweetener and give it a good stir to let it dissolve into the chai.
- At this point, you can either repeat bringing your chai to a boil again or simply continue to simmer on medium heat for another 5 minutes.
Chai Strength
- I enjoy boiling and simmering the chai multiple times to get that perfect caramel-like colour. You’ll come to appreciate it too, once you master making chai and develop a preference for a specific strength.
- While the chai simmers in the saucepan, make sure to keep an eye on it. If left unattended, it can boil over quickly, leading to a messy spill on your stove that you definitely want to avoid.
- Once it’s ready, turn off the heat and use a ladle to strain the chai into a teapot or mug before serving.
INSTANT POT METHOD
- In SAUTÉ mode, place water, tea, cardamom and ginger into the the inner pot of the INSTANT POT. Bring the mixture into a simmer. This will take about 10 mins.
- Add unsweetened almond milk, whippping crea and sweetener. Stir and simmer for 2 minutes.
- CANCEL SAUTÉ mode and PRESSURE COOK for 1 min.
- When the time is done, press CANCEL and NATURAL RELEASE the pressure for 15 mins.
- Open the lid carefully, strain the chai and serve.
Notes
Substitutions
- Stevia, Monk fruit sweetener or regular sugar
- Any other nut milk, regular milk, half and half or heavy cream
- Ground Cardamom instead of Cardamom pods
- Ground ginger instead of fresh ginger root
- Add a cinnamon stick, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper and star anise for Masala Chai.
- Add saffron
- Leave out spices and ginger for basic chai.