8 Easy Ways to Infuse Tea to Recipes and Cooking

Do you love cooking or trying out new recipes in the kitchen? If so, have you tried using tea as one of your ingredients? It might seem unusual but infusing tea to recipes can actually make your dishes more satisfying and unique. If you’re keen in experimenting then you might want to try the different ways to infuse tea to recipes.

Of course, you probably know about the famous desserts like matcha iced latte, green tea ice cream, and matcha cake but there are more to try if you really want to up your cooking game. The good thing is that you can always mix and match or do trial by error to see which methods of cooking fit your taste.

Here are some amazing ways you can infuse tea to cooking. You never know which ones can make your everyday meals even more appetizing!

1 . Use Tea Leaves as Spices or Herbs

Well, tea leaves are considered herbs although they are rarely used or treated as a spice. You can actually grind your tea leaves and put them along with other spices and herbs that you’re using for cooking.

You can then create your own tea spice rubs or tea spice blends depending on your preference. You can add salt, black pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, and dried thyme. Use these spice blends on any dish that you want to have a spicy or bold flavor.

2. Use Tea as Stock for Soups

When you run out of stock, you can steep tea and use it as a substitute. For example, you can use green tea for vegetables, fish, and poultry. Since green tea has lighter notes and savory flavor, it’s best for veggies. Black tea, on the other hand, has more of a smoky flavor so you can use it for beef and mushrooms.

3. Tea as Water

This just means that instead of using water for cooking, use tea. Start by brewing tea and letting it cool to room temperature. You can then use it to cook whole grains such as rice or quinoa. You can also cook noodles or pasta in green tea to achieve that herbaceous flavor or use tea to rehydrate some vegetables.

4. Bake Tea Cookies

Tea and butter go well together! Pretty sure you’ve heard about matcha cookies? Well, that’s one. Instead of the usual flavoring, use matcha instead. Aside from that, you can also grind some loose tea leaves to add more unique flavors to your baked cookies. The suggested measurement is that for every cup of flour, replace 1 teaspoon with powdered tea.

5. Marinades and Dressings

If you’re sick and tired of your usual marinades and dressings, then it’s about time to create something new. Why not add brewed tea? You can use it to marinate just about anything. A mixture of green tea, puffed rice, and corn also makes a good seasoning for stir-fry food. It’s even better if you choose tea that has savory or roasty flavor instead of the sweet ones.

6. Tea for Poaching Liquids

Another wonder that brewed tea can make is that it’s perfect for poached dishes. Both its flavor and aroma are a great addition to your recipe. Try poaching fish in a broth of jasmine tea or some mushrooms in smoky black tea.

7. Infuse Into Milk and Cream

Loose leaf tea is best to add flavor to your milk and cream. When you infuse, remember to strain the leaves. The more earthy and grassy kind of tea is best for pasta sauce and rice while sweet herbal tea or tisanes like rose, chamomile, and lavender are best for desserts and ice creams.

8. Infuse salts, butter, and oils

These three ingredients are often used when cooking. Your dishes will even be more flavorful when you infuse tea to salt, butter, or oil. You can make your own specialty salt and choose your flavor of tea. Same is true with oils.

You can also try making tea butter. Let unsalted butter sit in room temperature until it melts or it becomes soft. Then mix the butter with tea leaves. Once done, shape the mixed butter so that it looks like a butter stick or log, wrap in plastic wrap, and return it back to the fridge to that it becomes firm  and ready for your next use.

Hope you got some easy ideas to infuse tea into your recipes. Make cooking enjoyable and fun for you! Let us know if you have any other ideas. 😉

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