chai-spiced Stewed Fruits
Serves the New Mother for One Week
Super digestion friendly and will help ease postpartum constipation. They’re great on their own or on top of oatmeal!
Ingredients
1 ¾ cup pitted prunes
1 ½ cup dried apricots
1 cup raisins
5 ½ cups water
1 teaspoon cloves
1 tablespoon cardamom pods, crushed
2 cinnamon sticks (1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon can work in a pinch)
4-inch piece of ginger, peeled, sliced thin
Directions
Put the prunes, dried apricots, and raisins in a large stock pot or Dutch oven and add water to the pot.
Crush cardamom in a mortar and pestle. If you don’t have one, you can put the pods in a ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin until the pods crack open and the seeds come out.
Put the crushed cardamom, sliced ginger, cloves, and cinnamon to a cheesecloth or nut milk bag. Add the bag to the pot, pushing it down gently to slightly submerge.
Bring the pot to a boil, cover, turn heat to low and simmer for about 1 hour. Turn the heat off and let the fruits steep, covered for another hour at least. The longer you let them steep, the stronger and sweeter the syrup.
Add more water if it dries up and let cook until syrup is formed again.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days.
FREEZE: Allow the fruits to cool to room temperature before putting in storage containers. Freeze in one-cup portions to have a daily supply of fruits. Freeze for up to 4 months.
REHEAT: Let it defrost on the counter or run warm water on the outside of the container to loosen the contents. Once loosened, put into a bowl and heat in the microwave or in a saucepan on low-medium heat.
Recipe adapted from Shelly Rahim’s New Mother Caregiving.
