Are you searching for a way to give your immune system a boost? How about a drink that can relieve stress? Well, if you're holding a cup of lemon ginger tea in your hand, then you're on the right track!

Sweet, spicy and one of the best drinks to have during the winter, this tea is power-packed with some incredible health and body care benefits too!

And here's how to make your own Fresh Ginger-Lemon Tea (which is actually an infusion, not really "tea.")

Let's see how:

It Boosts Your Immune System: On top of the list of benefits of lemon ginger tea is its ability to strengthen your immunity. This is due to the presence of high levels of anti-oxidants in ginger. Lemons are an excellent source of vitamin C which can heal wounds and preserve the strength of bones and teeth.

In the onset of cold and flu, the tea can act as an effective antibiotic. The bioflavonoids that lemons contain help to prevent cancer cells from growing and spreading.

The anti-oxidants in the lemons help in reducing inflammation and arthritis symptoms. The powerful antioxidants can reduce free radicals in the body. Ginger also increases blood circulation in the body that is vital for optimum health.

It Brings Instant Relief From Nausea and Indigestion: Vomiting and nausea usually occur as symptoms of a body disorder. Lemon ginger tea provides the best relief mechanism.

Moreover, if you have a motion sickness tendency, you can drink a cup of this tea prior to travel to prevent nausea.

It can also help cure the vomiting related to chemotherapy and pregnancy, which is a relief during that period. It eases the pain and uneasiness of an upset stomach.

The ginger and lemon in the tea lowers the chances of heartburn and indigestion. It causes the food to be better absorbed by the body and prevents belching and bloating after eating too much. It improves your appetite as well!

It Lowers The Effects Of Diabetes: New research has thrown light upon the fact that drinking this tea on a daily basis can reduce kidney damage that occurs due to the effects of diabetes.

The high levels of zinc found in ginger play a prime role in the production and secretion of insulin. It is the insulin that controls the blood sugar levels and keeps diabetes in check.

Other harmful effects of diabetes like blood pressure, heart problems and so on can be countered by the anti-oxidants present in the drink.

It Is Your One-Stop-Drink To Perfect Skin And Great Hair: As mentioned above, the tea is rich in anti-oxidants and vitamins which are beneficial for perfect skin, hair and health. The beverage helps in improving your digestion and guides you towards smooth and flawless skin.

The antibacterial and antiseptic properties protect your skin from infections. For strong and beautiful hair, the tea provides you a natural aid. Vitamin A and C are recommended in plenty for those with hair issues, as they combat the production of DHT in the scalp that in turn triggers hair growth.

A vitamin and anti-oxidant rich drink like lemon ginger tea will help you overcome hair problems in an absolute natural and simple way.

It Is The Apt Drink For Weight Loss: High blood sugar levels trigger cravings for carbohydrates and fatty foods. Ginger helps to normalize these sugar levels which otherwise can affect your ability to lose weight or eat healthy food. Ginger also improves fat absorption and prevents it from accumulating in the body.

Both ginger and lemon have anti-inflammatory properties that prevent inflammations and enhance the activity of the liver that helps in shedding those extra pounds.

The smell of lemons reduces stress causing an increase in metabolism and proper organ function that can help in weight loss.

How do we prepare lemon ginger tea?

Using green tea as a base, finely chop the ginger root and infuse it boiling water for twenty minutes. This helps in transferring the active ingredients into the liquid.

Adding two tablespoons of lemon juice and agave or stevia (or honey if it doesn't need to be vegan) into the mix helps in both sweetening the tea as well as countering the spicy effects of the ginger.

It can be served either hot or cold as the revitalizing effects are the same.

Lemon ginger tea can be very refreshing to drink with its medicine like qualities.

Moreover, a few recent studies suggest that it can help to stop blood clotting and lower cholesterol levels. This can prevent cardio-vascular diseases and strokes from taking place.

If you feel tense or worn out, the drink can also be an effective stress reliever. The strong aroma, spicy and refreshing taste and calming effects provide you relief and relaxation of your body and mind.

Try it out today and feel healthy and energetic!

And if you love this lemon ginger tea, be sure to check out these other tasty and healthy beverages:

• Apple Cider Vinegar & Ginger Tonic
• Apple Cider Ginger Ale
• Dragonfruit Lemonade

Recipe

Lemon Ginger Tea

4.91 from 22 votes

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Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 3 green tea bags
• juice of 1 lemon
• 3 inches fresh ginger peeled and minced
• sweetener such as stevia or agave syrup if desired, to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Bring water to a boil in a small pot or tea kettle. Add the ginger root and green tea bags. Remove from heat and allow to steep for twenty minutes.
• When tea is finished steeping, remove the tea bags and strain to remove the ginger pieces.
• Add two tablespoons of the lemon juice and sweetener (if using), to taste. Serve hot or cold.

Nutrition (Estimate per Serving)

Calories: 17kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 0.4gFat: 0.2gSaturated Fat: 0.04gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.03gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.03gSodium: 38mgPotassium: 87mgFiber: 0.4gSugar: 0.4gVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 25mgIron: 0.1mg

Vegan-ize any recipe!Grab our free vegan cheat sheet, packed with my favorite easy substitutions to make any recipe vegan.

References:

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-2205998/Stress-Ginger-tea-answer.html
• http://www.momjunction.com/articles/unexpected-benefits-of-eating-ginger-during-pregnancy_0082719/
• http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Honey-Lemon-Ginger-Tea
• http://nutritionfacts.org/video/better-than-green-tea/

If you're new to plant-based cooking, you may be looking for a guide to vegan substitutions to swap into favorite non-vegan recipes. Thankfully, there are plenty of products vegans can use in place of animal ingredients that will make vegan cooking a breeze. Let's cover how to replace animal ingredients with vegan ingredients. 

Milk. It's so easy to substitute for dairy milk in a recipe. You can use soymilk, rice milk, oat milk, hemp milk, or nut milk measure for measure. Most supermarkets carry at least a couple of varieties. It's that easy! If you're a bit more ambitious you can make your own nondairy milk; there are lots of recipes online, or see ours for homemade almond milk or hemp milk. For a store bought option, I really like this almond milk from Silk.

Cheese. It's so easy to find all kinds of vegan cheeses these days. And wow, have these come a long way. You can get slices, blocks, shreds, slices, and more.

In place of cottage or ricotta cheese, you can use crumbled tofu, soaked raw nuts, or a combo. And though it won't be quite as creamy or meltable as the real thing, it will be very good indeed. See the formula in Italian Eggplant Casserole with Cashew-Tofu Ricotta, or use it in our vegan zucchini lasagna where tofu ricotta is the star. Or try this 5 Minute Tofu Ricotta recipe. You may need to spice it up with herbs and add some salt to make it work in your particular recipe. Vegan "Parmesan" is also super easy to make and better than what's on the market.

Craving some tangy feta cheese? No issue there - try this simple vegan feta recipe. It's briny and crumbly, just like real feta.

Pizza? No problem. Daiya mozzarella shreds work incredibly well. In my experience, Daiya and Follow your Heart brand cheeses have the best melting power.

Cream cheese on your bagel? Daiya has you covered there, too. There are other brands but these are VegKitchen's favorites. (No affiliation - we just like them.)

Be sure to read the label as some vegetarian cheeses contain casein, which is not vegan. If you can find a great vegan cheese that you like, use it in your recipes in the same manner that you would use dairy cheese.

Now, whether you're vegan or lactose-intolerant, you no longer have to give up your favorite cheese-y foods. Or cheese itself! You'll find these links useful if you're a cheese lover who wants to reform:

• Make your own yummy treats with these 8 Amazing Cheese Recipes
• Or these 9 Amazing Vegan Mac and Cheese Recipes
• See our Vegan Cheese-y Delights category for all kinds of ideas

Eggs. A great substitute for scrambled eggs is a tofu scramble. You simply use crumbled tofu and heat in a frying pan. Kids generally like tofu scramble, especially kids who have been vegan their entire lives. You can spice it up with tomatoes, peppers, onions, or even potatoes and vegan bacon bits.

You can also make a great vegan scrambled from chickpea flour - check out these vegan scrambled eggs for inspiration.

In baked goods, good substitutions for eggs include applesauce, pureed soft tofu, Ener-G egg replacer, a flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax seeds plus 3 tablespoons water or other liquid, blended), or mashed bananas. You'll have to experiment with your recipe to see what works best for you.

In dishes where eggs are usually used for binding (such as meatloaf) you can use oat or soy flour, rolled oats, cooked oatmeal, bread crumbs, instant potato flakes, nut butters, tomato paste, or cornstarch.

Chickpea flour makes amazing omelets, and aquafaba is useful for making recipes that originally call for egg whites, like mousse and meringue. See useful links for these and more:

• Chickpea Flour Omelets
• Aquafaba Recipes from Macarons to Mayo
• Classic Eggless Vegan "Egg" Recipes
• Vegan Baking Substitution Guide
• 5 Egg Replacers That Are Already in Your Kitchen

Beef or chicken stock. Replace beef or chicken stock with vegetable broth. Or use vegetable bouillon cubes.

Butter. There are vegan butters on the market that work well in substituting for butter. Be sure to read the labels because not all margarines are vegan. And sometimes mainstream margarines have questionable ingredients and hydrogenated fats.

You may also want to consider using oils like sunflower or olive instead of vegan butter. If you'd like to go with the major brands, make sure that the palm oil used is Fair Trade, otherwise it's an environmental hazard. And remember that the jury is still out on coconut oil!

Yogurt. Several companies make vegan yogurts that will substitute well in your recipes - soy, coconut, almond - more varieties are coming on the market each year. You can find them in fruit flavors and also plain for cooking and baking.

Sour Cream. Try plain nondairy yogurt, especially if used in making dips. There are also a few commercially available vegan sour creams on the market. Or, you can make your own Vegan Sour Cream using silken tofu. Delicious on all kinds of tortilla specialties and on cold soups like the Borscht shown above.

Mayonnaise. There are a few vegan mayonnaise products on the market. You can use vegan mayonnaise exactly the way you'd use non-vegan mayonnaise. Aquafaba can be used to make a great homemade vegan mayo (shown above from Serious Eats) as well.

Gelatin. If you need to substitute for gelatin in a recipe, use agar flakes or powder. It will thicken as it's heated. Also, there are a couple of companies that make a vegan fruit gelatin product that you should be able to find at your local health food market.

Honey. There are many liquid sweeteners on the market that you can use in your recipes instead of honey. However, they all vary in consistency and sweetness, making substitution a guessing game, at least initially. You may have to experiment with ratios until you figure out what works best in your recipes.

In general, however, maple syrup and agave nectar can be substituted measure for measure in recipes. Other sweeteners that are less sweet than honey include agave syrup, corn syrup, malt syrup, light and dark molasses, and brown rice syrup. Frozen fruit-juice concentrates, sorghum syrup, and concentrated fruit syrups range from being half as sweet to just as sweet as honey.

Sugar. Many vegans do not eat sugar since some brands are refined using bone char from animals. Others object to using sugar simply because it's often full of pesticides, and sugar plantation workers aren't always treated very well.

If you want to replace crystalline sugar in a recipe, here are some alternatives: beet sugar, fructose, natural organic sugar, unbleached cane sugar, turbinado sugar, date sugar, maple crystals, and granulated FruitSource. Some of these sugars dissolve better than others, so again, you'll have to experiment. As in other cases, using organic and fair trade products is the optimal choice.

Chocolate. Many people say they couldn't be vegan if it would mean giving up chocolate, but luckily they don't have to! There are many non-dairy vegan chocolate chips, cocoa powders, and chocolate bars. These are most easily found in the natural foods aisle of your supermarket, and of course, in natural foods stores. Once again, fair trade and organic are best.

Meat. If you want your foods to have a similar taste and texture to meat, you're in luck, because never before have so many companies been making vegan meat substitutes.

Among the products on the market now that will substitute for meat are: veggie deli slices (bologna, ham, turkey, and other flavors), veggie burgers, veggie meatballs, veggie sausage links and patties, veggie bacon, veggie ground "beef," soy chicken patties and nuggets, veggie meatloaf and Salisbury steak, veggie jerky, and whole "turkeys" for Thanksgiving or other holidays.

Check your vegan cookbooks for recipes for foods like "neatloaf," nut roasts, lentil-walnut patés, and other old favorites that traditionally contained animal flesh.

Ice Cream. Along with the proliferation of meat analogues, it's so easy to find vegan ice cream. This industry has grown tremendously. There are vegan ice creams based on soy, rice, nut, and coconut milks, and they're all delicious. Some are high in fat and some are fat-free.

Some are fruity like sorbet, while others are sinfully decadent like butter pecan, peanut butter zig-zag, or peanut caramel. You can also buy vegan ice cream sandwiches, mud pies, and ice cream bars. I've made some great shakes, floats, and malts using vegan ice cream products. Your kids will love them too!

Orignal aritcle ontributed by Erin Pavlina; updated by VegKitchen

Also try: our Favorite Basic Pizza Dough.

• For lots more features on healthy lifestyle, please explore VegKitchen's Healthy Vegan Kitchen page.