Looking for a healthy, homegrown breakfast for cold and flu season? How about immune boosting hash browns with garlic, onion and a super secret weapon?
To learn more about how to grow and use your own immune-boosting herbs, be sure to check out our book, Herbs in the Bathtub. Learn to grow herbs wherever you are!
Immune Boosting Breakfast
One of our favorite breakfasts is homemade hash browns with homemade ketchup, preferably with homegrown ingredients like garlic and potatoes. Little do my wee munchers know, but those hash browns are powerhouses of vitamins and immune boosting properties. I stuff them full of hidden mom-ingredients while their backs are turned and we eat them all winter to ward off the germs.
These really are hash browns with attitude, which I suppose technically makes them Latkes. Here’s the recipe for immune boosting hash browns so you, too, can be all healthy and stuff.
Immune Boosting Hash Browns
Immune Boosting Hash Browns
Ingredients
- 5 Medium-sized potatoes, grated
- 2 Eggs, fresh
- 3 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 Small onion, finely chopped
- 1/8 tsp Turmeric or more to taste
- Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Grate the potatoes into a colander so the water and starch can drain out; you can put a plate as a weight on top of the potatoes to speed up the process.
- Transfer the potatoes to a mixing bowl and mix them and the rest of the ingredients with a large spoon.
- Meanwhile, heat a nice chunk of coconut oil or a generous amount of olive oil in your best frying pan.
- When the oil is hot, put a large dollop of the potato mix and smoosh it flat.
- Fry the hash browns about five minutes on each side until the potatoes are soft, opaque and browned on each side.
- Serve immediately with homemade ketchup or barbecue sauce.
Notes
Even More Immune Boosting
Of course you can mix it up with other immune boosting items added to this recipe. Pretty much any herb, especially if its fresh, will help your body ward off germs – that’s why I love herbs! Rosemary, thyme and oregano would all be helpful. Although a hash brown is a savory thing, a dash of nutmeg would not be taken amiss here. You can also make your own Golden Curry Blend with this recipe from Nitty Gritty Life.
You can top with a raw, cultured dairy like kefir cheese or sour cream and boost your body’s level of healthy fat and probiotics. Grate some carrots or dice some kale or powder some dehydrated garden tomatoes and add handfuls to your immune boosting hash brown mix. More veggies = fewer sick days!
Here are other ideas for Immune Boosting Foods from Healthy Green Savvy – if you’re not a big potato eater, try these ideas.
Here are Five Natural Ways to Stay Healthy from These Lovely Acres.
Cinnamon Honey Remedy for Coughs from Pistachio Project – cinnamon is a fantastic herb! Ginger is a great one, too, and here’s a post on Ginger Herbal Remedies from Pixie’s Pocket. We use a lot of medicinal foods without thinking much about it.
If you are sick, though, here are 10 immune boosting teas from The Herbal Academy – click here. Or, click below to take one of their fine online courses. There are so many to chose from, for every level of student from beginner to practicing herbalist.
To see how we harvest our homegrown garlic, just visit this post. I really suggest you try growing some garlic – it’s NOT hard to do at all. To see if it’s for you, visit this post from Grow a Good Life.
How do you use your food as medicine? Do your kids bust you or are they pretty happy to eat whatever?
That’s how we made hashbrowns! minus the eggs, as we put them on top, but neat! I never thought of them as immune system building 🙂
Do you scramble the eggs, fry them? I’m intrigued! Eggs are probably my favorite food.
We usually make the hash browns in our cast iron pan to crisp up the outside, then they go in the oven while we poach some eggs to go on top 🙂
I so need to use my cast iron! I just keep not doing it but you’re smart to put them in there to get the potatoes to crisp. Mine need to be seasoned big time and I’m just a wuss about getting it done! Ooooh, I love poached eggs; now you’ve given me an idea!
What recipe do you use for homemade ketchup?
Ah, excellent question! I have a post half finished on the subject but you can go to Nourishing Joy’s website and purchase the e-book from which I got the recipe. There are others online. Homemade is just simply so delicious. Mustard, ketchup, salad dressing, etc – they all were created to help us digest our food. We took them, added corn syrup and “natural flavors” made from bugs and beaver butts and turned them into garbage. I love making my own!
https://nourishingjoy.com/restocking-the-pantry/
What a great idea… I never though of adding onions or garlic, and I have been trying to think of ways of adding more turmeric to my diet!
We have potatoes (next to scrambled eggs) almost every morning for breakfast… but I usually do home fries because hash browns take too much time (I think) for a weekday morning.
Maybe I’ll toss some onions and garlic in with the potatoes tomorrow and give these a try over the weekend!
~ Christine
You could add all the same thing to home fries! You’re right about time (I hate grating anything!) but we homeschool so we can take it a little easier in the morning. Love your sweet site – was happy to like it on FB!
Another great recipe! I love the idea of adding the herbs a great extra touch. Visiting from Real Food Friday and co-host. Sharing on twitter & pinning. Have a wonderful healthy day!
I have teens, if they have an issue they come asking mom what do you have for this. We do all things natural, and they appreciate that fact, thanks for sharing again on Real Food Fridays, turmeric in hash browns hmmmm.
I love hash browns and rosti, but I’d never thought of putting turmeric in them. What a genius idea! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Certainly! Thank you for stopping by! I try to sneak turmeric into foods as often as possible. I’m slowly building up my kids’ tolerance for spicy stuff so I can eat curry as often as I want to – ha!
What a great recipe! Pinning!
Thanks so much for stopping by! I like medicine that masquerades as candy. 🙂