How My Parents' Herbal Cure-All Soothes Me to Sleep

Food is medicine in my Sri Lankan home. My parents infused their love and care for me and my sister into the food they cooked. Thaththa, my father, plated spicy sambals to comfort us during drowsy, sluggish sick days. Amma, my mother, blended leafy greens with coconut milk and cooked rice for warm glasses of kola kenda, a traditional herbal gruel we enjoyed most mornings.

This quintessentially Sri Lankan cure-all has its roots tied to the island’s Tamil community. When the pandemic began, most Sri Lankans I knew brewed koththamalli and gulped it down every morning and night to boost immunity. As for me, I was looking for a caffeine-free nighttime drink, which is how this humble home remedy of my childhood became my go-to soothing bedtime tea.

Koththamalli literally translates to “coriander,” but we use more than just coriander when brewing it. The most common recipes of koththamalli includelike dried coriander seeds, ginger, black pepper, and cinnamon. My father also adds a few cloves of peeled garlic to help fight cold symptoms, though for my bedtime concoction I tend to skip that step.

Whenever I was ill as a kid, I despised the slightly bitter taste of koththamalli. So my thaththa mixed spoonfuls of sugar into it , and sometimes brought me a chunk of kithul palm jaggery to have with it. Now in my 20s, I’ve come to love koththamalli’s slight bitterness, but I can confidently endorse my thaththa’s sweetened version too.in a colander before roasting them in a dry frying pan over medium-low heat for about five minutes, until seeds are dark brown.

Good article and that picture is SO beautiful!!!! Good thing for me I'm about to sip my own tea ☕ right NOW!!! ☺️🌺💗

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