Hey y'all welcome back to Make It Dairy Free . I'm Larisha and today we are talking about
vegan elderberry syrup now we know this isn't a traditional recipe that we would normally share
however this year isn't a traditional year by any means either i'm going to talk about a few
important things about elderberry and also why we thought this video was important for us to
do today but also there's going to be a ton more information in the blog post so make sure that you
check that out it's linked in the description first i want to be upfront and say that i
nor we are any type of medical professionals so this is strictly educational purposes only and
if you need medical advice we strongly recommend you consulting your doctor now that that's out
of the way let's talk about these elderberries for those of you who aren't aware elderberries
are these really tiny dark little purple berries that are grown on bushes for literally basically
forever it's been a few centuries now they have two times the amount of vitamin c that oranges
do and they have three times the amount of antioxidants as blueberries and they are
most commonly used as a way to increase your immune system elderberries have been used as a
healing property in native and folk medicine forever now and now it is finally becoming
more mainstream in western cultures as well our family personally tries to take a more natural
approach to medicine and so we are constantly looking up different ways to use more natural
medicines and herbs and stuff in our own lives and so we have been using elderberries for about
five or six years now when taken daily during cold and flu season it is shown to reduce or limit the
onset or the severity of either a cold or a flu so the elderberry syrup is made by either using
fresh frozen or dried berries like we're going to use in this video and then a few other ingredients
and then a sweetener traditionally raw honey is used because it also has some medicinal properties
however we are vegan so we wanted a vegan way to sweeten our elderberry syrup so
when we were doing some research about this when we were ready to make a vegan version
we saw that a lot of websites used maple syrup in replace of the honey however it is really hard
to find a pure maple syrup and that's what you would want for elderberry syrup and so instead
we are going to be showing you guys how to make a natural date syrup we want to show you guys how
to make your own date syrup here because we want to keep the fiber in it and keep it as close to
the natural form as possible dates themselves are high in antioxidants and studies have also
shown that they can help with colds and coughs as well all right so i think we covered exactly what
elderberry syrup is and what we are going to do to make ours so let's show you exactly how to do it
all right the first thing that we're going to do is show you how we make our date syrup
first we are going to pit all of our dates you can use pre-pitted or even chopped dates if
you want just make sure there's no additives you just want it to be dates for the only ingredient
once you have all the pits removed you are going to add your dates into a bowl and then
pour boiling hot water over them in order to soak and soften make sure to push them under the water
so it's completely soaking after 30 minutes you're going to drain them and add just the dates
to a blender along with some new water and blend it up until it is smooth for about two minutes
what you are left with is a pure form of date syrup at its most simplest form we would highly
recommend doing it this way other than buying date syrup at the store now we're going to
make our elderberry syrup you can do this on the stove or in it instapot like we're showing here
add water dried elderberries or you could do fresh or frozen fresh ginger cinnamon sticks
and whole cloves you could do dried cinnamon and cloves but we definitely suggest a fresh ginger
give it a stir together and then you are going to add your lid seal the valve and cook on high
pressure for 15 minutes when it's done let the pressure naturally release for 15 minutes then
quick release for the rest of the pressure open your lid and give it a stir together
let this cool for just a few minutes and then you are going to strain the mixture
over a large measuring cup or a bowl slowly add the mixture into your sieve doing it in batches if
you need use the back of a spoon to push down on the mixture to get as much juice out as possible
you could reuse this mixture once to make a tea but otherwise it should just go into your compost
once you have all the mixture strained and pushed out you are going to add in some lemon juice and
some of the date syrup and then whisk together let your mixture cool completely and then store
it in an airtight container properly cooked and stored elderberry syrup can last for three to six
months in the fridge a recommended dosage is one tablespoon for adults and one teaspoon for kids
daily during cold and flu season doubling the dosage daily if it appears needed we hope you
guys love this type of video please subscribe if you aren't already and give this video a thumbs up
add a comment below with your thoughts make sure to check out the blog post in the description for
more information about elderberry syrup have a great day and remember to smile