Disclaimer :: If you feel you are coming down with the flu, please be sure to seek medical advice.
Did Santa bring you an Instant Pot for Christmas? I must have been on the nice list this year because there was one under my tree!
As we are in the midst of what seems like the worst cold and flu season in ages, I decided the first thing I would make in my Instant Pot would be Elderberry Syrup. I am by no means a “crunchy” mom, I’m just a mom who doesn’t want her family to get sick and will do just about any ole natural remedy to keep them well. I had heard about the immune boosting properties of elderberries especially for cold + flu season, so I started my family taking Emerge’s Elderberry Tonic as a precaution, but I wanted a more cost effective option that I knew would be readily available (This stuff flies out of the coolers of Tribe Collective!) once the inevitable happened – one of us catches the flu.
I write this, as I am lying in bed for the third day with type A flu, but feeling much better than two days prior, due to having this homemade Elderberry Syrup on hand? Possibly so! Has it helped to keep the other members of my family well? Maybe so! In any event, it was easy to make and had the house smelling wonderful as well – all pluses in my book! So I’m sharing with you mommas…(not the flu, the recipe)
Recipe Credit :: Brooke Bell from Alisa Pot Recipes
Elderberry Syrup Ingredients:
1 Cup Organic Dried Elderberries (I sourced mine locally from The Natural Path.)
3 ½ Cups Filtered Water
2T Freshly Grated Organic Ginger
1T Ground Cloves
1 Cinnamon Stick*
Juice from ½ of an Organic Lemon
½ Cup Raw Honey* (I used ¼ Cup of Manuka Honey from The Natural Path and ¼ Cup Bernard’s Local Honey – each for their own added health benefits.)
*Note: If you are planning on giving your 1 year old and under kiddos this elderberry syrup then you will want to substitute the honey with maple syrup and leave out the cinnamon.
Easy Elderberry Syrup for the Instant Pot Beginner Directions:
- Add all the ingredients EXCEPT the honey and lemon juice to your Instant Pot. Secure and lock the IP lid in place.
- Make sure the pressure release valve is closed.
- Set to Manual for 20 minutes.
- When done, allow the IP to naturally depressurize.
- Strain off and discard the elderberries, ginger, and spices.
- Allow to completely cool before stirring in honey and lemon juice. (You don’t want the honey’s natural enzymes to be killed off from the heat.)
- When cool, add lemon juice and honey. (I found that you could add an additional ½ cup of honey if you prefer a sweeter “syrup.” My kiddos do not like super sweet tastes so I opted to follow the recipe’s suggested ½ cup. Just be aware that the overall mixture will be thinner than typical “syrup.”)
- Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.
Elderberry Syrup Dosage:
Please consult your physician before administering to your family, of course. My family’s standard daily dosage looks like this:
- Adults: 1 Tablespoon as a preventative
- Children: 1/2 to 1 Teaspoon as a preventative
Since I am currently a sick adult, I am upping my dose to ½- 1 Tablespoon about every 3 hours or so.
Elderberry Syrup Cost:
For those of you asking, “Is the syrup worth the squeeze?” or “Is the cost hard to swallow?” Here’s the breakdown for my locally sourced ingredients:
- 1 cup Organic Dried Elderberries = $7.36
- 1 jar Manuka Honey = $18.99 (used ½ a jar for the recipe= $9.50)
- 1 Organic Ginger = $1.00 (grated ¼ for the recipe= $.25)
- 1 jar Ground Cloves = $4.94 (used ¼ a jar for the recipe= $1.24)
- 1 jar Cinnamon Sticks = $4.98 (used 1 of 5 for the recipe= $1.00)
- 1 Organic Lemon = $.50 (used juice form ½ for the recipe= $.25)
Total cost for the 1st batch= $19.60
One batch yields approx. 4 cups of elderberry syrup, that’s enough for our family of 4 to take preventatively for 3 weeks. I’m not the best at math but that works out to less than $1 a day! And if you think about it, the total cost for the 2nd batch would only be $7.36 – the cost of the elderberries! Everything else you will have on hand, ready to go. Woo Hoo! Saving Dollas for the Mommas! Feeling crazy? Go ahead and make a double batch from the get go!
Alternative Cooking Method:
You can surely make this Elderberry Syrup on the stove if you were on the naughty list and did not receive an Instant Pot for Christmas. It will just take a bit of babysitting the ingredients at a simmer for approx. 40-45 minutes and this momma just doesn’t have the time for that! From start to finish as a first time Instant Pot user (who had to read the manual, of course), this recipe took me under an hour from unboxing my IP to placing the canned syrup in the fridge!
