Ayurveda Cooking

Healthy Ayurveda Cooking

If you have an organized kitchen and your ingredients handy, cooking an ayurvedic meal can be simple and fun, taking about 15 minutes to prepare and 20-25 minutes to cook.

Your kitchen should have the following staple ingredients on hand:split mung beans, basmati rice and/or other whole grains such as barley, quinoa, or couscous, ghee or olive oil, spices such as ginger, cumin, coriander, and turmeric, the freshest vegetables you can get, yogurt, wheat flour and a pre-made chutney.

To save time, have spices appropriate to your needs for balance pre-mixed in a container or have handy some Maharishi Ayurveda spice mixtures such as Vata, Pitta, or Kapha. Keep your beans and grains in glass jars for easy measuring.

Split mung dahl or moong dahl are the green whole mung beans that have been split and the green skins removed. Split mung is the easiest to digest of all the beans and is balancing for all the doshas. It provides protein and the astringent taste. Ayurveda recommends that you try to include all six tastes in a meal - sweet, salty, sour, astringent, bitter, and pungent. If you are on a diet to pacify a specific dosha, it is still good to include all six tastes, focusing on the ones related to the specific dosha and taking less of the other ones. For example, a person trying to reduce pitta would include more of the sweet, bitter and astringent tastes and less of the pungent, sour and salty tastes.

Basmati rice is considered to be a highly beneficial grain according to ayurveda. It is balancing for all the doshas, however, eating it every day is not recommended because it is a little heavy. People with a kapha imbalance can dry-roast the grain before adding the water for cooking as this will make it a bit lighter.

Quinoa, barley or couscous can be used for the grains portion of the meal as well. Quinoa has high protein content and is delicious and fast cooking.

As your beans and grains are cooking, start preparing the vegetables. Vegetables should constitute a substantial portion of your meal and it's good to have at least two different vegetables at each meal - such as carrots and broccoli, or cauliflower and green beans. Dark leafy greens such as kale, spinach, or collard greens can be added to the vegetable dish or prepared separately. Dark leafy greens have minerals that other vegetables do not have and it is important to eat them several times per week or even every day if available. You will notice increased benefits from including them in you diet on a regular basis.

According to ayurveda, the best way to cook vegetables is to sauté them in ghee with spices. By first sautéing the spices in ghee the volatile oils of the spices are drawn out into the ghee. These spices have therapeutic value. Turmeric, for example, has been found to be an antioxidant, and other spices such as cumin and coriander help with digestion and assimilation. The spices cook into the vegetables and act as carriers, transferring nutrition from the vegetables into the bloodstream as we consume them. They also make the food taste aromatic and delicious.

First gently fry the spices in the ghee, taking care not to burn them. Add the chopped raw vegetables to the spice mixture and stir so that all the spices are mixed with the vegetables. Add a couple of spoonfuls of water to prevent sticking. Cover and cook on low heat until the vegetables are well cooked. Not mushy, but just "fork friendly". Add salt to taste at the end and some fresh cilantro leaves for garnish.

Ghee is considered a beneficial oil in ayurveda. According to traditional ayurvedic texts, it is a rasayana, good for overall well-being and longevity. Modern research shows that it is an antioxidant and contains beta-carotene. Since the milk solids have been removed, ghee does not spoil easily like vegetable oils do. If you are on a weight loss program, limit your intake of ghee or oil to judicious amounts.

The dahl should be spiced using the same process of sautéing the spices in the ghee first. But the ghee-spice mixture should be added to the dahl at the end, when the dahl is finished cooking. (See recipe)

Lassi (yogurt drink) is a digestive aid for the afternoon meal. (It is not recommended in the evening.) Sweet lassi is a drink made from fresh yogurt, water, rose water, and sweetener. Fresh organic yogurt is full of fresh lactobacilli, necessary for a well-functioning digestive tract. When made into a drink it is useful to reduce bloating and allows the digestion of the lunch to be smoother. Plus it adds nutrition and the sweet taste. It is worthwhile getting a yogurt maker to make your own yogurt. The yogurt purchased from grocery stores is sour and does not contain the lively bacteria freshly made yogurt does.

Chapatis, or flatbreads add the sweet taste. They are made from wheat flour and are energy-enhancing foods. They are time consuming to make at home but if you can invest the time and the effort they are worth it because they taste much better than store-bought ones. You can purchase organic chapatis at most health food stores if time does not allow the homemade ones. However, if you do buy them readymade make sure you heat them before serving.

Chutneys are usually combinations of spices and cooked fruits. They aid in digestion and add variety, taste and interest to the meal. Keep a few of them stocked in your refrigerator to add some quick variety to your meals.

With practice, a meal that includes grains, beans or lentils, vegetables and the yogurt drink should only take about 15 minutes to prepare and about 25 minutes to cook. You will enjoy a home-cooked ayurvedic meal that is wholesome, nutritious, balanced and fresh.


DIGESTION

Maharishi Ayurveda provides simple solutions to these common complaints by considering not only what we eat but how we consume our meals. For example, how many times have you seen someone munching on a sandwich while driving through traffic? How many times have we caught a bite to eat at our workstation because we could not take the time to have a proper lunch?

Our bodies need an uplifting and settled environment in order to process and absorb the nutrients from our meals. If that is not available then we should at least be sitting down to eat -- not standing, walking, or driving our way through a meal.

The act of eating is life-giving. The process of eating, according to ayurveda, is something reverent and important for the development of consciousness as well as our physical health. When we sit down to eat our stomach is in a relaxed posture and our awareness is on the taste, texture, and smell of the food. This will greatly improve the digestion.

Another way to improve the digestion is to stimulate the agni or digestive fire before we begin eating. Weak digestive agni may result in fatigue after eating so Ayurveda recommends eating a 1-inch piece of fresh ginger with a few drops of lemon juice and a few pinches of salt on it before a full meal. This starts to activate the salivary glands, producing the necessary enzymes so that the nutrients in the food are easily absorbed by the body.

Balancing your digestive agni is a key principle in Ayurvedic medicine. That's why ayurveda recommends a number of general practices for better digestion. Digestive agni can be compared to a burning fire. If the flame is very low than it will take a long time to cook the food. In the same way if the fire is too big it can burn the food. If we put a huge log on a low fire it will extinguish it. Our digestive fires should be balanced so that we can digest our meals efficiently and smoothly.

The ginger and lemon juice recommendation helps to increase the digestive power. If, however you suffer from an over-active agni, because of which there is too much internal heat and acid, then pomegranate chutney may be more suitable for you.

The next ayurvedic recommendation also addresses agni. Ayurveda recommends avoiding cold drinks at meals and ice cold foods in general. This is like putting cold water on the burning logs. Iced water, normally served at restaurants, extinguishes the digestive fire. Even juice or milk right out of the refrigerator is too cold for the digestion. Juice should be taken at room temperature and water without ice. Once you get into this habit of drinking beverages at room temperature you will notice a dramatic improvement in your digestion and the way your body feels while eating and after the meal. Cold drinks and foods mixed with warm cooked foods can cause stomach cramps, bloating and general discomfort in the stomach area.

If you have a pitta imbalance you can take cool drinks in-between meals. Cold or frozen foods are not recommended for pitta either because even though they may temporarily cool down the heat, the agni is still being over stimulated and the imbalance will continue. Try slightly cool drinks made with rose water, or milk blended with dates or fresh mangos. The next recommendation has to with the time of the day that you eat your meals. Have you ever gone out for a late dinner and found that it was a strain to wake up the next morning or that it was difficult to be efficient during the following day? These are often the side effects of improperly digested food. The best way to avoid these problems is to follow nature's prescription of suitable times to eat. When the sun is strongest between 12 and 2 p.m. is when the digestive fire is also strongest. Agni is associated with the Sun. This is one of the ways ayurveda seeks to connect our mind and body with the environment. Ayurveda recommends that lunch be the largest meal of the day since that is the time the digestive agni is working at its maximum potency. As the sun goes down so does our agni.

Dinner should be lighter than lunch and should ideally be eaten before 8:00 p.m. Late night meals interfere with sleep and after 10:00 p.m. the body is working to burn off toxins and continue to digest food from the day. If you eat after 10:00 p.m., the food may cause toxins to accumulate in the system, and as a result the next day you wake up tired. If you are not able to wake up fresh and clear, then it is important to analyze the quantity of food and the time of night you are eating dinner. Another ayurvedic tip for digestion is to drink a fresh yogurt drink called Lassi either during or after the meal. This drink consists of 1/4 cup fresh homemade yogurt, 1 cup room temperature water and sugar to taste. Blend it for one minute in the blender. Lassi is light and contains lactobacilli, necessary bacteria that lubricate the intestines to help digestion go smoothly. Lassi drinks help to reduce gas and bloating. They also taste delicious and can make a meal more satisfying and nutritious.

There are many recipes for Lassi. The following one is good for warding off gas and bloating:

* 1 cup room temperature water
* 1/4 fresh homemade yogurt
* 1 pinch ground ginger
* 1 pinch ground cumin
* 1 pinch ground coriander
* 1 pinch salt

Blend for one minute. Drink after lunch.

Quick Review of Recommendations for Good Digestion:

1. Eat sitting down, in a settled environment, without the TV on.

2. Eat a fresh piece of ginger and lemon before a full meal or (pomegranate chutney to balance Pitta).

3. Drink lassi with or after lunch.

4. Avoid ice cold drinks and food.

5. Lunch should be the biggest meal of the day. Dinner should be lighter and eaten before 8:00 p.m.