Last year I spent time in Kerala, India, where I studied Ayurvedic practices and philosophy and did a hands-on Ayurvedic cooking and nutrition course, which was absolutely wonderful and very eye-opening. Ayurveda is an ancient healing system, originating in India, that takes a holistic approach to feeling well and living in harmony with yourself and your surroundings.
Holistically speaking, Ayurveda is a union of the mind, body, senses and soul. Through nutrition, yoga and meditation, it focuses on treating the individual as a whole rather than just a specific issue or disease, so that you can achieve balance and good health — not only in your physical body but also in your mind and spirit.
Ayurvedic practice has three main objectives: to prevent disease, to encourage wellbeing and to promote longevity. These objectives are reached by applying four healing modalities to your life: eating nourishing food, engaging in cleansing and detoxification processes to purify the body, administering warm oil massages to eliminate energetic blockages in the body and practising yoga poses and meditation to create physical and emotional transformations.
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By considering all the elements that make up your life, Ayurveda uncovers the root cause of illness to bring your body back into balance, and helps you understand yourself more fully. Through listening to your body and becoming aware of how to prevent disease and repair it, you can become your own best teacher and the architect of your future wellness.
When it comes to eating and cooking, one of the big attractions of Ayurveda is that recipes involve simple ingredients that are grown and picked in tune with the seasons, which makes them full of flavour and undeniably satisfying. Ayurveda emphasises freshly prepared, Earth-based foods, and meals are based on the six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent.
Food is central to Ayurvedic medicine; its nutritional wisdom quite literally rests on the tip of your tongue. Your taste buds not only identify and discriminate between the flavour hits you encounter when you eat, they also unlock the nutritive value of foods and kickstart the entire digestive process.
One of the principles of Ayurveda is that any substance with which your body comes into contact will either aggravate or pacify your dosha. Doshas are energies that circulate around your body and govern physiological activity; they also determine your individual temperament and specific physical characteristics.
There are three doshas — vata, pitta and kapha — and they’re made up of the five elements that constitute our natures: air, water, fire, earth and ether. When doshas are out of whack, they can cause physical and mental disorders, so finding your dominant dosha and keeping it in balance is the key to maintaining your overall health. An Ayurvedic approach to eating includes choosing foods with qualities that are the opposite of your doshic imbalance in order to create harmony and health.
Following are three Ayurvedic autumnal recipes from my latest book Eat Right for Your Shape, in which I talk about how to discover your principal dosha and what to eat to bring your body back into balance.
Broccoli Bhajis
Perfect for Pitta dosha
Serves 4
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Fragrant Fish Stew
Good for kapha dosha
Serves 4
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Chocolate Fudge
Good for vata dosha
Makes 15 pieces
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Servings
Prep time
Cook time
Recipe
Ingredients
- 300g besan (chickpea) flour
- 2 tbsp brown rice flour
- Pinch bicarb soda (baking soda)
- Himalayan salt, to taste
- 500mL filtered water
- Extra-virgin coconut oil, for shallow-frying
- 120g broccoli florets
Method
- Sift the flours, bicarb soda and salt into a medium bowl. Gradually add the water, stirring well to avoid lumps. The mixture should have a smooth, paste-like consistency.
- Heat some coconut oil (about 4cm deep) in a medium, heavy-based saucepan over medium–high heat. Once the oil is hot (a small broccoli floret should sizzle and float), working in batches, dip the broccoli florets in the batter to coat well. Drop into the pan and cook until crisp on all sides. Lay on paper towel to drain off any excess oil while you cook the next batch.
- Serve warm with chia jam and carrot and beetroot raita (you’ll find the recipes in my book, Eat Right for Your Shape).
Tried this recipe? Mention @wellbeing_magazine or tag #wbrecipe!
