Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food. ~ Hippocrates
And let it be tasty and thy find it yummy. ~ Me
There is no “Ayurvedic” food. There is no food that is not “Ayurvedic.” There are simply substances, including food, that we can describe or understand using Ayurvedic principles. For example, we can describe the part-food, part-medicine dish, “kitcheri” as being light, slightly sharp, warming, slightly oily, smooth and containing at least a little of each of the six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent. In the same way, if we apply Ayurvedic principles to describe a fast food hamburger, we would say it is heavy, dull, warming, oily, dense, stabilizing, sweet, salty, sour and slightly pungent. Ice cream would be heavy, dull, cool, oily, smooth, dense, soft, stabilizing, gross (as opposed to subtle) and sticky.
We learn in Ayurveda that there are no universally and inherently “good” foods or “bad” foods. The old saying, “one man’s meat is another man’s poison” finds acceptance in Ayurvedic philosophy. Ayurvedic classics teach us that there is no substance on earth that cannot act as a medicine in certain situations. We simply must understand the qualities of the substance and the person, in order to understand how it is likely to affect them.
It can take a while, naturally, to become proficient at this kind of analysis. If you are new to this kind of thinking, you could read Part III of Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life to get started. Then you can take things further by learning about your constitution and current condition. You can have a quick introduction to understanding your constitution by reading “Your Ayurvedic Constitution.” You can consider your current condition by taking Banyan Botanical’s online questionnaire. If you want to go deeper you can take a beginning ayurveda online course
If you just want to try some recipes, browse away. I’m looking to present recipes here that can work for most people, or that can be adapted for most people. I’ll include a little blurb with each recipe that gives a bit of information about who the dish might work best for. Hope you enjoy…
Whether you turn this into burgers or a loaf, either are delicious to eat alone, with a bun with condiments, broken up and added to spaghetti sauce or added to other dishes in creative ways. They are nice on a plate, with a side of......
This is predominantly sweet, and astringent with enough spice to help it digest well. Balanced for any doṣa, especially nice in the late fall, winter and early spring. I’ve never had chicken noodle soup but I remember my mother saying, after she became vegetarian, that......
Many, many recipes call for sautéing onions or garlic as a primary step in the recipe. If you have certain kinds (kapha, pitta or āma types) of heart disease, or high pitta or kapha, or it is springtime (a time that tends to increase kapha)......
The more complicated or stressful one’s physical or emotional life, or life in general, the more beneficial it is to have a simple diet. That’s something I’ve held as generally true for a long time. Change of seasons is a stressful time on the body.......
This has been one of my favorite soups for decades. I’ve had this soup in both very remote and very populated spots in Russia, and in a fairly remote diner in Ukraine. I’ve had it made many different ways. I like them all. This might......
This simple dal is surprisingly tasty. It’s quick. It’s tridoṣic. It’s one of my favorites. I originally titled this, “simple dal” until one friend who does not, shall we say, cook a LOT, exclaimed that it was NOT simple, since he didn’t have all the......
When I lived in India I was once served a dish that this one tries to approach. While I’ve always loved dill, I had never had had it as a cooked vegetable— I mean as a main ingredient cooked vegetable. The potatoes in the dish......
I think this is suitable for all doshas. The ghee, oil or butter, onions and ginger make the cold, somewhat hard to digest tofu easier for Vata to digest, the onions and spices help kapha digest it and the ghee and tofu provide counterpoint to......
This is one of my favorite hearty, sweet, hot drinks. It is grounding and earthy, like coffee, without the sharpness or stimulation. Raw cacao is not roasted, so not as sharp or quite as warming as roasted cacao. It feels nourishing and is delicious. I......
(As made by the incomparable Luz) This was one of the best gifts I brought back from Colombia many years ago. It is pretty tridoshically balanced. Just avoid it if kapha is ever really high. In that case you can make it with water instead......
In Ayurveda, things that we ingest are divided into three categories: Poison Medicine Neutral Poison is defined as anything that hinders digestion. Medicine is considered to be anything that we ingest that aids the digestive process. Neutral is anything we ingest that gives support and......
Heat one pound of unsalted organic butter over low heat in a heavy-bottomed pot. During this entire process, do not stir butter at all. The butter will begin to simmer and will make a little crackling noise. After about 15-20 minutes, there will be a......
In Chinese medicine we would say this soup would “awaken the Spleen” and, “ward off OPIs–that’s “outside pernicious influences” or, er, germs) In Ayurveda we would have to say this soup is Kapha-pacifying, Vata-pacifying as long as it is not too spicy and would tend to increase......