Ayurvedic Recipes for Every Dosha
by Eyton J. Shalom, M.S., L.AcMorroccan Beet Salad for Vata Dosha
Here's a Beet Salad for Vata Dosha I learned from my Morrocan friend Edith that I like to make in Autumn and Spring as a side dish with heavier food. Beet are an excellent Vata vegetable as they are easy-to-digest and, like turnip and radish, and excellent digestive...
Ayurvedic Detox Tea for Colds and Flu
When fighting a cold or the flu ramp up your Agni internal fire by drinking a quart a day of Dr. Wickermasinghe's Ayurvedic Detox Tea for Colds and Flu. Yes, the flu and colds are caused by viruses. But nursing is a vital part of medicine. Staying warm, pushing hot...
Vegan Protein for Ulcerative Colitis
Vegan Protein for Ulcerative Colitis and other digestive issues has to be easy to digest and, according to Ayurveda, should not aggravate any of the three doshas. In Ayurveda we call light, easy to digest food that pacifies all three doshas, tridoshic, or Sattvic. A...
Ayurvedic Dandelion Greens for Spring
Ayurvedic Dandelion Greens for Spring are a great cleansing vegetable, excellent year round, but especially good in Spring. They are a wonderful Sattvic food that helps to cleanse the body of the ama dosha that accumulates naturally over the winter months. Green...
Ayurvedic Kitchari
What is Kitchari? Kitchari is a Sattvic, light, easy-to-digest, cleansing, detoxifying food that is excellent once a week, at the change of seasons, or any time you feel like giving your digestive system a break. It is also just a normal one-pot-dish you can have for...
Peppermint and Gotu Kola Ayurvedic Cooling Summer Tea
Peppermint is considered cooling in Chinese Medicine, while Spearmint is a little bit warming. Peppermint’s use in tea is versatile. Gotu Kola/Brahmi/Centella Asiatica is used widely in Ayurvedic medicine for its rejuvenating and calming qualities.
Smoothies for Pitta Dosha
Smoothies for Pitta Dosha People who are Pitta dosha dominant can certainly have more cooling food, as well as raw food that is cooling such as cucumber lettuce and leafy cruciferous veggies sweet fruits coconut flesh, water, and milk milk, butter, ghee And Pitta...
Roasted Garabanzo Cookies
Roasted Garabanzo Cookies are descended, in my brain, from the dry roasted split chickpea (pottu kadalai..பொட்டுக்கடலை) I used to eat when I was a protein starved vegetarian monk in Tamil Nadu, South India, as a youth. Roasted Garabanzo are a favorite snack in South...
Ayurvedic Summer Cabbage Salad with Beet and Onion
Ayurvedic Summer Cabbage Salad with Beet and Onion I am a huge fan of cabbage salad. When I was a strict vegetarian it must have been its hearty quality and chewy texture that appealed. Now that I am an omnivore, I value cabbage both for its delicious, slightly sweet...
Ayurvedic Hibiscus Summer Tea
Ayurvedic Hibiscus Summer Tea is naturally Pitta pacifying. This means its cooling and refreshing in the hot summer months, especially in the late summer Santa Ana conditions here in San Diego with the dry dusty weather. At the same time, because of its slight sour...
Ayurvedic Winter Spice Churna
Ayurvedic Winter Spice Churna are "masalas" (spice mixtures) used to boost immunity by improving digestion and stimulating Agni digestive fire. They are used year round, but can be especially good in Winter and also for Ama/toxin accumulation. They can be tailored to...
Cold Cucumber Avocado Yogurt Soup for Summer: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha
Cold Cucumber Avocado Yogurt Soup for Summer: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha Ingredients 2 cups chopped cucumber, peeled if non-organic 1 cup avocado 1.5 cups plain yoghurt or kefir 1-2 tbsp fresh bell pepper 3-4 tbps fresh cilantro Salt and White Pepper to...
Smoothies for Vata Dosha
Smoothies for Vata Dosha--Part One A reader had this comment recently about Smoothies for Vata Dosha, after reading this article about Raw Veggies or Salad for a Vatta Dominant Person. Are Smoothies Better than Juicing for Vata Dosha? "I see that the key here is to...
Ginger In Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine
Ginger Root: Universal Medicine There are no panaceas in medicine, but if there were going to be one, it would have to be the humble Ginger root. Ginger is called "Vishabhesaj" in Ayurveda, Sanskrit for "universal medicine." That is both because of its wide...
Spices in Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine: Protect Your Agni in Summer
Spices in Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine can be used to preserve what Ayurveda calls Agni--the metabolic fire that is what makes us warm blooded and that is associated with health, strength and vitality. Chinese Medicine calls this physiological fire Yang or...
Pacify Kapha with Curried Baked Cauliflower and Kabocha Squash
In Ayurveda, Kapha Dosha accumulates or increases in everyone in Late Winter and Early Spring. This can be a problem in particular for Kapha dominant types with their moist, unctuous, slow moving, cool bodies. But everyone, regardless of dosha, will want to pacify...
The Nature of Vata Dosha and How to Pacify It
The way to prepare dishes that pacify Vata Dosha is to first understand what Vatta embodies. Vata dosha is the manifestation of Air and Space in our human bodies. Air and Space in its pure state is cold and dry. Air only becomes warm due to the effects of fire from...
Using Spices in Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine to Protect Your Digestive Fire in Summer
In summer we sweat and our yang energy or heat keeps getting dispersed and exhausted. On freezing cold days you feel cold, but on boiling hot days you sweat and become exhausted. In winter in every culture people eat heavy high-calorie foods, but in summer switch to...
Springtime Tea from Somalia with Cardamom and Mint
Food and drink like language and music spreads between cultures without rules. But within any given tradition, within any given culture, its as if there are unspoken rules that govern change; creativity is allowed, but to a point. In the world of food or music, for...
Juiced Watermelon with Lime, Ginger, and Salt
Alternative to Iced Drinks in Hot Weather Protect the Agni/ Yang in Summer: Juiced Watermelon with Lime, Ginger, and Salt The other day was quite hot (for SD!), and I swam at the beach after walking down from the top of Torrey Pines, and got home overheated and...
Summer Raw Beet, Sardine, and Pasta Salad
Summer is a time when even cold dry (Vata) types or cold damp (Kapha) types can have little more raw foods. One of the ways to make raw foods more compatible for cold types with weaker digestive energy (Agni/Spleen Qi) is to have it in small amounts with other foods...
Curried Quinoa Super Food: Pacify Kapha in Late Winter/Early Spring
Curried Quinoa Super Food: Pacify Kapha in Late Winter/Early Spring The ancient grain of the Incas, Quinoa has a delicate, nutty, slightly bitter flavor and the lightest texture of all grains. This combination of bitter taste and light texture make it an ideal grain...
Late Winter Arugala for Kapha
Arugula is one of those green leafy vegetable that is so delicious both raw and cooked. It lends a nutty and spicy taste to other milder greens, and serves as a fine foil for feta cheese, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and dried Turkish apricots (those plump dark...
Baked Butternut Squash and Black Bean Stew
Cooking Methods in Chinese Food Medicine: From Warm to Hot to Very Hot One of the aspects of Food Medicine we pay attention to in Chinese Medicine is the cooking method itself. Each method of cooking adds relative values of heat to the dish being prepared. Steaming...
Kale with Pomegranate Molasses and Cumin
Kale with Pomegranate Molasses and Cumin One of my favorite ways to cook Kale is inspired by the classic Linguine with Broccoli that you find at Southern Italian restaurants. Their method is really simple--olive oil, garlic, lemon, parmesan. I take the olive oil and...
Natural Cranberry Sauce with Dates and Saffron, Low Sugar
It seems silly to buy canned cranberry sauce with a ton of sugar and the bonus of toxic Phtalates, when it is so easy to make it homemade. Takes literally minutes. Boil water, add cranberries and sweetener. Simmer 15 minutes. Voila! Ingredients1 bag cranberries....
Late Autumn/Early Winter Whole Grain n’ Flax Blueberry Pancakes
Rainy Winter Morning Whole Grain Wild Blueberry Pancakes. Rainy winter mornings after long hikes in the San Diego desert make me want pancakes. Good, solid, whole grain ones. The kind that make you feel like you ate food, not syrupy junk. At Trader Joe's the other day...
Lassi: Indian Summer Yogurt Drink: Several Recipes
Lassi is an Indian drink based on yogurt and water, especially drunk in hot dry weather (some people in India do not eat Yogurt much at all during rainy season, as it is considered heavy and building to Kapha, which builds climactic ally during the monsoon. This is...
Lassi Summer Yogurt Drink
Lassi Summer Yogurt Drink is made from blending yogurt, or kefir, with water and spices, or fruit. While many Indians, especially vegetarians, eat yogurt with spiced foods at lunch time, and drink yogurt mixed with water, during the day, year round, it is especially...
Indian Lemonade 2
Years ago when I lived in the small village of Kanadukathan, http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=10.175599&lon=78.7842035&z=16&l=0&m=b in Tamil Nadu, India, I learned from my friend Lakkuman to put Cumin seed in the drinking water. Water is by nature cooling, and there we...
Lime Rose Lemonade for Summer
Lime Rose Lemonade for Summer, made from Lime juice and scented with Rose Water is a very refreshing Ayurvedic drink that's quick and easy. You can enjoy it during any hot weather, in summer or late summer, and anytime your Pitta dosha feels elevated. Lime Rose...
Rose Scented Limeade for Summer
There are so many lovely beverages to enjoy rather than drinking sodas full of phosphoric acid and high fructose corn syrup, linked in studies to lower bone density and diabetes, respecitively. Here is a very refreshing drink you can enjoy in summer that will cool you...
Does Cauliflower Aggravate Vatta? Creamy Coconut Cauliflower Curry for Summer
Does cauliflower aggravate Vatta?The problem with going for an Ayurvedic consultation and being handed a long list of foods that aggravate one or the other of the doshas is, that first, this is a text book list of foods that tend to aggravate, in most people, but not...
Nearly Tridoshic Cucumber Avocado Summer Soup
Cucumber Avocado Summer Soup2 cups chopped cucumber, peeled if non-organic1 cup avocado1.5 cups plain yogurt or kefir1-2 tbsp fresh bell pepper 3-4 tbs fresh cilantroSalt and Pepper to tasteAyurveda This is a lovely creamy cooling summer soup that in Ayurvedic terms...
How to Make Salad or Raw Veggies for a Vatta Dominant Person
In general, people who are Vata dominant should avoid salad or raw vegetables, especially if in an unbalanced, aggravated state. Vatta, unlike Pitta and Kapha, is rough, not smooth. Raw vegetables are also considered rough; they are made "smooth" by cooking. And since...
My Grandmother’s Jewish Spice Cake, Banana Cake, and Potato Latkes
My Grandmother's Jewish Spice Cake (for the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah) Chinese Medicine observes that not only do different foods have difference "natures" (cold, cool, neutral, warm, hot), for example the heat of cinnamon or lamb vs. the coolness of coconut...
Staying Health with the Seasons: Winter
Staying Healthy with the Seasons: WinterHototogisu kata Did a cuckoo cry?Niwa no to akerya I open the doorKoyoi no sora nya And look out in the garden-- Tsuki bakai There is only the moon Translation by Kenneth Rexroth, 1958, from 100 Poems from the Japanese.In the...
Balancing Vata Dosha in Autumn: Avert the Danger that Has Not Yet Come
Balancing Vata Dosha in Autumn is important because Autumn is the time of year when everyone's Vata Dosha elevates quite naturally, due to the windy, dry and cold weather that develops. Psychologically, too, Autumn is the transition from Summer to Winter, there is a...
Staying Healthy with the Seasons: Fall in Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda
Fall, the Hinge Between Summer and Winter In Chinese medicine, Fall and Spring are seen as the "hinges" between Summer and Winter. The seasons are a kind of love dance between heaven and earth. In Summer, Gaia (Mother Earth) opens like a flower, her energies are at...
Rose Water for Elevated Pitta
An elegantly simple herbal remedy for Pitta excess is Rose. Rose is cooling and relaxing; just think of your feelings when smelling a deep red rose on a late June night under the moon. If you have never had that experience, its not too late to start.Walk into any...
Rose Water in Summer
Chill Your Mood: Rose Water in Summer. The Reason for Rose: Pitta Fire in Ayurveda and Liver and Heart Fire in Chinese Medicine Rose water and rose essence has been used for millennia to take the edge off of heat in Summer. Heat in both Ayurveda and Chinese...
Cold Beet Borscht Soup for Summer
Cold Beet Borscht Soup for SummerLet's call this a soup, even though I grew up drinking it out of a glass, and at Yonah Shimmel's Knishery in New York (est.1910) they were still serving it on tap, for $1.25, along with home made Kefir, in little plastic institutional...
Summer Raw Cabbage Salad a.k.a. Cole Slaw
I am a huge fan of cabbage. When I was a strict vegetarian it must have been its hearty quality and chewy texture that appealed. Now that I am an omnivore, I value cabbage both for its delicious, slightly sweet taste, and its high fiber low calorie ratio. In fact...
Raw Beet Salad Morrocan and Provencal Styles
Raw Beet Salad is super high in betacyanin, a phyto-nutrient associated with their deep red color. Unfortunately, according to what I have read, this anti-cancer chemical is destroyed by cooking. How To Include Raw Beets Into Salads Though Ayurveda and Chinese...
Cabbage Super Food: Cabbage ‘n Apple Salad Recipe with Nutrition Information
Cabbage Super Food We are having a bit of a hot and dry spell here in San Diego, what is dubbed a "Santa Ana" condition, where the wind comes out of the eastern desert, and the humidity drops to the low 20's. The air temp is 81. It all makes me want to eat salad. And...
Warming Baked Root and Squash Stew: Vegan or Not
One of the things we look at in Chinese Dietary Therapy is, what are the effects of particular cooking styles on the "energetic" quality of the food; here energy refers to the warming characteristics of the dish. Whereas steaming and quick boiling are mild, and...
Beet Root and Daikon Winter Rice Pullao
Winter makes me want to cook, and brings out my love of warming spices. Today I wanted rice and vegetables, and all I had in the house was a large red beet-root, and a daikon radish. So I made Beetroot and Radish Pulao, a really simple and delicious dish. Vegetables...
Baked Roots and Squash Stew: Vegan or Non-Vegan
This is an excellent warming slightly sweet slightly spicy stew that can be made purely vegan, or in a traditional mid-eastern style with ground beef or lamb. Making it with meat is more warming and tonifying, suitable for Vata, but unnecesary for Kapha, or Pitta...
Teff n’ Quinoa Gluten Free Pancakes Recipe
Teff n' Quinoa Gluten Free Vegan Pancakes Recipe Autumn and Winter are ideal times for the warming, grounding quality of of pancakes. But why use pre-packaged, over-salted, sugary, low-fiber pancake mixes whose pre-ground grains may or may not be fresh, when...
Winter Barley & Bean Tridoshic Vegan Stew
Barley and Bean Stew is a great addition to your vegan diet in Winter. In Ayurveda, this is an example of how to make a dish more Tridoshic, by including all the 6 tastes. Ingredients Barley, 3/4 Cup, Cooked till Soft Pinto Beans, 1 Cup, Cooked One Head Beet...
Vegan Nopalitos (Cactus Leaves) with Tofu, Shitake, and Dill
Many people are very concerned with cleansing and "toxins". Right now Whole Foods has a gigantic post-holiday display across from the dairy aisle with all the ingredients for a radical purgative cleanse. But if people ate a balanced diet, they would not need military...
Immunity Boosting Foods in Ayurveda
Immunity Boosting Foods Immunity boosting foods are those that are full of Prana-- freshly made and well prepared, organic, easy to digest, and pure. Tailored to our individual body-mind type (prakruti), age, and the season, they fill the body with Prana...