The Yogic Kitchen

Yogic Kitchen

Jody Vassallo

IMPORTANT NOTE:

While this book is intended as a general information resource it is not a substitute for advice, diagnosis or treatment by a qualified medical practitioner. It is not meant to cover all possible precautions, drug interactions, circumstances or adverse effects. You should seek prompt medical care for any health issues and consult your doctor before using alternative therapies or making a change to your regimen. Any views or opinions expressed in this book by the author are their own. The author and publisher cannot be held responsible for any claim or action that may arise from reliance on the information contained in this book.

Contents

1  What is a yogic kitchen?

2  Using this book

3  Which dosha are you?

4  The doshas

5  Balancing the doshas

6  The Ayurvedic approach to health

7  Circadian rhythms and daily routine

8  Vata recipes Breakfast Papaya frushie Banana blueberry pancakes Coconut chia porridge Vegan pumpkin bread with spiced walnuts Haloumi pumpkin omelette Pumpkin, tahini and maple smoothie Ghee-baked fruit Eggs with avocado, grains and seeds Avocado toast 3 ways Fragrant vanilla and honey macca cream with berry puree Lunch Avocado with lentils and nori Roasted whole sweet potato topped with herbed dhal Sweet corn with popped quinoa and green pepper gomasio Roast vegetable salad with coriander seed puree Poke bowl Chicken chilli ramen Saffron, fennel, pea and asparagus risotto Japanese pumpkin, carrot and daikon Pumpkin 3 ways Chopped egg, artichoke and olive salad Dinner Baked celeriac and fennel soup Roast miso chicken Flash-fried greens with lemon Steamed vegetable bowl with lemony tofu cream Pumpkin ricotta slice with lemony greens Urad dhal makhani Mild green curry with eggs and cashews Vegetable lasagne Ghee 3 ways Sweet treats, snacks and drinks Black sesame spice crackers Smoked fish and cashew paste Roasted sweet potato chips Almonds, raisins and seeds with vanilla and orange Best ever carrot cake Honey and orange blossom tahini whip Coconut jam cake Mulled Vata tea Black sesame 3 ways Vegan Choc Peanut Butter Cake Cacao, tahini and maple smoothie

9  Pitta recipes Breakfast Hawaiian coconut French toast Potato rosti with peas and yoghurt Watermelon, plum, cherry and pineapple fruit salad Giant coconut pancake with berries and cherries Rose semolina cereal with seeds Smoothie bowls Mixed grain porridge with coconut whip Peas 3 ways Lunch Pumpkin patties with coconut cabbage salad San choy bau Chargrilled fennel and fish with herbed avocado Bun bowls Sushi bowl Green mung dosa with coconut chutney Chickpea crêpes with ricotta, egg, cress and caramelised onion Roasted cauliflower, potato and kale salad Green pasta with peas and soft mozzarella Leafy greens 3 ways Dinner Avocado, egg and nori rice paper rolls Cooling cucumber and strawberry mint coconut water Herbed paneer with pressed cabbage, radish and cucumber salad Mushroom and basil tart Sweet potato gnocchi with lemony fennel, broccoli and ghee sauce Green falafel with mint yoghurt tahini Marinated chicken with coconut lime dressing Filled capsicums Cooling dhal with tempered spices Winter fish curry Coconut 3 ways Sweet treats, snacks and drinks Watermelon, elderflower, rose and kaffir lime spritzer Cooling pineapple, passionfruit and jasmine tea Poached plums with elderflower and spices Proper apple pie Tahini and rose halva cookies Golden milk Coconut kale crisps Coconut custard with pomegranate and sticky rice Vegan turmeric spiced banana loaf Blueberry chia jam with fermented teff crepes

10  Kapha recipes Breakfast Pomegranate and berry chia puddings Spiced puffed grain granola Turmeric tofu scramble with leafy greens Ginger, apple, cinnamon and clove tea Breakfast drinks and smoothies Buckwheat and beetroot pancakes with berries Mushrooms and kale with millet and goat’s cheese Shakshuka with lentils Buckwheat porridge with raspberry puree and pomegranate Cauliflower bean puree with watercress, mushrooms and poached eggs Matcha polenta porridge Corn 3 ways Lunch Rocket, pear and quickled onion and radish salad Sweet beet and cabbage with fish steaks Carrot, basil and buckwheat bread Buckwheat, cranberry, tomato and pomegranate tabouleh Beetroot and black bean burgers Split pea and leek soup with minty basil yoghurt swirl Charred cauliflower and broccoli with turmeric quinoa Broad bean, chicken and crunchy green salad Cauliflower 3 ways Dinner Slow-cooked Mediterranean green beans and fennel with buckwheat Middle Eastern eggplant and red capsicum salad Fish tacos Eggplant curry Rajasthani mixed lentil dhal Asian noodle broth with chicken balls Cauliflower and broccoli fried rice Turmeric 3 ways Sweet treats, snacks and drinks Baby fig cakes Cacao, quinoa and orange fig balls Nori popcorn Jamu Dried fruit slices Metabolism booster morning shot Baba ganoush Beetroot yoghurt and sumac dip Hummus with smoky carrots Broccoli corn bread Apple, celery, strawberry and ginger juice

11  Food medicine for all doshas For all doshas Ghee Milk for sleep Digestive tea Warming Vata kitchari Miso mushroom soup Kapha reducing tea Pepper milk Miso ramen broth Nourishing chicken soup with rice and spice and all things nice Chicken stock Gentle on the tummy congee The stock story Herbal teas and medicated milks

12  The Ayurvedic pantry

13  The Ayurvedic spice cupboard

14  Food charts for Vata, Pitta, Kapha

15  Acknowledgements

16  Index

GuideCoverContentsVata recipes

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What is a yogic kitchen?

Firstly, let me say loudly THIS IS NOT A DIET BOOK. I also hope that you get more from this book than the pleasure of cooking the 100 fabulous recipes in here because this book is not just about food, either! I called this book The Yogic Kitchen not because I am an experienced yoga instructor, but because my yoga practice sits alongside Ayurveda, its sister science. And just as yoga is not just about the asanas (postures), neither is Ayurveda only about food. Ayurveda has way more to offer you than handy hints on what to eat. So, what is a yogic kitchen and what is Ayurveda? You don’t have to practise yoga to have a yogic kitchen, but the benefits of yoga practice are well documented. A yogic kitchen is simply one where the principles of Ayurveda inform your daily menu.

Ayurveda is the traditional Indian healing system that is over 5000 years old, so the information I am sharing with you in this book is tried and tested; it has been passed down through generations. Ayurveda predominantly uses food as medicine to help people maintain their health and increase their longevity. It is, admittedly, my interpretation of it, but I have tried to be as faithful as possible to the practice.

I use Ayurveda on a daily basis in my health coaching practice and as a therapeutic tool with my yoga students to give them a deeper understanding of their bodies, minds and natural tendencies.

Ayurveda means science of life: ayur – science, veda – of life. It teaches that eating well is the foundation of one’s health and when we are not eating well, the body will show symptoms of illness and disease. By following the recommendations in this book it is my hope that you will gain a greater understanding of how to achieve more balance and harmony in your own life. That’s what happened for me when I discovered Ayurveda and it is the reason I continue to share my passion for this ancient science of wellness with the world through my books but also through my retreats and workshops.

THE THREE DOSHAS

The healing system of Ayurveda is based on the principle that five elements – earth, fire, water, air and space – exist both within our bodies and in the world around us. The elements combine in our bodies to form one’s constitution. These five elements, in varying degrees, comprise the three doshas (otherwise known as energetic forces of nature or functional principles) that describe one’s unique constitution (or prakruti in Ayurveda). The three doshas are known as Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Each dosha describes certain characteristics based on the elements they contain. Vata represents predominantly the quality of air, Pitta represents fire and Kapha represents water. We are all made up of varying amounts of each element and each person has a unique combination – we all have a unique proportional mix of the doshas but one may dominate. Some people have more air, others more fire and others more earth.

These elements govern the way our body responds to certain foods and lifestyle choices, and like increases like and opposites balance in Ayurveda. So a person with lots of fire in their constitution will be more susceptible to illness in the heat (Pitta dosha), a person with more water will be vulnerable in cold, damp and humid conditions (Kapha dosha) and a person dominated by air is shaken in cooler windier months (Vata dosha). The more you learn about the qualities of the elements that make up the doshas, the more it will help you determine the foods and other life choices that are best for you for balancing your dosha and that will create calm in your constitution. The elements don’t just exist in nature, they are also present in the food we eat. Some foods are more heating, some more watery, some more crisp, light and airy.

A person with a dominant Pitta (fire) dosha will thrive in the cooler months or achieve balance in the hotter months by eating cooler foods. Whereas a watery person will celebrate the warm summer months and feel more energised while feeling challenged in cooler damper climes, and warm dry foods will provide relief for these people who can feel slow and sluggish. Airy types have an aversion to the cold and hide out from the wind, they need sunshine to warm their bones and nourishing cooked foods to ground their energy. (For more on the doshas, see pages 18–21.)

When our constitutions become out of balance from the wrong kinds of food, movement, routine or environment, then our health can suffer. This is known in Ayurveda as an imbalance and, no matter what your dosha, Ayurveda will treat and deal with the imbalance first. (For more on imbalance, see Balancing the doshas, pages 22–41.)

So I hope you are starting to get the picture that Ayurveda is a way of living; a large part of it is food but lifestyle is also vitally important. This book is an introduction to an ancient way of living, a tool to give you more insight into your body and how it is affected by the world we live in and the choices we make.

MY AYURVEDIC JOURNEY

When I was introduced to Ayurveda through yoga, it resonated deeply with me because it asked me to look at the things I was doing and question whether they were working for me.

I thought what I was eating was healthy, I followed nutritional guidelines and ate the recommended foods but I never had cause to query the concept of a one size fits all nutrition model.

However, once I started to investigate Ayurveda and research the foods that were appropriate for me and my body type, it became pretty obvious to me they were different to what someone of a totally different body shape could tolerate.

When I looked a little deeper, as Ayurveda asks you to do, and examined myself closely, I saw that I was a bit of a controlling mess. I had been practising a style of yoga that followed a macrobiotic way of eating that was far too heating for me. I was anti sugar and my diet was full of intensely flavoured foods with lots of soy sauce, chilli, curries, miso soup and tomatoes.

The increased heat that this diet created in my body didn’t impact so much on my health but it had a field day with my mind. I had become a self-centred, highly motivated, competitive, hard-working perfectionist who had very little sweetness in her diet or her life. I functioned on overdrive with a highly regimented exercise regime, a full diary and very little time for fun or relaxation. When anything went wrong I just tried harder, worked harder and berated myself for being a failure. Nothing was ever good enough for my insane standards and I was angry and miserable.

Anyway, long story short, after carrying on like this for about 10 years I worked myself into the ground, lost my business and had a breakdown. The fire had burnt out!

Yoga was the only thing I felt would get me back on track so I took the crumbled me back to my mat, but this time I chose a different style of yoga and the principles of Ayurveda formed the foundation of this new practice. Yin yoga is a gentle, relaxing form of yoga with more passive poses and a slower pace. On those rare occasions I could quieten my mind for a moment at yoga, I started to hear messages I had needed to hear for a very long time. As I listened, I learnt that perhaps sweet stuff wasn’t all bad and that all of those intense flavours I demanded and proclaimed essential to add flavour to a meal were not as good for me as I’d believed them to be.

So I started digging, learning and experimenting with both my diet and my lifestyle.

HOW THE AYURVEDIC LIFESTYLE HELPED ME

My research revealed that I was basically a Pitta (one with a fiery constitution) who was totally out of balance. I was eating all the wrong foods and if I continued doing all of the things that I had been doing, then the misery would continue. Unfortunately, before my meltdown my need to look good in the world had overtaken my need to feel good – I’d allowed my fire to become a raging inferno.

As a Pitta, I realised if I wanted to feel better, I had to learn how to chill out, slow down and eat in a different way. I started with the food because for me that was the easiest and the hardest place to start. (For Vata types the challenge is to quieten the mind and manage their fear and anxiety. If digestive issues have started to surface, then these also need to be managed. Kapha types often have an ongoing issue with their weight and energy levels.)

I’d never really had a struggle with sugar; I’d always been more drawn to the salty, spicier, more intense flavours. So after many years of eating very little sugar, I started to add it back into my diet and I don’t mean through eating lollies and cakes (though I did tell the sheriff in me they are allowed sometimes), I mean through adding more ripe seasonal fruit into my diet, sweet vegetables and grains, sweet spices to my porridges and on birthdays I’d bake a cake.

To remedy my intensity and hyper vigilance and to cool my mind, I introduced a little bit of dairy, but I was really mindful of how I did this. Not all dairy is suitable for Pitta types and of course the dairy I loved didn’t love me. I needed to ease up on the parmesan and salty feta and eat more soft fresh cheeses.

I began adding ghee to everything and slowly things started to change. I started to change and finally after many years I felt myself relaxing and softening and feeling open to sitting still. Prior to looking into Ayurveda, just the thought of sitting still made me anxious; every time I sat down and stopped my mind revved up. I’d spent my whole life trying to out run, out work, out educate the voices that lived in there that told me I needed to be more, achieve more, know more blah, blah, blah ...

It wasn’t until I was courageous enough to look at my work addiction and my Pitta attachment to success and being seen that the big stuff started to shift for me. You see, Ayurveda is here to help us create balance in all areas of our life and I needed to start looking at the elements in my life that had been missing.

My biggest challenge was learning how to do nothing; it still is. It is hard for me to avoid filling up my days. All of this is still a work in progress and I try not to take it too seriously, as my natural tendency is to be very serious and to want to try to be the best at everything I touch. Ayurveda has taught me so much about myself and a lot of it has been hard to see. Ayurveda has also taught me a lot about people around me and at first I would use it as a tool to diagnose and psychoanalyse everyone. I suggest you don’t do that! When I first discovered it, though, I have to admit I was pretty obsessed with trying to figure out what doshas my friends and family were and offering loads of unsolicited advice about things they could change to make their lives better – oh so Pitta! These days I try to mind my own business and only offer suggestions when asked. I must be maturing!

As I head towards the Pitta Vata stage of my life (as different times of life are also governed by the three main doshas, more about this shortly) they say I am meant to become more sensitive, creative, wiser, spiritual, forgetful, stiffer and drier. I can feel myself letting go of the need to be seen in the world that I held onto so tightly in my 20s, 30s and 40s when my fire was burning bright. And even though I am in some way grieving the fire diminishing in me, I do on a deeper level feel it is time to step aside and let those younger high-energy entrepreneurs have their time in the sun. I am also called to honour the cycles and rhythms of nature and remember that I am just another small part of it.

Today I have given up my mad exercise regime, thank goodness. I know now that too much exercise will aggravate the Vata that is now rising in me, so instead of running, boot camping and vinyasa-ing, I take long walks with my beloved dog, teach a much more balanced style of yoga, practise yin yoga and surf. I manage the heat in my body with cooling foods, healthy lifestyle choices, calm people, relaxing environments and spending time in nature.

I want you to know, I am not a saint and I don’t follow the Ayurvedic eating plan with rigidity. I do still eat foods that are listed in the foods to avoid column for Pittas and accept the consequences. (See Food Charts For Vata, Pitta, Kapha at the back of the book, pages 240–5.) I cherish winter where my Pitta is at its calmest. I have learnt to love relaxing and best of all I have learnt to listen. I know humbly and wholeheartedly now that I am not always right, but I still really love when I am. I can now accept the differences in others and not see them as weaknesses. I understand that when I am angry or overheated it is about me and not about others and what they have done to me. I see I have an amazing ability to transform things and create something from nothing, and that is the gift of my Pitta, but most of all I know that the things I love often are not the best things for me.

Ayurveda has taught me to respect that we are all individuals and what works for one won’t necessarily work for another. We are all on a journey of self-discovery; some will move a little faster than others but it is essential we honour the other person’s path. Life is here to teach us the lessons we need to learn. We must all remember to listen to the voice inside of us as it knows the truth about how we feel. Following how I feel inside has never been easy but it’s the best compass I have found.

Enjoy the ride.

Yoga is the journey of the self through the self to the self.

–The Bhagavad Gita

Using this book

Ayurveda is a gentle way of living. It is not my intention to be preaching to you here. Take what resonates with you and leave what doesn’t. As with any changes to your diet, you may want to consult your GP or health practitioner before you begin. I don’t demand that what is written on these pages be followed with such vigour you drive everyone around you nuts. Life is big, it is organic and it ebbs and flows. We are not in control: we have a say and we can try our best but we need to remember that life is not an exam, we are here to enjoy it and feel good in it.

I know that there will be times when it is easy to move through your day with ease, prepare your meals, eat the recommended foods, say all the right things, go for a walk, drink a herbal tea and finish your day feeling just super. And then there will be other days when it’s a total nightmare, you will wake up feeling crap, you will eat something indulgent for brekkie and it will just continue to get more pear shaped from there. And that’s OK. Enjoy every mouthful, I say.