Foodie + Yogi: Ayurveda Series (Part 1)

Hi Steemians!

Last week marked the start of our first week of Ayurveda cooking at Natural Epicurean & I'm already in love! It was full of rich & beautiful colors, textures, spices, & flavors!

Originating in India more than 5,000 years ago, Ayurveda is an ancient medical practice with a holistic approach to healing the body, mind, & spirit through food. When you break down the word, Ayurveda itself means "the science of life" - it recognizes each person as the unique individual they are & aims to "treat" a person based on their individual needs. According to Ayurveda philosophy, your body is capable of healing itself - it's up to us to give it the proper environment to heal & it starts with every bite of food we take. No one-size fits all pill here!

On the first two days, we had the pleasure of being taught by Chef Felicia Tomasko. She's a RN & an Ayurvedic Practicioner, so she brings a balanced approach to her teachings. She's also a yoga teacher & chief in editor for LA Yoga Magazine. In a nutshell, she's pretty amazing! She taught us all about the three doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) and how to cook/prepare a diet for balancing each one. In Ayurvedic teaching, everyone is physically, mentally, & emotionally made up of all three doshas, but everyone is unique in the amounts they have of each dosha. For example, I have equal amounts of Vata & Kapha, but a low amount of Pitta. You can take a quiz to figure out your dosha here - https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/info/prakriti-quiz/. There's a ton of online quizzes, but in traditional Ayurvedic teaching, an Ayurvedic practitioner can figure out your dosha by your pulse, the coating of your tongue, and various other physical signs.

Image source

For the rest of the week, we dove deeper into how to cook for each dosha to balance them. According to Ayurveda, when your body is balanced, you are healthy. When your doshas are out of balance, you're creating an environment where disease can manifest itself in various ways - mentally, emotionally, & physically. In summary, like increases like, so you want to balance out your dosha by consuming foods that are opposite of your natural dominant dosha composition. Too much, or not enough, of a particular dosha contributes to imbalance in the body. I could really write a whole other post just on doshas, but for now, here's a brief summary of each one:

Vata

Elements: Air + Ethos (space)
Qualities: Cool, light, dry, rough, mobile
To balance: Eat foods that are warm, heavy, moist, smooth. Additionally, favor sweet, salty, sour, & pungent (in small amounts) over bitter and astringent foods that increase Vata.

Pitta

Elements: Fire + Water
Qualities: Hot, moist, oily, acidic, sharp
To balance:Eat foods that are cool, light, and dry. This dosha is said to have the strongest digestion, thanks to the fire elements, and can handle raw foods. Favor sweet, bitter, astringent over salty, sour, & pungent flavors to balance dosha.

Kapha

Elements: Water + Earth
Qualities: Cold, moist, heavy, static, dull
To balance: Eat foods that are light, warm, & dry. Favor astringent, bitter, & pungent foods over sweet, salty, & sour foods that only increase the natural "heaviness" in Kaphas.

Here's a small glimpse of what we made in the kitchen this week - I wasn't able to get any photos of Pitta day as we were way behind on time. If I do a post for each dosha, I'll include some of my favorite recipes that were not pictured here. The food was so good this week - there really wasn't a single thing I didn't like!

Buckwheat & Lentil Lettuce Cups - Kapha Day

Twice Baked Winter Squash - Vata Day

Cooked Salad - Vata Day

Antipasto with Baked Tofu - Kapha Day

Apple & Almond Quinoa Pilaf - Vata Day

As you can see, alot of the recipes we made this week were very simple - cooking nourishing, healing food doesn't have to be complex! I look forward to sharing more Ayurveda with you in the coming weeks. Let me know if you found out, or already know, which dosha type you are!

Foodie + Yogi, Lindsey