ABOUT THE EVERYDAY AYURVEDA COOKBOOK
Here’s what this book is meant to do: get you in the kitchen. Not for big projects, but for simple preparations, most days. Maybe even every day. You may or may not fall in love with cooking, but it’s important to know that preparing food for yourself is a key element of wellness. This book will keep it simple, practical, and functional. The goal is not to create fancy or perfect meals but to be satisfied by your food. Some days this may mean having a treat; other days it may mean keeping your food really basic to serve as fuel for your day. The food program in this book provides plenty of variety, but it is based on simplicity.
Ayurveda is the indigenous health science of India, a way of understanding balance and imbalance in the body so that we can avoid the progression of disease by addressing the causes early on. The inspiration behind The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook is to demystify this ancient science, which truly has something in it to help everyone. A huge part of staying healthy, in the Ayurveda view, lies in proper digestion and nutrition. The foods we eat become the tissues of the body, and the attitudes we bring to the table contribute to the body’s ability to digest and integrate food nicely. Being aware of what the body needs as we choose our foods and wishing the body well as we prepare them go a long way toward helping us feeling good.
This book is for you if you are:
• Looking for concrete ways to improve your diet and lifestyle
• New to Ayurveda or to cooking in general
• Feeling tired or anxious or experiencing poor digestion
• Interested in applying a traditional, holistic healing system to your life
The following chapters greatly simplify what is a complete, sophisticated, tried-and-true medical science by focusing on a few general points that we all can apply to set the stage for healthy living. Ayurveda is a symphony of experiential knowledge, and you are getting a hit single here, one that may inspire you to buy the album someday. But even if you don’t, this book can change your life.
The recipes here also offer a simplified approach to the art of cooking, specifically Ayurvedic cooking, in which all food can be medicine. I’ve pared down any traditional dishes with long lists of ingredients or too many stages of preparation, so that you can make the recipes without a lot of fuss. This simplicity will empower you to enjoy eating something you’ve made for yourself, every day. It is possible.
WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THIS BOOK:
• An introduction to Ayurveda and how this diet and lifestyle work, though you don’t need to read it (let alone memorize it) to use this book to your advantage.
• Methods for making simple breakfasts, lunches, and suppers that can be adapted by changing key ingredients as the seasons change.
• Daily self-care routines for each season and suggestions of what time of day to practice them.
• Shopping lists for each season, which will set you up to make all of the staple recipes in each seasonal chapter.
• Travel tips, family tips, and take-it-to-work tips for eating well and staying on center during your regular routine.
• Tried-and-true practices for improving the function of the digestive organs (and feeling good after you eat).
• A walk-through of safe spring and fall cleansing practices.
PRAKRITI, YOUR TRUE NATURE
WHAT YOU WON’T FIND IN THIS BOOK:
• Complicated recipes that require you to buy expensive ingredients
• Recipes that contain white sugar or refined flours
• Heavy use of nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, eggplants, bell peppers, white potatoes), a family of vegetables containing trace amounts of toxins, which can build up and promote inflammation in some bodies
• Reliance on garlic and raw onion for seasoning, as both are heating foods and encourage an excitable mind
• Information on personal constitutions and disease diagnosis. For this, you’ll need to consult other resources or an Ayurvedic practitioner (see “Resources,” page 306).
Roots of the Recipes
TRADITIONAL
Many of the recipes in this book are inspired by cookery I learned in India, either in households or at Ayurveda centers and clinics. The Ayurvedic sensibility is ingrained in the cookery of India, though one has to go into private homes to find it. Most of the food served in restaurants, both in India and in Indian restaurants abroad, does not represent healthy eating. Modern media is changing sensibilities about diet in India, as it does in Western countries. Propaganda paid for by manufacturers distributes new ideas regarding what is “good for you” on a regular basis. Problems of obesity and diabetes are accompanying changes in the economy of modern India. People in the home country of Ayurveda, as well as in the Western world, are looking to this ancient system of well-being for unbiased recommendations based on thousands of years of discovering what works.
REGIONAL
Some of the indigenous ingredients mentioned by classic Ayurvedic texts are unavailable outside of India. To mirror the medicinal qualities by using what is available, I’ve modified the recipes in this book with local foods, finding what worked by trial and error. In some cases, a standby recipe with its roots in New England culture, such as Kate’s Apple Crisp or Yam and Oat Muffins, represents my intuitive knowledge of the culinary ancestry in New England. No doubt, wherever you are living, or whatever your family may have taught you, a cookery to support the climate and lifestyle of a people is present. Any regional diet will favor cooking with foods indigenous to the area. I encourage you to experiment with making Everyday Ayurveda recipes with your local produce. With a little practice, you can also begin to modify your family recipes to integrate Ayurvedic principles.
HEALTH NUT
An Ayurveda cookbook with a recipe for Tofu Tacos with Greens? In the mission to help you feel at home in this cookbook, I have included some Western-style meals and modern ingredients, like chia seeds. One is not required to eat Indian food all the time to be Ayurvedically sound, and with the creativity of melting-pot cultures, many culinary gems have emerged, some of them quite convenient to make and a shame to leave out of an Everyday cookbook. I have modified the recipes to respect Ayurvedic digestive recommendations, such as food combining, cooking methods, and the beneficial use of digestive spices.
Behind The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook recipes stand twenty years I’ve spent working in health food stores and cafes, modifying recipes to include every health food product under the sun. Recipes including Western health foods ingredients, such as sea vegetables, tacos made with tofu, and sunflower seed butter, do not appear in traditional Ayurvedic cooking, but they are staples in my own kitchen and adhere to Ayurvedic principles.
For some people, developing a taste for Indian flavors will take some time, especially the sweets. In truth, Indian desserts are a tough sell for the Western palate. Try the Coconut Rice Pudding (known in India as kheer) and the Saffron Lassi. But when you are looking for a familiar comfort treat, you may rely on my Ayurveda-inspired versions of well-known favorites, such as Kate’s Apple Crisp and Almond Ginger Macaroons. Hey, I’m here for you, keeping you happy and healthy with special recipes for treats, without the refined flours and sugars Ayurveda warns against.
The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook has two parts: part one is the theory, and part two is the practice. Feel free to dive into the practice chapters (get cooking!) and poke around in part one, as your interest in Ayurveda expands.