The Basics of Ayurvedic Cooking
How Indian Food Preparation is Connected to the Elements of Nature
The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook by Amrita Sondhi offers recipes for well-being, energy, and balance. Indian vegetarian cooking balances doshas or personal constitutions.
The Basics of Ayurvedic Cooking With a Modern Perspective
The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook by Amrita Sondhi (co-creator of Lululemon Athletica) reaches beyond recipes and nutritional information to personality traits and life forces. Ayurvedic cooking involves personality factors and constitutions – not just flavorful Indian spices and fascinating food combinations. For instance, you can increase your fire (Pitta) with spices or reduce lethargy (Kapha) with raw foods. Basic Ayurvedic cooking helps you balance your emotional energy and mental health not only by avoiding certain foods, but also by eating in certain places and being aware of your stress levels.
In The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook "…I explain the basics of Indian cooking and how to get started if you have never tried it before. As a result, you will increase your repertoire of tasty, nutritious vegetarian cooking, and at the same time notice an increase in your sense of balance, well being, and energy," says Sondhi.
Ayurvedic cooking is about balancing your doshas
Indian vegetarian cooking isn't just about recipes. "At the heart of Ayurveda is our intimate connection to the elements in nature, and how they can help us to achieve a physical and spiritual balance in all aspects of our lives," says Sondhi. Ayurvedic cooking is about maintaining a balance in physical, mental, and spiritual health.
When you're out of balance, you may feel confrontational, lifeless, or frantic – depending on your dosha and life events. Each recipe in The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook can be adjusted to harmonize your doshas and bring peace into your decisions, goals, and overall life circumstances. Indian Ayurvedic cooking involves your mind, body and soul.
Finding your dosha in Ayurvedic cooking
In The Modern Ayruvedic Cookbook, Sondhi offers a Dosha Questionnaire to help you find your dosha. You'll discover whether your primary personal constitution is Vata (air), Pitta (fire), or Kapha (earth). We're all a combination of the three doshas, but lean more towards one or two. The dosha questions range from "I have dry skin" to "I can be a perfectionist." Though the Dosha Questionnaire reveals many personality traits, its primary goal in this case is to help you determine what foods to avoid or include in your diet.
Ayurvedic cooking with a personal twist
In The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook, Sondhi offers personal stories with almost every recipe. She includes her family, friends, painting class peers, dinner companions, and the community. Sondhi's personality shines through – her hobbies, favorite foods, habits, and lifestyle is a huge part of the cookbook. In this book you're participating in Indian vegetarian cooking with a friend who invites you into her life; you get the feeling she's interested in your own habits and personality.
The exotic foods of Ayurvedic cooking
Raita, mooli, rasgouli, kara, alumethi, bharta, bhindi, rejuvelac, upma and lassi are a few of the more exotic Indian foods in The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook. Some foods are defined (eg, lassi is a natural yogurt drink); others you may have to research on your own. Most foods are common to North Americans such as pastas, breads, salads, rice, beans, tabbouleh, couscous, tofu, masala and pasta. Sondhi offers a complete combination of exotic and familiar, so you can experiment with foreign Indian cooking or sink into your favorite comfort foods – depending on your mood or need to balance your doshas.
Ayurvedic cooking doesn't include charts
If you like to check the grams of fat, protein, carbs, sodium, or other nutritional elements in recipes you'll have to look elsewhere, because this type of Indian vegetarian cooking. Ayurvedic cooking doesn't include nutrional breakdowns – it's not part of the Ayurvedic philosophy.
How Ayurvedic cooking connects to yoga
At the end of The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook, Sondhi includes information about cleanses, yoga poses, and alternate ayurvedic therapies. She also includes food guidelines for basic constitutional types to help you see at a glance which foods will balance your doshas.This guide to ayurvedic cooking will settle the doshas of both yogis and newbies. It's published by Arsenal Pulp Press in Vancouver, BC.
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