Warm & nourishing Ayurvedic recipes
Rice porridge
A warm & nourishing breakfast
Ingredients
2-3 servings
1/2cup of white or brown basmati rice
1/2 cup coconut milk
salt
stick of cinnamon (small)
sugar or maple syrup as necessary
dry fruits
almond flakes
Cook the rice and cinnamon with 3 cups of water until it becomes soggy
When the rice grains are very soft, add milk and stir continuously until the milk boils
Mix sugar/maple syrup, almond flakes and a few dry fruits (if they are pre-soaked much better)
If you prefer more liquid form, add a little more hot water. If you prefer semi solid, keep on fire until it becomes thicker.
Coconut butternut squash
Ingredients
1 medium-sized butternut squash cut into pieces
1 can of coconut milk
2 cups of water/stock/broth
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/4tsp of nutmeg
1/2tsp of salt
Freshly chopped coriander to serve
Heat oven to 350f
Roast squash for approximately 30 minutes and then leave to cool slightly
Warm coconut milk and water/broth/stock in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the roasted squash to the pan along with the spices. Bring to the boil and then lower heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and blend until smooth and creamy.
Season with salt and pepper
Sing's nutty granola recipe
Sing has very kindly agreed that I can share this recipe with you. It is brill for those of you navigating a Vata imbalance - more on this in one of my next newsletters so sign up for those if you haven’t already. Just go easy on the nuts and seeds.
This is a treat for those of you following a pitta reducing diet, but please avoid the honey using maple syrup instead and focus on almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts, avoiding cashew and brazil nuts.
If you are reducing kapha, just be mindful of its yumminess…and have with milk, avoiding yogurt.
It is very satisfying to make, full of prana and love, go organic if you can to reduce toxins - you can really taste the difference in comparison to those processed in a factory…
Ingredients
50ml coconut/vegetable oil
75ml agave syrup, maple syrup or clear honey - use agave or maple syrup if vegan
400g porridge oats - use gluten-free oats if required
150g mixed seeds and nuts
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp fine sea salt
100g sultanas, raisins or dried cranberries and coconut flakes (or any dried fruit of your choice)
What to do
Heat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Mix the oil, syrup or honey and vanilla together in a large bowl.
Add the oats, seeds, spices and salt to the bowl. Mix well so everything is coated, tip onto 2 large baking trays and spread out evenly.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring halfway through, until golden, crisp and smelling toasted. Add the flaked coconut and dried fruit to the granola, and bake for 2 more minutes. Leave to cool.
Store in an airtight container for 2-3 weeks - good luck with that, doesn’t take long for it to be eaten in our house!
Thank you Sing, really lovely recipe and I am grateful to share.
x
Emma's yummy flapjack recipe
Many of you have asked for this recipe, having sampled a yummy flapjack at one of the attunement sessions.
These are especially great for children, supporting them during the kapha stage in their lives, when they need good solid food, but also for any of you needing some grounding.
Recipe
Ingredients
300g of dairy-free marg
200g of organic coconut sugar/demerara sugar
300g organic oats
100g organic desiccated coconut (optional)
50g organic cocoa powder
Extras: You could add nuts, seeds and dried fruit. You can also make without the cocoa.
Method
Melt marg in a saucepan and add the sugar into the melty liquid goodness
Mix oats, desiccated coconut and cocoa powder in a large bowl
Add melty liquid goodness and mix again into even more of a chocolate melty goodness!
Oil a baking tray and pack the mixture into it, and pop into a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees for 15 minutes. Leave to completely cool before cutting into bits and enjoying!
Happy Equinox!
Happy Equinox! We are now on the wane down to the winter solstice on Friday 22 December, while the moon is on the wax to full this Friday 29 September. Interestingly it was at half moon as I stood watching sunset on the west coast of Jersey on the Equinox, having watched sunrise on the East coast this morning. If ever an Equinox was about balance then it is this one!
Known as Mabon, this festival marks equal day and equal night and the second harvest festival. It is a time for gratitude, acknowledging all that we have in our life, for the successes of the summer crops in all its many guises, and a time for letting go of that which is no longer required in our lives.
I have been reading a really interesting book on holding space. How easily we can hold space for others but not for ourselves. This is not true of everyone, obviously, but there are some of us who err towards making sure everyone else is OK and forgetting sometimes to take care of ourselves too. It seems to me that the equinoxes gift us the opportunity to witness these imbalances. The seasonal cold which comes in to release excess pitta and kapha in the body is indicative of this as it slows us down. Now, really, is the time to go within.
In our yoga practice we are encouraged to focus on movements that help to keep us grounded as the vata (air and ether) energy of autumn takes over from the pitta (fire and water) energy of summer. Simple practices calm vata and help us to focus on our breath, calming and relaxing our nervous system and supporting our need for letting go into the deeper parts of self that this transition to the winter solstice and the inner darkness encourages.
On a spiritual level, going inwards is of course a return to our true self, purusha, beyond the masking of the ego-self and all the ‘posturing’ which we might do in our lives. Through our yoga practice, we are trying to let go of the doing and proving so we can just ‘be’, connecting to higher and expanded levels of consciousness.
The concepts of purusha and prakriti comes from the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, which believes that the universe is made up of two realities. These two forces are purusha and prakriti, male and female, unchanging and changing, divine and natural.
According to this philosophy, we are made up of a balance of purusha and prakriti. Our body, mind, thoughts and actions are prakriti, always subject to change, and thus the challenge of the spiritual path lies in connecting back to our unchanging core, our essence, our soul, which is purusha. The idea is that our bodies change, our minds and ideas and perceptions change, but the core of who we are remains the same from birth to death. The spiritual path therefore, is about connecting to that which doesn’t change and to let go of the things that do.
It is very easy to identify ourselves with all that we do or think - I am a yoga student, I am a mum, I am a Reiki practitioner, I am spiritual etc, but according to the concepts of purusha and prakriti, all of these conceptions are prakriti, subject to change, unreal and not who we truly are in essence. Recognising and realising who we truly are, in essence, at core, means letting go of all our attachments to the perception of ourselves as physical and mental beings. Thus we let go of criticising our bodies, because our physical body is not our spiritual self. We let go of giving ourselves a hard time for ‘not being good enough’ because from a spiritual perspective, our essence ids exactly as it should be. We let go of criticising others too, and instead recognise the divine in them.
Our body, thoughts, beliefs and the roles we play throughout our life is transient. They all make up a whole, but our true self, is the core of the whole self.
On this path, we are encourages to find balance. Not only between the masculine and feminine energies inherent in each of us, but between stability and change, real and unreal, spirit and nature and stillness and the creative force.
We can consider balance in our life from this perspective. Where do we focus our energy, on prakriti or purusha and can we find a balance between the two?
We can also apply this concept to the seasons and to the manner in which these will influence our life and our opportunity to connect more fully to our internal self. The summer, for example, is all about being out there, it is active and fun and can disrupt our ability to go within. The winter, on the other hand, slows us down, encourages us to hibernate and access deeper realms within ourselves. And autumn is the transition between the two, a gradual retreat. This means softening and leaning into the ground, of letting go, rather than having to push ourselves out.
I’m certainly keen to flow with this energy, quieten down, go within and tightening boundaries accordingly.
The equinox was indeed a gift, and no doubt the full moon will help us see more of what needs to be forgiven or let go of ahead of the wane ahead.
Love Emma x