Healthy eating is conscious eating.
We continue with day 3, Spring (Kapha season), and the logic of nature with our food and lifestyle. You may have noticed a joy in yourself when seeing the color yellow these past few days. Yellow mustard flowers, yellow clothes, yellow umbrellas... Warm and bright yellow is used in kapha reducing therapy. It has the power to uplift and stimulate the heaviness and slowness that Kapha characteristically possesses. Other colors that balance kapha are warm, bright orange, gold and red. Warm gems are used also, such as ruby and cat's eye.
Let us continue with balancing the moist, heavy, cool, slow effects of Spring upon the earth with our highlight food this week, the mung bean!
Your beans have now grown tails.
(To learn how to sprout mung beans, begin
with Day 1: Divine Offering)
Greens & Sprouted Beans
serves 2-4
What you'll need:
One large pot and/or a steamer
One bunch of chopped leafy greens: rainbow chard and/or collard greens, etc
One bunch of broccolini chopped in large bite sizes
Ghee (see ghee below)
Black pepper
Bragg's (equivalent to tamari or soy sauce; I just started using it in a spray bottle and it's fantastic because you end up using much less.)
Sprouted mung bean
A clove of garlic
Set up your steamer. Add the leafy greens and broccolini. Lightly steam (until they turn bright green and are just tender to the fork; this way you maintain the nutritional value of the greens, for instance, chard and collards are astringent and primarily blood purifiers. They also have an extremely high calcium content and are high in vitamins A & C.)
Then place your greens into a bowl, add 2 anjulis (see terms key) of sprouted mung beans , add approximately the equivalent of 2 angulis of ghee, add 2-3 sprays of bragg's, lastly add 1 crushed clove of raw garlic to the hot greens and mix. The aroma of the garlic will enchant. The benefits of the garlic will also be at it's most potent being raw and just warmed.
Enjoy with basmati rice cooked with 3-4 peppercorn or cloves.
And, what are the benefits of garlic???
Garlic is another Kapha reducing food. It is hot, drying and it possesses the tastes of sweet, salty, pungent, astringent and bitter. Garlic is antibacterial, antifungal, antidiabetic, reduces blood pressure and promotes digestion. The benefits of garlic are many. Ayurveda teaches that garlic is good. Excess usage of garlic, however, is tamasic, dulling to the mind and to the senses.
I could easily dedicate this whole day to ghee; however, I will wait until Summer time to really get into the amazing goodness of it. For now, being that it is Kapha season, oils should be used sparingly and we should receive our EFA's that come naturally from our food. (An exception would be if you are feeling dry, cold, rough, spacey, shakey, or have joint pain (general Vata season characteristics). One important thing to note about ghee is what it is. Ghee is clarified butter. The milk solids have been removed. It is considered medicine and gold in Ayurveda. Ghee builds ojas, the essential energy of our body which is equated with immunity and vigor. (For more see How To Make Ghee)
Hibiscus Heaven
Makes 4-6 cups
Filtered water
Dried hibiscus flowers
Cinnamon
Dry ginger powder (fresh can also be used instead)
Jaggery (panela, or a concentrated juice sweetener)
Pour 1 1/2-2 quart jars (like one in foto just above) worth of filtered water into a pot.
Add a 5 finger pinch of hibiscus flowers to water
Add one or two pinches of dry ginger
Bring to a boil then turn down the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes
Add 1 stick of cinnamon (1 stick is about 3-4 angulis (finger digits); approximately one anguli per cup)
Lastly, add a quarter size rock of jaggery, or use a concentrated juice sweetener to taste at the end.
And allow to simmer another 5 minutes
Remove from heat an serve warm if it's a cool spring day. Serve room temperature if it's a warm spring day. (If you are running hot or it's really hot out, add ice and ahhhh, you have a cooler.)
I think I love this time of year because I love this brew. Enjoy!
Hibiscus is named japa in sanskrit, the language of Ayurveda. Japa is another word for mantra, and it is said that this beautiful deep red herb strengthens devotion in meditation. Hibiscus flowers are used to destroy life's spiritual and material obstacles. They promote wisdom & purify the heart. Hibiscus is a cooling herb used to reduce the effects of summer heat and for treating fever. Because of its astringent taste it pacifies kapha making it a good spring time brew, especially on the warm days. In the body, hibiscus is a blood cleanser and is especially beneficial for the kidneys, for reproduction, it improves complexion and enhances normal hair growth. It is commonly used by Ayurvedic practitioners to regulate the menstrual flow. The tea normalizes blood pressure and has a protective effect on the heart.
Cinnamon is heating & drying. It has a sweet, spicy and astringent taste. This is a great spice to reduce the effects of Spring (Kapha season) and Winter (Vata season) and is best avoided in the Summer (Pitta season). This warming herb is a fantastic addition to the hibiscus brew we are making today. It is also used to promote menstruation and is a muscle relaxant. Cinnamon increases general vitality, counteracts congestion, stops diarrhea, improves digestion, relieves abdominal spasms, and is used is Ayurvedic formulas to treat diabetes. If you are pregnant, be conservative with cinnamon because large amounts can irritate the stomach.
This brew has a pinch of dry ginger per 4 cups. I could dedicate a whole other day to ginger because it is one of the most widely and successfully used herbal medicines in the world for the most varied conditions. Ginger is commonly known by herbalists as "the universal medicine". For now I will simply mention that ginger is warming and it's taste is pungent. It reduces the kapha effects of Spring. It increases circulation, promotes digestion and reduces phlegm in the lungs(and it is another herb used in women's formulas for menstrual cramps).
Continue rinsing your sprouted mung beans 2x/day to keep off any funk, and keep them covered and cool. Watch those tails grow!
Stay Posted: Tomorrow, A Forager's Cabbage, A Delectable Quinoa Salad and more!
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