Colourful Cooking and Ayur Veda -1

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My favourite way to cook is based on a combination of Ayur Veda and choosing foods from the whole colour spectrum...I can really be creative and experiment with a myriad of flavours, colours, tastes and at the same time improve health and balance in life. 

Ayur Veda is based on choosing our foods from each of the tastes in every meal: salty, sweet, pungent, bitter or astringent and sour foods.

By the clever use of spices and the timing of when they are added to the cooking, the combination and the quantity used, will impart either taste, aroma, heat or are used to thicken or bring a souring agent to the food.The overall effect being a delicious aromatic, meal of great delight that combines all the 6 tastes for our palettes and according to ancient texts of Ayur Veda will bring us health and balance in life

Each of the tastes have a specific effect on the individual's body type. Our bodies being made of the elements - Vata/Air     Pitta/Fire     Kapha/Earth     Jala/Water  Akasa/Air in varying degrees. It is by maintaining a balance of these Doshas  by eating from all tastes and the careful combination of foods and spices to balance the Doshas as well as following simple daily routines we can create wellness, decrease disease and enjoy life.

Choosing vegetables and fruits in season is one way to have the right tastes for that season, other ways are to use grains, beans, lentil, spices, herbs and seasonings to get the alchemy of taste right. 

Winter - sweet, sour and salty tastes are encouraged.
Summer - foods that are naturally sweet, bitter and astringent are encouraged.
Spring and autumn - pungent, bitter and astringent tastes are encouraged.

How to eat is as important as what we eat. 

Table manners in Ayur veda are guided more by balance and digestion for the creation of OJAS. Ojas is the outcome from food once it is perfectly digested. 

Ojas is positive, nuturing energy that boosts the immune, nervous, endocrine and psychological systems. The opposite is Ama -Indigestion creates Ama from toxins formed in the body due to improper digestion and imbalance.

More to come on Ayurvedic Eating Rituals and cooking the " Perfect Curry

Check out this fun movie about Spices