Ayurveda in the kitchen

In Palakkad, far away from the hustle-bustle of daily life, a beautiful man-made village has been set up to provide Ayurvedic treatments in a serene environment. Kairali — The Ayurvedic Healing Village is the brainchild of Ayurvedic physicians Gita Ramesh and K.V. Ramesh. With years of experience in her stride, Gita Ramesh has penned The Ayurvedic Cookbook (published by Roli Books), that provides recipes that can help lose weight and impart complete nutrition. “Ayurvedic recipes intend to use absolutely fresh vegetables and fruits. That is the ground rule. One can’t use preserved or canned items,” says Ramesh. The book provides a host of options ranging from soups, salads and main course. “Eating fibre-rich salads make one feel fuller and at the same time vegetables like beetroot, carrot, radish and fruits like papaya, watermelon and pomegranate, that I have used in my recipes are extremely nutritious,” she says. The book has recipes of salads like beetroot and gherkin (pickled cucumber) salad, white radish salad, tangy papaya salad and mixed vegetable and fruit salad. Ramesh says the tangy papaya salad made with tomato, tamarind and jaggery imparts a sour-sweet taste and is her favourite. Recipes of soups like mulligatawny, spinach soup, tomato and yellow pumpkin soup are also found in the cookbook. “Vegetable-based soups combine lots of vitamins and minerals and are low in calories,” adds Ramesh. Among the soups, yellow pumpkin soup with a hint of garlic, ginger and roasted cumin give a very subtle taste to the soup. But isn’t the Ayurvedic way of cooking aversive to spices “Not at all. We use whole spices like cloves, cardamom and black pepper. But in limited proportions. We can’t make it immensely spicy because there is use of very little or no oil,” she explains. If oil is not used much, what is the medium of cooking “One can use two tablespoons of oil to saute vegetables. But primarily ingredients are steamed, boiled or just sauteed,” she adds. In Ayurveda, there are three primary life forces in the body — vata (ether), pitta (fire) and kapha (water and earth). The recipes are intended to suit all body types whether vatta, pitta or kapha. “Ayurvedic cooking completely relies on vegetarian dishes, since it is easily digestible. One cannot use cream, butter or nut paste as well,” informs Ramesh. The main course dishes mentioned in the book include sambhar, red amaranth rice with green gram curry, thorans, avial and mixed vegetable curry. So there are no desserts that are ayurvedic cooking friendly “Not really. We use jaggery in few dishes to give inherent sweetness. But no desserts really,” she concludes.