Here’s a stew for one of those cloudy cold days.
INGREDIENTS roughly per person
4 large tomatoes
1 long red pepper
2 sprigs of Rosemary
1 medium sweet potato cut into small chunks and steamed still soft
1 cup cooked butter beans
1/4 cup water
1 small red onion cut lengthways into wedges
1 clove garlic cut into matchsticks
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/3 cup creamed coconut
2 teaspoons maple syrup
A pinch of paprika for pitta, 2 pinches for vata and 5 pinches for Kapha types
Rock salt to season
Fresh lemon to season
1 teaspoon of vegetable powder
METHOD
Roast the tomatoes and red pepper with the rosemary in 1 tablespoon sesame oil. Once cooked take out the rosemary and then blitz with the water. Sauté the garlic and the the onions until soft. Add the the tomato and pepper sauce along with the beans, sweet potato, maple syrup creamed coconut, paprika, vegetable powder and simmer on very low for about 15 minutes. Then season with the other ingredients.
AYURVEDIC LOWDOWN
Yogis eating a very pure sattvic diet often avoid alll of the deadly nightshade family, tomatoes and red peppers are both rajasic, meaning they excite the mind, this makes them good for any Kapha types who are feeling flat and lethargic, but their pungent and rajasic qualities can unbalance vata and pitta types making vata types anxious and nervy, and pitta types irritable and impatient. The way I use this information in my own life is to lean into the foods and qualities that I know keep me balanced and healthy while not actually avoiding anything. If I notice an imbalance beginning, that’s when I focus 100% on foods and qualities that will rebalance me. Ayurveda is an art, like learning how to ride a bicycle along the bumpy road of life ?
