A more Ayurvedic version of "The Stew"

One of my favorite cooks, Alison Roman, came up with a very popular chickpea stew with many Ayurvedic staples like turmeric, ginger, and coconut. However, she went really big on the garlic, onions, and coconut milk (2 cans!!), which made me feel so heavy I couldn’t move! I knew I wanted to try it again but with some tweaks to lighten things up. My version is still super tasty, warming, and nourishing, but will not leave you immobile!

YIELD 4 to 6 servings
TIME 55 minutes

INGREDIENTS
¼ cup olive oil, plus more for serving
1 garlic clove, chopped or grated with a microplane
1/2 sweet onion, chopped small
1 (2-inch) piece ginger, peeled and grated with a microplane
Pink salt and black pepper
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (omit for fiery digestion)
3 cups cooked chickpeas (Rancho Gordo are my fave), or 2 cans drained and rinsed
1 (15-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
3 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 cup cilantro leaves, for serving
lime, for serving
white rice, for serving

PREPARATION
1. Prep your chickpeas. Rancho Gordo are so fresh they need way less time than other dried beans. If using these, set an instant pot to 30 minutes (high/manual) and then use in the recipe. If you don’t have an instant pot, cook on the stove until tender but not mushy, closer to 45 minutes-1 hour (other brands of dried chickpeas might take more like 90 minutes).

2. Heat 1/4 cup oil in a large pot over medium. Add garlic, onion and ginger. Season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally until onion is translucent and starts to brown a little at the edges, 3 to 5 minutes.

3. Add turmeric, red pepper flakes, and the chickpeas, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, so the chickpeas sizzle and fry a bit in the spices and oil, until they’ve started to break down and get a little browned and crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove about a cup of chickpeas and set aside for garnish.

4. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, further crush the remaining chickpeas slightly to release their starchy insides. (This will help thicken the stew.) Add coconut milk and stock, and season with salt and pepper.

5. Bring to a simmer, scraping up any bits that have formed on the bottom of the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until stew has thickened, 30 to 35 minutes.

6. Add Swiss chard and stir, making sure to submerge the greens in the liquid. Cook until they wilt and soften, about 3 minutes. Season again with salt and pepper.

7. Divide among bowls and top with cilantro, reserved chickpeas, a drizzle of olive oil, and a big squeeze of lime. Serve with steamed white rice.

Cauliflower Fries

Every Saturday I hit up the farmers market and scoop up in season gems for the week. Skinny Dip Farms from Little Compton, RI, is my favorite. Their stuff is organic, gorgeous, and illuminating. Last week I noticed cauliflower unlike anything I’d seen at the supermarket. It really looked like a bouquet of white flowers. I took it home and used it to make a vegetable paella, but I’ve been liking it the most just roasted and crispy. We call these cauliflower fries. They make a great side or even as a main for a light lunch with a simple salad.

Raw cauliflower is light, dry, and airy, so it increases vata and can cause digestive air, but when heated, seasoned with pungent black pepper, and coated in unctuous olive oil, you balance with warmth and grounding qualities. This is a nice recipe to transition to fall while still enjoying summer’s jewels.

ingredients:

cauliflower, florets broken off with your hands

extra virgin olive oil

flakey salt like Maldon

fresh black pepper

method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and scatter florets, allowing for some room in between.

2. Drizzle with oil, making sure to hit each floret. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

3. Bake for about 15 minutes or until tops of florets are medium brown and crispy.
   

3 Ingredient Breakfast Miso

A Kripalu style light breakfast that’s full of minerals, protein, and greens, and comes together in less than 10 minutes. It’s salty and umami so it changes up the standard sweet breaky while hydrating the body. GF+V

This is great for all 3 doshas. The sour and salty miso is considered “building” or brahmana, which the body senses as nourishing and grounding to vata; I think of it as an epsom salt bath for your belly. Bitter and astringent taste found in greens cool pitta, cleanse the blood, and keep kapha light.

Tofu is a great plant protein. Organic tofu has higher prana (life force) than low quality shelf stable soy used in protein powders and soybean oil in packaged food. I actually started making my own from organic soybeans. If that sounds cool to you, you can purchase a kit here and follow these instructions.

Ingredients for one:

Organic firm tofu, about 1/4 package, cubed small

1 big handful kale, chopped small

2 T miso paste (yellow or white is slightly sweet and mild, red is more pungent and intense)

Method:

1. Heat up about 2.5 cups water in a small pot. Once boiling, add greens and tofu and lower to simmer, about 3 minutes until greens are tender but still bright green. Turn off heat.

2. Scoop miso paste into your soup bowl and ladle about a cup of the hot water. Blend well with a fork, then pour the concentrated miso broth back into the pot and give it a stir.

3. The soup is ready! Pour it back into your bowl and enjoy.

Hygge Hot Chocolate

During vata season, the cold and dry qualities in the environment start to show up in our body. Dry skin, dry gut (backed up!), a bone chilling feeling, and maybe a sense of feeling unsettled or ungrounded are all very common this time of year. The best way to balance vata is to bring in the opposites: warm, moisturizing, and unctuous.

Some people can’t digest dairy, but it could be the how and not the what that’s causing problems. Ayurveda looks at cold, homogenized milk as a very difficult to digest gut bomb that could end up as ama (toxins), and raw milk that’s heated and dusted with digestive spices as a nourishing tonic. Milk is on a very short list of sattvic foods: foods that enhance a creative and peaceful mind. It’s also considered a sweet taste that balances vata and pitta.

After a brisk walk outside this is a super cozy drink for you to sip on the couch in a giant blanket, maybe in front of a fire or a few candles and some Boston Pops Holiday music.

Ingredients for 2:

3 cups raw cow’s milk, or any dairy free milk you like

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp cardamom

1/8 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2-3 T cacao powder

2 T maple syrup

1. Heat up milk in a saucepan on medium heat and add spices. If using raw cow’s milk, bring to a low boil and simmer for a couple minutes, very careful not to let it boil over (don’t leave the kitchen!).

2. Turn off heat and add cacao and maple syrup. Blend with a hand blender to mix. If you don’t have one then use a whisk, or you can blend all ingredients in a blender first and then heat up in the pot.

3. Pour into mugs and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Christmas Dal

Dal is a soup made of split yellow lentils or mung beans. They cook similar to red lentils, breaking down into a creamy stew. Ayurveda is obsessed with mung beans because they are the easiest legume to digest and assimilate, meaning no extra energy is wasted on digestion. They are packed with protein and fiber and have a scraping, cleansing effect on the gut. Soups like kitchari and dal are eaten during sickness, given as baby’s first food, and consumed during spiritual cleansing. I make a mung bean soup weekly, always changing the veggies based on what I have. I had some kale and diced tomatoes so this became a Christmas colored warming meal. If you have high pitta (internal heat, sometimes manifesting as heartburn) you can leave out the pungent onion and garlic and go easy on the tomatoes, though the turmeric, kale, and cabbage bring balance with bitter and astringent tastes.

Ingredients:

1 T ghee

1 T minced fresh turmeric or 1 tsp ground turmeric

1 T minced fresh ginger or 1 tsp ground ginger

1 clove garlic smashed and minced

1 small onion, chopped small

1/4 of a green cabbage, chopped thin

1 cup diced canned tomatoes, or 1 fresh tomato sliced, inside grated on a box grater, skins discarded

1 cup split yellow mung beans, rinsed well

6 cups water

2 big handfuls kale, chopped small

1 tsp pink salt

1. In a medium soup pot melt ghee and sauté turmeric and ginger a couple minutes, then add garlic and onions, cooking until onions soften, around 3 minutes. Add cabbage and soften another 3-5 minutes.

1. Add tomatoes and mung beans and stir to coat about a minute.

2. Add water and bring to a boil then turn down to simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes or until mung beans split and are very soft.

3. Add kale, cover and let steam for about 4 minutes. Turn off heat, add salt and stir it up. We like to top this with nutritional yeast.

Kale Chips, or Baked Kale Salad

This is a great quick snack when you’re feeling snacky but also want something healthy. Dark greens like kale are bitter and astringent, and baking kale into chips makes them dry, crispy, and light, so this is perfect to balance kapha. A great thing to have in your back pocket as heavy holiday food starts coming on full throttle.

Pitta people are also balanced by bitter/astringent/dry, and if you have high internal heat you can leave out the heating spices like chipotle. Vata people will find this oiled and spiced kale easier to digest than a raw kale salad.

Ingredients:

• 2 T olive oil

• 1 T apple cider vinegar

• 2 T nutritional yeast

• 1/2 tsp onion powder

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp dried chives

• dash of chipotle powder or cayenne

• 1 bunch kale, leaves torn/stem removed, washed and spun in salad spinner

• pink salt to taste

Preheat oven to 300. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except kale and salt into a dressing/paste. Add kale leaves and mix with tongs to coat. Season with salt and toss again. Spread onto a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 12 minutes for a baked kale salad, and a couple extra minutes for kale chips.