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december 2014yogajournal.comSTORY BY HILLARI DOWDLE
RECIPES BY JEREMY ROCK SMITH
PHOTOGRAPHY BY REBECCA STUMPF
This year, serve up an Ayurvedic
holiday feast that will leave everyone
feeling well-fed in body and soul.
t
THE HOLIDAY TABLE, surrounded by friends and family,
is a home chef’s moment to shine. And with a properly
balanced menu, inspired by Ayurveda’s healing principles,
you can truly satisfy everyone in every sense. As Erin
Casperson, coordinator of Ayurvedic studies at Kripalu
Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts,
explains, chilly, windy winter weather has a drying effect on
skin, digestion, and sinuses. Ayurvedic cooking counters that
by emphasizing warm, hydrating broths and rich sauces. So
yes, that means your holiday meal can be a little indulgent.
And, if it’s well balanced with spices (which support
digestion), a full range of flavors, and nutrient-rich seasonal
produce, it will be just what the Ayurvedic doctor ordered.
“In the West, we are acculturated to do one thing: eat a
low-fat diet. But that’s not healthy in the winter,” says Tom
Yarema, MD, director of the Center for Wellness & Integra-
tive Medicine in Santa Cruz, California, and author of the
Ayurvedic cookbook Eat, Taste, Heal. “Instead, you want to
eat more foods that are unctuous—warm and juicy, with a
little more oil than you might eat in other seasons.” Eating
this way, he explains, will help keep your mucous mem-
branes moist and less susceptible to cold season.
What you eat should also always be guided by an under-
standing of your own predominant dosha, or natural energy
type, Dr. Yarema explains. The doshas influence our bodies
and personalities. Vata, the dosha that dominates in late fall
and early winter, is cool, dry, and irregular (think of creative,
scattered types), and it’s balanced by pungent spices, healthy
fats, and cooked grains. Pitta, on full display in summer, is
hot and fiery (driven type-As). Pittas need to cool down—
so less chili or other hot spices, and more bitter- and sweet-
flavored foods like whole grains and root veggies. Kapha,
which governs later winter and early spring, is earthy, cold,
and moist (think earth-mother types). Kaphas need spices,
too—and astringent tastes (lots of greens), but minimal oil.
(If you don’t know your dosha, take our quiz at yogajournal.
com/doshaquiz.)
No matter your dosha, the holiday meal offered on the
pages that follow, created by Kripalu’s executive chef, Jeremy
Rock Smith, will support it. The meal is designed to be bal-
ancing for all the doshas because it includes the six tastes
recognized in Ayurveda—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astrin-
gent, and pungent—all of which are required to make a meal
truly satisfying and nourishing. The dishes also align with
another Ayurvedic principle: the idea that nature provides us
with what we need when we need it, so eating locally and
seasonally will keep you healthy all year. (This menu is local
to Kripalu, so swap in similar local produce where you can.)
But, the most important ingredient in a feast? Pleasure.
“I can add this spice or that ingredient because it’s good for
you, but if you don’t enjoy the taste, it’s not Ayurvedic,” says
Rock Smith. “This meal is balanced, and it’s designed to lead
to physical and emotional enjoyment.”Hillari Dowdle is a writer and editor living in Knoxville, Tennessee.