SPRING GREENS TIME!

In the last ten days, we’ve seen snowdrops and crocuses emerging, Chinese New Year (aka the Spring Festival) celebrations taking place, and literally everyone having a cough or cold. Why? Because it’s that between-seasons time again; we are slowly emerging from Winter into Spring. This time of year is both cold and wet- both of which are associated with the Kapha dosha. This is something we need to take into consideration when we are eating in order to prevent more coughs, colds, chest infections, tonsilitis and so on (and all the Covid scares, isolation days and FAFF these now create!).

I’ve had a lot of people ask me why I have chosen to focus so much on food on this blog, and quite simply it’s because it is the easiest thing for us to control! We can’t control the weather, we can’t control things like a global pandemic, and we can’t exert that much control over pollution levels where we live, or how annoying our co-workers are- all of which are things that could aggravate one or all of our doshas. However, we can easily control what we put in our mouths and the things we do with our bodies and breath, and it is these basic, every day things that can pacify aggravated doshas, and lead to lives that feel a bit healthier, a bit more content, and a bit less stressful!

With it’s cold, damp, sweet, sludgy kind of qualities, aggravated Kapha dosha gives us coughs, colds, mucous, inertia and that ‘blah’, grey sort of feeling. To combat this, we need to think about consuming more bitter, astringent kinds of food such as cabbage, spinach, kale, parsley and so on. We also need to up our intake of warming spices such as ginger, turmeric, pepper and cumin. However, because the wind is still up, and it’s only just February here in the UK, we do still need our grounding, sweet root vegetables.

For this dish, I sauteed spring greens in cumin, coriander, fennel and fenugreek seeds and hemp oil. I added boiled parnsip, broccoli and sweetcorn, a dash of ginger and lemon, a pinch of rock salt and a smidgeon of cayenne powder. It therefore combines the heating, drying qualities of the greens and spices with the grounding, calming qualities of the parsnips and sweetcorn. This, in essence, is what eating Ayurvedically is all about. If you know what is likely to put your doshas out of whack, then food is a great way to pre-empt the attack! Yoga is another way this can be achieved, and although I have twenty years experience of practicing yoga, I am not yet qualified to teach so am uncomfortable sharing too much on here for ethical reasons. However, I am currently working on my yoga teacher training certification, and will be using this to provide expert one-on-one yoga therapy for my clients, as well as sharing Ayurveda through yoga in public classes later on this year.