Autumn always feels like a storm, powerful and graceful. Its wind can give us clarity or make us lost and confused in thousands of useless and stressful thoughts. And it invariably changing, day by day, hours by hours. One of the crazy power of Vata and its Air element. Everything is moving, shifting, never resting, making us energy less and tired.

At fall, all nature is in transition to prepare for the winter. The days become shorter. The bright light that uses to shine into the sky during the summer is now returning to the ground, in the glowing leaves of the trees that litter the ground like a brick road to another OZ country. Associated with the teasing wind, the climate plays tricks, alternating hot and cold days, rain and fine weather. An instability in the image of our mental agitation.
As temperatures diminish, our gaze shifts to the earth that stored the summer heat; it is the season for harvesting apples, walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, mushrooms, squashes ... The attention is directed towards inside in conscious reflections, like internal lights to help us to leave behind what does not serve us anymore and to set new goals.
 
By these attributes (cold, dry, light, changing ...), autumn is the classic vata season, governed by the energy of change. However, depending on our geography situation, the dry and changing qualities of vata may also have appeared earlier in the summer. In the early autumn, the vata accumulates and is provoked causing typical imbalances such as: constipation, joint pain, gas, sciatica, dry skin, emotional instability ... As the wind is good at reviving the flames, Pitta accumulated from summer  may also come out at this time in the form of skin problems or migraines. End of Autumn, it will be the turn of the Kapha to accumulate. The organs to be regulated at this season are the colon, the ears, the skin, the joints, the lungs.

1. Detox at the beginning of the season
Ideal period to refocus after the summer holidays, fall is time to clean our excretory organs to prepare for the winter. How? With a mono-diet. However, beware of extremes which increase vata! 3 days are enough! But it takes as much time before and after to slowly rehabilitate the body to heavier foods. Best: promote a simple diet based on cooked and spiced bitter vegetables (soup or steamed sautés), grape / cooked apples / cooked pears, or kichadi (Indian dish mixing cereals, legumes, vegetables and spices). Reduce step by step all heavy food 3 days before (incl meat, dairies, gluten, nuts, sweets...) and re-introduce them slowly over 3/4 days after the detox.
 
2. Support healthy digestion and elimination
It is the moment to help our transit to avoid the disagreements not so glamorous (gas, bloating, cramps, gurgling ...) of an increased Vata. For that, we use spices. The best for vata are heating, digestive and carminatives such as: cumin, fennel, cardamom, coriander, sage, rosemary, curry, cinnamon, ginger.... Most of the spices being fat soluble, they must first be first fried in a little bit of oil to make them active.
With the drop of temperature that decreases blood flow, our dear colon is slower. It is then subject to frequent imbalances alternating constipation and diarrhea. For constipation, we prefer demulcent herbs (mallow, marshmallow roots, lemon balm ...) in the evening or some triphala at night; for diarrhea, tisanes with astringent plants (strawberry, alchemille, agrimony ...).
 
3. Focus on heavier foods with sweet, sour and salty flavors
Nutritious foods, fleshier with a soupy texture seem attractive. Their anabolic actions reconstruct the diminished tissues after the summer (especially the skin which is super important to nourrish to isolate from the winter cold). The sour, salty and sweet flavors are heavy and softening to anchor and moisturize the agitated air element. Salty counteracts dryness by helping to preserve liquids. Sour has an emollient action that induces the secretion of digestive juices. Beware of the excess of sour and fermented flavors which may provoke Pitta!
 
FRUITS
More: Apples (Sweet), Apricots, Avocados, Coconuts, Dates, figs, Grapes, Green and yellow lemons, Mangoes, Oranges, Pineapples, Plums, Quinces, Tamarind, Tangerines, Clementines, Pears
Less: Sour Apples, Bananas, Berries, Cherries, Grapefruits, Kiwis, Papayas, Peaches, Pomegranates, Strawberries, Watermelons
VEGETABLES
More: Artichokes, Asparagus, BokChoy, Cooked carrots, Green beans, Watercress, Gombos, Parsnips, Rutabagas, Courgettes, Sweet potatoes, Winter squash
Less: Mushrooms, Jerusalem artichokes, Choufleur, Tomatoes, Turnips, Eggplants, Carrots , Cabbages, Radishes
CEREALS & LEGUMES
More: Brown Rice Short Rice Oats Wheat Quinoa Barley Azukis Beans Mungo Urad Dhals Chickpeas Lentils
Less: Rye Millet Buckwheat Amaranth Rice Long Bulgur Beans (all) Peas broken
DAIRY
More: Unsalted butter, Cow's milk, Goat's milk, Ghee, Yoghurts, Fresh cheeses
Less: Anything that is too cold, salty or fermented: aged cheese, cream, salted butter, ice-cream
HERBES & SPICES
More: Cinnamon, Cumin, Ginger, Cardamom, Curcuma, Garlic, Oregano, Paprika, Parsley, Anise, Coriander, Mustard, Asafoetida, Saffron, Clove, Fennel, Mint, Dill
Less: Excess of pungent and heating! Cayenne pepper, Raw garlic, Mace, Marjoram, Raw onions, very strong curry
OILSEEDS
More: Grated coconut, white sesame, Toasted sunflower seeds, Poppy seeds, Blanched almonds
Less: Cashew Too much oilseed will be too dense to digest at this season, a source of indigestion and toxins.
 
4. Boost circulation
At fall, our skin loses much of its luster. Indeed, due to the vasoconstriction, the vitality of the skin decreases. When the temperature drops, our body protects itself against heat loss by reducing blood flow to the skin, arms and legs. The trees experience something similar: when the weather becomes cold, they draw their sap in their heart, their roots. This is why it is so good to consume roots in the autumn: tubers in our plates and roots in our herbal teas!
Some advices:
Massage the whole body with heating and tonic oils (sesame oil, essential oils of cypress / basil / tarragon / cinnamon) before showering in the evening, then shower with hot water.
Drink hot lemon ginger honey in the morning.
Add a pinch of turmeric in the dishes to keep the circulation.
 
5. Take care of your joints
In the fall, joint pain tends to come out. In Ayurveda, the bones are directly related to the colon. The best thing is to massage the painful zone with vegetal oil and chamomile and camphor essential oils.  To calm the vata, you should limit alcohol and caffeine and drink anti-inflammatory herbal tea such as white willow bark. Birch bark, blackcurrant leaves, chamomile matricaria ... It is also important to eat more minerals by adding nettle gomasio (it is a delicious topping!).

Return to Paris for a few days, as an interlude before a new start.
I just came back from a trip to India, where I was fortunate to be able to study with an awesome Dr., Dr. Hari, who in addition to his biblical knowledge in Ayurveda, has so much heart and compassion. I also met friends, pure-hearted and crazy, an incredible mix to guarantee adventures and discoveries. India awakens, frightens, pricks, caresses, makes deaf or blind, fills and empties ... so many contradictions and so much to discover. For the moment I allow myself time to digest all this. Time does not press. It is always relative. One can choose at any time to slow down its course, as one would hang an hourglass, and from savior one by one each of its grains. Why hurry, there is so much to love. In recent years, through yoga, ayurveda, meetings, travels, friendships I have enjoyed every moment. But, time seems to have accelerated this year in Paris. I’m back now for 1.5 years already ... I am so happy and thankful for all the experiences I have been able to do!

I met the wonderful people in various settings, gave consultations in Ayurveda and Nutrition, followed the first patients in the long term, gave workshops, co-organized a detox weekend with my talented and amazing Friend Majda, Given cooking workshops, co-wrote a book (AyurvedaFood) with Sanjee, traveled to London and Sicily, changed apartment 4 times, survived bed bug invasion, spent days preparing Plants, elaborated my medicinal oils and ghee, tried to do home caterer with Majda, a lot of coffee too short (even ayurvedic), worked in a vegan restaurant, created vegetarian recipes with Majda, sung much, integrated a Yoga family (Samasthiti), made a trip to Corsica with my sister, danced until exhaustion, triggered my sciatica too many times by excess of dance, integrated a group of artists for improvisation, experienced full moon circles, lived 1 week In full nature with women in the Cévennes, rediscovered my totem animal, pulled the cards (a lot), lost my fetish necklace, followed an Abhyanga massage training and body therapies, integrated the Ayurveda association in France, met an amazing Practitioner in Ayurveda, celebrated my father's 60th birthday, skied for the new year with my sister, her partner and my cousin, traveled to India for the first time, created and strengthened friendships, accepted a departure, bought more books than I were able to read, doubted me, loved every moment ... Above all, I questioned my nature and my way again and again. This questioning has finally paid off, at least achieving ;). I am certain of my will to continue in the care, in Ayurveda, in natural therapies, in plants. I think that true care does not come by itself, but always within a community that learns and develops together. Ayurveda has never been practiced alone for the welfare of the practitioner as well as the patient. In the same way, true healing is done in nature and not in the city, and requires time. Finally, the will to care must be de-correlated with money in my opinion. Certainly we live in a world where we need money. But I do not want it to be an obstacle to help and care. For his reasons, I now appreciate bringing him closer to nature, studying plants directly in his bosom, and discovering the projects that advocate his values. So comes a new period of travel and experimentation. My Vata rejoices! This is how I leave Paris after my birthday. I think celebrating my 30th anniversary marks a turning point for the next chapter ahead. What's next? I will give the Ayurvedic answer to everything "it depends";) My encounters and experiences. You have to try to get your opinion and learn for yourself.

But I have validated some next milestones: I will co-animate  ayurvedic cure of a week at the end of February, then direction Switzerland for 1 month in permaculture center which also cultivates medicinal plants, to discover other projects (communities, NGOs ...). Along the way, I continue my consultations and I also give treatments (abhyanga, other ayurvedic care). From now on, the payment will be on donation (monetary or not).

Thank you to all and all the people who crossed my path these years
Love

A few days ago, Majda and I have organized a Yummy Tea Time and Discovery of the 6 tastes according to Ayurveda. It was a special event to make people discover our vegetarian healthy food and the ayurvedic approach to nutrition. The idea was quite simple: make the attendees identify the 6 tastes that Ayurveda speaks about - sweet, salted, sour, pungent, bitter, astringent -, by tasting some delicacies especially designed for this event. It was such an opportunity for us to let our creativity flows!
 
To illustrate the sweet taste, we prepared these little energy balls made of dried apricots and coconut powder. These little sweets are the perfect snack to give you an energy boost during a long working day. Apricots bring a slight and soft sweet taste and a smoothness that we usually don’t find in this type of balls, which are generally made of dried raisins or dates.
The combination with coconut is to us – and the participants agreed too! – a real success.

If you are not convinced yet, the easy instructions below and the few ingredients needed should help to make your mind!

The sweet taste is related to certain functions in our body: it develops and regenerates tissues, increases body fluids, blood, muscle, fat, bones and nervous tissues, it gives strength and energy, and it boosts immunity, growth and reproduction. In Ayurveda, we also say that the sweet taste is emotionally linked to love and comfort. It is interesting to draw a parallel with our current society where much of the population is addicted to sugar. Why do we need as much sugar? To give us the energy to deal with all the constraints and activities of our busy lives? To bring us comfort, a small loophole in our stressful routine? Or to fill our lack of love?

Today's society puts a lot of barriers and space between people and relationships, even within families. Despite the fact that we live surrounded, many people feel deeply alone, experience a lack of love from others but also towards themselves. I think this is the major reason for this addiction to sugar. Our brain activity certainly needs it, but in normal amounts, given the fact that most people do not have a physical activity requiring a really important intake. Thus, how to manage cravings for sugar to give us a little love feeling in a more balanced way?
In Ayurveda, there are various ways to work on the emotional hunger and the recognition of real hunger. Here, we simply wanted to create a healthy snack, both energizing and comforting, which can serve us as a breakfast, a snack after sport to give us energy, or for the 4pm break (for elders or youngers)... a little ball for our daily life!
This apricoco ball therefore combines simple and digestible ingredients to give us the energy shot we need while being easily assimilated by our body.

• Dried apricots are sweet in taste, heating and anabolic. They reduce Kapha and Vata (in reasonable quantities because of their dry quality) and can increase Pitta if too sour. One way to make it more digestible for Vata is to soak them for a few hours before. Their high fiber content makes them a general laxative. They are also very nutritive.
• Coconut is sweet, cooling and anabolic. It reduces Vata and Pitta but tends to increase Kapha. It has many benefits on our organism: tonic for the blood, liver, and brain, anti-inflammatory, antacid, and energizing.
• The almond powder made from blanched almonds is sweet, cooling and anabolic. It also decreases Vata and Pitta and like all nuts it increases Kapha (if consumed in large quantities). It is nourishing, laxative, tonic for muscle, brain, blood and skin, it fills our appetite and give us energy. Its high protein content makes it a food of choice for vegetarians (in moderation of course). Vegans love it for its richness in calcium and magnesium, which relaxes muscles, nourishes the bones and helps manage anemia problems. Finally, almonds are rich in fatty acids and Vitamin E which helps calm the nervous system and therefore to relax and de-stress.
  

Today, we are going to be unconventional… On a Valentine day, as food bloggers, we are supposed to present some lovely meltingly chocolate cake or a fancy appetizer that puts you in a romantic mood.
But it doesn’t really feel like it. Right now, we are not looking for more candies and cakes but for some simple, tasty and regenerative food. A new approach to friendship and love?

The good news is the recipe that follows will probably be more useful to you than some glamorous Red Velvet Vanilla Cupcakes with a Poppy Frosting J
 
Inspiration for today’s recipe comes from the type of lunch Eloïse and I usually have during our working days. Every Wednesday, we meet to create new recipes. The day starts at the Edgar Quinet market where we can find very good quality products, sometimes organic, very often from the region. There, among fresh fruits and vegetables, we find inspiration for new savory and healthy recipes. Even if we like proposing easy recipes, food blogging requires creativity, sense of esthetics and originality. But what about unpretentious and genuine food?
 
This week, we decided to ignore rules J. Therefore, we are suggesting you a meal that we would typically eat in our day-to-day lives. A meal made of seasonal and affordable vegetables. But still, it is very poetic to us!
 
This bowl is made of beautiful Swiss chards cooked with ras-al-hanout, Moroccan style carrots (chermoula) and a delicious raïta sauce. Roasted sunflowers give this bowl a crunchy and tasty touch!

Swiss chards
1 bunch Swiss chards, sliced
2 onions, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ras-el-hanout*
1 pinch black pepper
Some sage leaves
 
In a wok, heat the spices in oil. Add garlic, onions and sage. Let brown for a few minutes.
Pour the chards. Add some water (½ to 1 cup should be enough). Cook for 10 minutes over medium heat.
 
* If you do not find ras-el-hanout, you can mix some of the following: coriander, turmeric, cardamom, ginger and cloves.
 
‘Chermoula’ carrots
1 pound /600g carrots, sliced into rounds
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp paprika / cayenne
1 tsp cumin
1 or 2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
 
In a saucepan, heat the spices in oil. Add garlic and let brown for a few minutes, over low heat.
Pour carrots. Add some lukewarm water (1 cup). Cook covered for 15 minutes. Add cilantro at the end.
 
Raïta
200g soy yoghurt
½ lemon, juiced
1 tsp mustard
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp turmeric
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt
 
Pour all ingredients into a bowl. Mix with a spoon.
 
Seeds
150g sunflower seeds
1 rosemary sprig
 
In a pan, pour seeds and rosemary leaves. Let brown for 2 or 3 minutes.
 
Arrange the bowl the way you like. Play with colors. Enjoy!

A simple meal, digestible, warm and satisfying. These are the watchwords for this winter season. Winter is the kingdom of Kapha with which it shares the same qualities. In most places, it's colder, cloudy, foggy, rainy or dry and heavy. We just want to curl up at home and hibernate. Because winter is colder, many people may also experience symptoms of Vata if they already have an imbalance, especially in late winter when the wind is back and when the climate is irregular. Therefore, adopting a diet to pacify Vata and Kapha is important during the months of January and February.

What are the attributes to look for? A warming food, more liquid, spicy, digestible and nutritious.

Why nourishing and satisfying? Because in winter our appetite is increased and it is normal. Indeed, cold temperatures close pores and superficial connective tissue. This reduces the heat loss. The heat of the peripheral system is then gathered inside the body, in the stomach thereby increasing the digestive metabolism and therefore the appetite.

In terms of taste, we will focus on more balanced flavors incorporating the 6 tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, astringent). The excess of sweet, salty and sour increases Kapha, while the excess of bitter or astringent increases Vata. We must therefore find the right balance and above all choose the right spices for the season :)

Thus, we have prepared this simple and delicious meal.

• Some carrots (cooked) with their sweet taste, their warming metabolic action and their catabolic effect on digestion and elimination (laxative). Cooked carrots decrease both Vata and Kapha. Carrots are alterative (they purify the blood), they protect the lungs, are a tonic for the lungs, skin and eyes. As alkaline food, they help to rebalance the acidity (illness, pain). In addition, cooking with cumin (spicy and bitter flavor) and paprika (spicy and sweet taste) exhales their action on digestion.

 

• The chards with both sweet and bitter flavors, are warming for the metabolism and catabolic for digestion, which promotes digestion and elimination. Chards reduce all 3 doshas. They also have a diuretic action (good for removing Kapha accumulation in winter). They are rich in calcium, iron and magnesium, Vitamin A, C and E. The combination with garlic, onion and sage sublime their sweet and dense side (nutritive). Ras-el-hanout is a mixture of spices which composition tends to vary according to the recipes (same as curry). It still remains a carminative mix, antispasmodic and catabolic for digestion and elimination. Its spicy flavor - but not burning - blends perfectly with the sweetness of the chards.

• For both recipes, we favored cooking with olive oil to honor our Mediterranean origins. This oil is preferably not heated or at very low temperatures (as it burns at very low temperatures). Cooking with ghee or sesame oil would be recommended by Ayurveda, but we just wanted its unique flavor. And finally, no one is perfect ;)

 

• A creamy yogurt sauce, spicy and moisturizing to accompany these yummy veggies. Despite the soy controversy, it remains a very healthy and easily digestible vegetable protein intake. As we say in Ayurveda, any food (if organic, untreated ...) is good by nature. It depends for whom, how, when, and in what quantities. In all cases, it should be consumed organic and without GMO. Its cooling effect on metabolism can disturb Vata and Kapha if it is not combined with carminative and heating spices. That is why we have combined it with lemon mustard, turmeric, salt, pepper and rosemary.
  • Sour lemon with a heating effect on the metabolism.
  • Spicy and hot mustard
  • Olive oil has a sweet taste
  • Turmeric mixes the bitter, the spicy and the astringent tastes. In addition to its miraculous virtues, it gives a nice color to the sauce
  • The sweet and astringent rosemary, ideal to treat our winter ailments
    

It was the day after November 13th. After some hesitation, we decided to go outside and walk in Paris streets, and met near the Luxembourg garden, in a lovely coffee shop called Bread & Roses. While we were warming up with a cup of tea, we were looking at the pastries that a group of American tourists ordered. Despite the attacks, these women were eager to still discover France, its culture and gastronomy J
 
Suddenly, a beautiful Mont-Blanc appeared. Almost magnetized by this wonderful winter pastry, we started a discussion about how to come up with a vegan and lighter version of it. The machine of yummy dreams was restarting!
 
Usually made of a meringue covered with a whipped cream and garnished with chestnut cream vermicelli, Mont-Blanc is often criticized for being a rich and buttery pastry. Our idea was to bring some lightness with a tiger-nut biscuit and a tangerine fluid cream.
 
The perfect dessert to close your Christmas dinner !
 
Happy holiday season to everyone!

Preparing the biscuit
In a dry pan, toast the tiger-nut flour for a few minutes, until it exhales its flavors. Let it cool.
Soak the flax seeds in 15 cl hot water and mix.
In a food processor, pour the flour and the flax seed mixture. Add the dates. Mix.
Preheat the oven 180°C / 350°F. Spread the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, 1-2 cm thick. Cook for 10 minutes.
 
Preparing the tangerine cream
In a saucepan, mix the agar-agar in 10 cl water. Whisk for 2 minutes after boiling. Let cool.
In a blender, mix the silky tofu to obtain a fluid texture. Add the tangerine zest and the water with agar-agar. Blend.
 
Dressage
Break the cookie in small pieces with hands. Put some in the bottom of a ramekin. Add some tangerine cream and put in the fridge for 2 hours, to let the cream harden.
Then, add the chestnut cream at your convenience. Enjoy

How to prepare tasty, playful and festive desserts which stay digestible for these festivities? Christmas and New Year are gathering with family and friends. Wonderful dinners but generally difficult to digest. Especially when you get to desserts while you are already full from the starters. 
This is a point on which Ayurveda can help us. How to prepare desserts that do not make our digestion collapse?
 
From a purely Ayurvedic perspective, sweet should generally be consumed before the meal because it is the heaviest foods (except meat) to digest and should therefore mobilize our metabolic activity in the first place. However, it seems difficult to implement for these dinners, at the risk of despair grandparents or trigger an earthquake in Christmas traditions (we do not want to spoil the dinner).
So we thought about a solution to this. We chose to create a trio, in a jar on three levels, to fill our cravings for sweets and ease our digestion, by marrying the flavors and limiting the quantities (there are always too many desserts!).
 
The flavors of this dessert are seasonal: chestnuts, tangerines, nuts ... According to Ayurveda, seasonal products help us to balance as they reflect the normal cycle of nature and the world of which we are part.
The biscuits which form the 1st level of the jar are light and digestible (although nourishing) without eggs (flax seeds are used as binder), and contain only natural sugar (dates).
The cream is made from silken tofu, which is also very light, cooling and smooth. Slightly sweetened with rapadura sugar to let rise the aroma and the qualities of tangerine, digestive, nervine, antioxidant...
The chestnut cream on top is the densest layer. Its rich and sweet flavor marries perfectly with the clementine and the nut of the lower layers. Its sticky quality is perfectly combined with the softness of the cream and the crunchiness of the biscuits.
 
As my teacher says, Ayurveda is the science of indulgence. It is never extreme. Its nutrition focuses on the individual but also and above all on the awareness on the act of eating itself and on the notion of pleasure. These celebrations are certainly the opportunity to eat but mostly it is an opportunity to come together, perhaps to cook together (this food has the best taste and best virtues), talking and eating. These meals give us the opportunity to fully savor delicious food in the company of loved ones. This will definitely help our digestion! Because the setting also plays a key role in the assimilation and digestion of food.

This recipe was created with Majda from Bread & Olive.

Bon appétit & happy holidays!

In Ayurveda, we speak of three organizational principles that govern physiological and psychological functions of our body / mind / soul. They are three smart managers upon who depends our balance. They are the basis of the Ayurvedic system and have been codified long ago (between 15000 and 1500 BC according to the debates) when Physicists have worked to understand the different relations and links between the stages of matter and their modifications.
These three doshas are: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. They are also associated to the macrocosm (because the macrocosm reflects the microcosm / the body) and thus to the seasons, months, hours ...

Winter is the season of Kapha in all its beauty. In winter, life slows down (or at least it is supposed to, even if life in the cities do not necessarily allow it). In most places, it's colder, cloudy, wet, dense ... similar qualities as Kapha and will therefore contribute to its build up and provocation. Because winter is cold, it also tends to disturb Vata. My experience also demonstrated to me that climatic irregularities (alternating hot and cold days, rainy and beautiful) as well as stress and speed of life in cities push also Vata in winter. This often gives Vata pushing Kapha type of problems.

Pathological symptoms result in congestion (sinus), cough and all colds in general (flu, sore throat, stomach pain ...). Emotionally speaking, we can experience loneliness, heavy heart and sometimes a small winter depression due to the lack of light, the return to work, stress...

All this is logical, because these problems are directly related to the same Kapha sites in the body (stomach, lungs, pericardium (around the heart)) and emotionally to love & compassion. If you feel changes (slow digestion, not hungry, full sinus, weight gain, moral flat ...), we understand that our Kapha is increased and that must be balanced.

We must therefore adopt behaviors to reduce it such as:
- Avoid foods that increase Kapha and Vata
- Avoid excess too sweet, salty or fermented
- Eat at regular times
- Avoid drinking or eating cold (ice, drinks) or raw
- Try to go to bed earlier
- Although hedge
- If to spend more through sports or activities if possible friends
- ...

These last days, after the tragic events that happened in Paris, Majda and I felt the need to gather and cook together. Cooking and sharing are the values we take refuge in when we face violence, hate and despair. So the day after the attacks, we met and cooked a couscous. A meal of comfort and gathering, a meal to heal the wounds and calm the pain. It’s not a coincidence that couscous is served in funerals in the Maghreb countries. It is also the meal that follows the Friday prayer. Comfort and communion…
This is why we decided to organize a vegetarian couscous dinner to gather people willing to discover new ways to eat, share and dialogue. Food is a beautiful way to discover other cultures and way of lives, and to start to dialogue with them. (You will find below the details of this event, you are very welcome to join.)
 
But in these difficult times, we also need poetry. Therefore, this fall flower salad is very welcome! No doubt that this colorful mix of flavors, sweet and sour, raw and cooked, is our favorite salad of the season.
 
We are sure that the sweetness of apple, the softness of squash, the crunchiness of toasted sunflower seeds won’t leave you indifferent.

Ayurveda and salad ... a long story! According to Ayurveda, everything can be good but it depends for whom, when and how it is prepared. From an ayurvedic perspective, raw food is rather recommended for Pitta individuals, in summer and rather at noon. It is difficult to digest for Vatas because its qualities are very similar: light, crispy, airy, dry, cold, sometimes dense and rich (oils, seeds, nuts). It slows the digestive system of Kaphas, which is already as fast as a turtle, because it shares the same identical qualities: dense, slow (to digest because not cooked), rich and especially cold. To summarize, nothing to help digestion! Therefore a salad with raw and cooked ingredients is really better for everyone J
On a bed of raw spinach, we chose ingredients that balance Vata (which tends to be higher during fall). Baked food, hot, tender, rich and digestible: pumpkin, apple, avocado and sunflower seeds.

Discovered during the 12th century in Ethiopia, coffee is now a universal beverage. Coffee is the first agricultural commodity traded in the world and the second raw material in value after oil. It is a huge economic stake! Coffee is the first consumed beverage in the world after water, far beyond wine!
For many of us, coffee is the very first thing in the morning. As soon as we get out from bed, the machine is ready for this energy shot. It’s the first one of a long series of cups during the day…

Vata * individuals are already hyperactive, spending their time running everywhere and tend to be agitated and to disperse energy. They are more vulnerable to dehydration, constipation and insomnia. For them, coffee consumption should be limited. The sweet, salty and sour tastes balance Vata.
Pitta ** are brilliant people active and determined. Also with a tendency to hyperactivity. They tend to develop inflammation and acidity. Just as Vata, Pitta should control its coffee consumption. The sweet, bitter and astringent tastes are good for Pitta.
The Kaphas *** are the most stable individuals. They tend to gain weight and have a slow metabolism. There are those who benefit the most from the coffee and its digestive properties especially if it is black, without sugar and after the meal. The spicy, bitter and astringent tastes balance Kapha.

To antidote coffee for the 3 doshas, ​​but also to take into account the fall season (and the rise of Vata), we chose to add spices and coconut oil in its preparation … These spices are good for the three doshas.

• Cardamom is cooling and digestive action is sweet, which means it has an anabolic effect (creation of tissues) which balances the catabolic action of the coffee. It is carminative, diuretic, expectorant, digestive, anti-flatulent, anti-nausea ... By its action decreasing Vata, Pitta and Kapha, cardamom is a good antidote to reduce stressful coffee effect on the adrenal glands.
• Cinnamon is heating and also anabolic. It destroys toxins, increases appetite, traffic, energy. It is digestive, antispasmodic, expectorant. It is also used to treat menstrual problems (dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, and menorrhagia). It reduces Vata and Kapha and increases Pitta.
  
• Ginger is also heating and anabolic. It destroys toxins, increased appetite, stops nausea, reduces pain, is an expectorant, diaphoretic, regenerative (all tissues) and emmenagogue ... It is also widely used in the treatment of various types of arthritis or in case of colds. It decreases Vata and Kapha and increases Pitta in excess.
  
• Coconut oil is cooling is anabolic. It will therefore calm the heating side of cinnamon and ginger and therefore Pitta. Its mild, sweet and oily side get rid of the drying effect of coffee. This serves as protection for the adrenal glands. She will give a velvety appearance to coffee, dense and smooth, which is very good for Vata and Pitta.

You can also use nutmeg (just a tip). It is heating and catabolic. It is nervine, sedative, carminative, stimulant and expectorant. Its action on the nervous system will decrease the exciting side of coffee and therefore limit the release of adrenaline. Some people do not necessarily like its very pronounced taste, so we haven’t added it to the recipe. However, its virtues combined with this recipe are beautiful and deserve our attention. So if you like its taste, try it! Otherwise the basic recipe suits you best!