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
    

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
- ...