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!

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.

This is the story of an encounter… between two passionate girls. Passionate about yoga, cooking, and traveling… Such a meeting could only happen in Bali, an island of discovery, exchange and surprises! As a matter of fact, none of us could have imagined that such a creative and joyful collaboration would be born one year and a half later…
 
When we met in Bali, in April 2014, during a yoga immersion, Majda and I were seeking for a new impulsion and inspiration in our lives. And the Island of the Gods was just the right place to be for that… With a former career in business and management, and after having spent some years in international companies, we both decided to go towards a more balanced lifestyle and search for our wellbeing. In Bali, our choices were confirmed, and new aspirations were born. After this travel, Majda decided to launch Bread & Olives –lien, and I followed a special program in Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) – Lien Hypertext sur blog HelloAyurveda.
 
One year and a half later, we met again in Paris, and so much progress has been made! A common work on cooking seemed obvious. We both like simple and generous cooking, and we see food as an essential element for wellbeing. So we naturally decided to unite our energies and inspirations to offer you ‘fusion’ recipes: Mediterranean and ayurvedic, healthy and delicious, simple and creative, and always vegetarian!
 
For us, local and ayurvedic food is above all about respecting products that nature offers at a certain time and the cycle of seasons. This is why we’ve decided to start this collaboration with a special recipe to help you handle the change of season with this rough beginning of autumn  J
 
Ayurveda states that the macrocosm reflects in the microcosm and therefore influences directly our metabolism. So it recommends a seasonal life-style. It means we have to understand the characteristics of each season and adopt a special routine and diet accordingly. Every season has specific attributes and obeys to certain energies.

Autumn is generally described in Ayurveda as dry, light, humid, rough, changing and windy. All these attributes are those of Vata, one of the 3 doshas - these fundamental energies that governs psychic and physical functions in the body. Vata is therefore in excess during autumn.
 
An increase in Vata can lead to different disorders: stress, insomnia, fatigue, gas, constipation, joint pain, sciatic, irregular appetite, loss of memory, feeling of loneliness…
Since Ayurveda aims to find balance between the different doshas, it will therefore looks for reducing Vata influence during the fall, through a specific diet and habits.
 
We choose to present you a generous, savory and unique recipe, specially conceived to reduce our Vata that is going out of control at the momentJ. So we were looking for attributes that are the opposite of those of autumn: oily, warm, liquid, heavy (nutritious), soft and stable. In other words, digest, energizing, nutritive, rich and generous ingredients!
 
To do so, there is no better way than going to the market and start from seasonal products! When they are well combined and seasoned, these products are our best allies to struggle against fall disorders and bring us back to balance.
 
This squash and lentil soup will bring your body the softness it is craving for. And the candied ginger cream will give you this energy boost we all need at this moment!

Pre-heat the oven 180°C. Put the squash unpeeled, roughly cut, on a baking sheet. Lightly oil with hazelnut oil. Cook for about 40 minutes. Check with a knife if the flesh is tender enough. Remove from oven, let cool and cut in big cubes.
 
Cook the lentils in big volume of water, with the garlic cloves. Depending on the type of lentils you use, the cooking time will vary between 20 and 30 minutes.
 
In a cooking pot, heat the ghee with the spices. Add the onion and the leak, and let brown for 5 minutes. Add some water if needed. Pour the squash and the lentils; then cover with lukewarm water little by little. Cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat.
 
In a food processor, mix the preparation adding some water, until it is the right consistency. The result we are looking for is closer to a purée than the one of a « velouté » or a liquid soup.
 
To make the ginger cream, mix the ingredients in a blender until you obtain a homogenous consistency.
 
Serve warm in large bowls. Drizzle with the candied ginger cream.

Article cowritten with Majda Fahim, author of Bread & Olives.