Recipes - Ananda Wellness

Check out our delicious and healthy Ayurvedic food, drink, tea and condiment recipes for every season


 
Warming Buckwheat porridge for cold winter days

Buckwheat is, despite it’s name, is not a wheat or even a grain but a seed, harvested from a flowering plant. The harvested kernels have excellent culinary and nutritional properties. They offer great bite and texture to salads or as a complex carb side dish, in porridges and soups. They are great for lowering ‘bad’ cholesterol, provide heaps of dietary fibre, and are an excellent source of magnesium, manganese and copper. They are also gluten free!

From an ayurvedic perspective, buckwheat is particularly beneficial for Kapha dosha, as its drying and heating nature balance the cold and wet properties of Kapha. The diuretic property it offers helps to remove excess water in the body - great for water retention, congestion and sluggishness!

For this recipe I used buckwheat flour but you could easily soak the groats / kernels overnight and then blend in water the next day to create smooth paste ready to make into porridge.

Throw in some winter fruit and seed for added flavour and texture (as long as made with plant milk. If using dairy, avoid fruit)

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Sri Lankan Beetroot Curry

Serve this spicy and earthy curry straight off the stove with warm rice and accompanying veggies and condiments such as a ‘pol’ sambol or a greens mallung. A hit from our last cooking workshop!

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Quick and easy make-at-home Granola recipe

Homemade granola with a tropical twist – perfect for breakky or an afternoon snack!

Oats, jaggery or kitul treacle, almonds, raisins, figs and fresh grated coconut toasted until golden and nutty. For spicy sweetness, I added cinnamon powder which also balances kapha and vata dosha with its pungent, warm and spicy qualities.

All wholefoods, so yummy and good for you! Serve with plant milk for Breakky, use as a crunchy topping on desserts, or a health snack on the go..

Use coconut oil in summer but in cold weather, you can use olive or sunflower oil. Consider also using Jaggery as a sweetener in place of sugar or honey. It is the raw, concentrated unrefined juice of sugar cane and comes in solid block form, powder or liquid. It comes both unrefined or washed (semi refined). The unrefined (older, unwashed) jaggery has a cleansing and purifying quality and is warming, which activates digestive enzymes. It balances vata, slightly decreases pitta and in moderation is a tolerable sweetener for kapha dosha too.

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Lavender Latte

Try this lavender latte instead of a hot chocolate at night when the late night cravings kick in! The chamomile also helps to soothe you to sleep…

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Gotukola with fenugreek & garlic in a savoury coconut milk porridge

A breakfast favourite, this bowl of green goodness is great for the gut, skin, immune system and is yummy to boot!

The bitter green gotukola balances out any internal heat and inflammation (not to mention chlorophyll/ greens in general being detoxifying, improving digestive health and oxidation), the coconut milk is nourishing and strengthening to the body, the curry leaves balance blood sugar, support digestion treating constipation, gassiness and/or diarrhea, great for hair, skin, eye sight while garlic is great for immunity, high blood pressure, cholestorol and more…. POWER PACKED!

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Lebanese Fatteh - Chickpea Bake

Christmas and other festive times of the year ends up indulgent, with heavy rich food and coloured & flavoured strong drinks and spirits... and while it’s important to let loose and enjoy times like this, a well rounded approach to well- being is to always keep some balance. For instance, you could do this by mixing it up with what you choose to serve or eat.

Meat or poultry is usually big focus on many tables and overdoing it leads to it being hard to digest, blocked up (you know the rest!)… a good way to switch things up would be to add in some flavourful meat free options as a main instead of ‘just a side’.

Here, I made some Lebanese fatteh, with chickpeas, Smokey paprika (not as hot as chilli but still a good kick!), fresh parsley, crispy pitta, garlic tahini yoghurt and almonds toasted in butter going all the way through the dish. The yoghurt brings some sourness for digestion, the butter is sweet and oleating yet balanced by the chickpeas. Recipe is below.

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Fig, Almond & Rose Bliss Balls

We made these gorgeous bliss balls for a pop up shop we hosted last year and they were a hit!

They are great blend of cacaco (heating), oat (dry) balanced with sattvic rose petals and soothing and nourishing coconut oil, fig, almond meal. In this season of hot and dry and then cold and wet days this is a balanced in-betweener.

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Broccolini, Shiitake and Soba in a warm ginger-miso broth

This warming, umami soup is a nourishing and easy to make ahead soup for dinners. The greens, soba (buckwheat), and ginger are great for kapha balancing, rounded off with sesame oil, black pepper and miso broth for an umami yumminess.

Simple, wholesome, nourishing and warming!

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My go to Cacao drink for boosting immunity and a radiant glow

Switching up your coffee or tea and swapping it with organic cacao is a great way to boost immunity, reduce inflammation and give you a radiant glow.

Being Sri Lankan I can’t help but reach for a cup of black tea with milk and sugar at some point in the day. It’s just a part of our way :) More recently however, and especially in winter, I have started swapping every other day or so with this hot mug of cacao goodness that is super healing and good for you.

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How to Create an Ayurvedic Pantry

Even if you are on a diet to pacify a specific dosha, it is still good to include all six tastes (sweet, salty, sour, astringent, bitter, and pungent). Focus on the ones related to the specific dosha you are trying to balance and take less of the other ones. In Ayurveda, understanding the tastes and including them in proportion to what elements you are balancing within your constitution is the key to unlocking nature’s healing power through diet.

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Cinnamon buckwheat porridge

Buckwheat or kuttu (if buying at an Indian / Sri Lankan shop) is naturally gluten free, and is a good source of fibre. It helps to dry and warm up the heavy and wet qualities of kapha dosha. It also has a diuretic quality which helps to remove excess water from the body - helpful if there is water retention and sluggishness. Use in moderation if you feel heaty pitta or dry erratic vata predominant in your system - try balancing with ghee for vata or cooking in coconut milk for pitta

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Mujadara: spiced rice + lentils with caramelised onions

A new discovery on how to cook lentils + rice (plus ghee, pine nuts, onions, raisins) and spiced with Baharat, made of beautifully warming black pepper, cardamom, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, coriander, paprika - perfect for cold days and yummy!

Although it is a hearty mix of lentils and rice, it is not a ‘cleansing’ food like kitchari because it has lots of fried onions in the mix, however it is certainly still nourishing and wholesome so is excellent to have for lunch or dinner with some salad and spiced yoghurt or raita. A great option to take to a party as well!

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Fruity Oat Slice

Try this quick, wholesome & yummy oat slice recipe for breakky or as a snack instead of reaching for the unhealthies. Can be prepped in 5 -10 minutes, baked in 20 - 25 minutes, tops. Use stewed apples instead of banana in colder months.

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Five Spice Baked Winter Veg with Roasted Garlic and Onion

Try this roast veggie dish with some herbed couscous on a cold winter night for wholesome yummy comfort. The sweetness of the veg is balanced with white pepper and the warmth of the cinnamon and 5 spice blend making it balanced and easy to digest in kapha dominant winter months. Takes about 10 min to prep and 25-30 min to bake, tops!

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Paspanguwa (Herbal Remedy)

The traditional decoction is called “Paspanguwa” consisting of five plants. These are boiled in water to produce a decoction (‘Peyawa’). If you cant get your hands on Paspanguwa (check any local Indian / Sri Lankan store) or are not able to find all of the ingredients used in the traditional version, some of the essential ones are sure to be in your kitchen so give it a go if needed!

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Pickled Turnips

I made these beautiful turnip pickles that add a tanginess and digestive boost to all the fresh and cooling green salads I've been having on warmer days. It's a nice way to round out a dish adding a dash of sour tang to the greens.

Quite a bit of turnip pickle used here, but this was a base to which a lot more fresh leaves, cucumber, other veg etc were added. I also chopped up the turnips to smaller pieces, and this was for about 2-3 servings. If doing for one, use half the amount⁠.

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Black Sesame Energy Ball Recipe

White and black sesame seeds come from the herb Sesamum indicum. It is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world and used widely in the ayurvedic tradition in our foods, oils and medicines.

Black sesame seeds have a slightly nuttier flavour than white sesame seeds, but both are excellent sources of phytonutrients, antioxidants, dietary fibre and nutrients. Black sesame in particular is a great source of healthy fats, supports the digestive system, keeps bones strong, contains beneficial anti-oxidants and much more..

You might have been recommended black sesame oil for use at home in your abhyangha but there is so much more you can use this wonder seed for.... I have created a lovely black sesame and honey energy ball recipe below.

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Winter Smoothie

I’ve started to get into warm smoothies as a near-midday snack, because Breakky happens quite early and I get peckish before lunch.

In the cold months, it can be tricky to get a smoothie fix in, so I created this warming and balanced blend that is yummy and hits the spot! This one has a semi sweet banana which I’ve balanced out with warming spices like turmeric, cinnamon and black pepper and added some spirulina and a few drops of hemp and flax oil for an extra boost. I used a tiny bit of Jalna natural yogurt (the best ever) and hot water to liquefy and blend.

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Healing & Hearty Spiced Vegetable Soup

This soup is a great alternative to Kitchari when you are in a period of cleansing or fasting, or as a warming lunch or dinner with a piece of toast on a cold day..

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