Wednesday, September 27, 2006

RECIPE ~ Easy Peas & Fennel


I love a side dish of peas but often find them a bit bland or lacking (and in need of more nutritious veggies mixed in there). Fennel has a lovely, fragrant flavour that gives those peas some oomf!

1 Tbsp ghee
1 bulb fennel, washed
2 cups frozen peas
1 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper
2 Tbsp fresh mint, chopped


Cut the fennel bulb in half, between the more prominent stalks. Put one half away, and cut the remaining half in half, then slice each quarter into thin crescent slices.

In a large saucepan, heat ghee until melted. (If you don't have ghee you can use olive oil, coconut oil or butter, but ghee is Ayurvedically a very good fat to cook with for all doshas.) Add sliced fennel and stir well, cooking covered over medium heat for 5 minutes to soften. Stir in peas and season with salt and pepper. Cook covered for 5 more minutes, adding a splash of water if it's drying out or sticking to the pot. Stir in mint and serve!

What to do with that leftover fennel bulb? Why, make Quinoa Tabouli Salad, of course!

FOR INDIVIDUAL DOSHAS
Great for all doshas! KAPHAS reduce ghee or oil to 1 tsp.

8 comments:

veronika said...

If you are say pita/vata and low on Kapha does that mean that you should eat foods recomended for Kapha diet to boost your kapha? Or, should you eat pita/vata foods to balance your kapha?

Oh and your advice that you gave to me last week....man I was not expecting that door to open to that room!!!!

Claudia Davila (Fran) said...

Hi, cutes!

If you are, say, pitta/vata and low on kapha, you should eat a pitta/vata diet meaning it recommends foods FOR pittas and vatas, which naturally contain Kapha elements in order to balance the pitta and kapha. As a pitta (fire/water), you need cooling drying foods (vata & kapha), but as a vata (cool/air) you need heating foods (pitta & kapha), so kapha foods would be common to both pitta and vata, obviously, and kapha foods are those that kaphas should avoid, because like increases like.

Have I completely confused you now????

Claudia Davila (Fran) said...

Maybe I should clarify... Pittas need a Pitta diet, or rather a Pitta-pacifying diet, and eat Pitta-pacifying foods, but should avoid "Pitta foods". For example, chili peppers are Pitta, so Pittas need to avoid them; sweet fruits are Kapha (therefore Pitta-pacifying and Vata-pacifying), so Pittas should eat them. : )

veronika said...

So I should eat Kapha inducing foods since my pita and vata are equal but my kapha is low?

Claudia Davila (Fran) said...

Exactly! So if you go to this web page that lists what Kapha's should and shouldn't eat, you should eat according to the list that Kaphas shouldn't eat (because these are kapha-increasing foods, which Kaphas need to avoid). The reason it's confusing is because you're looking at it beyond just what pitta/vatas should eat and seeing that you should therefore eat kapha foods. Does this help?

John Joseph Immel said...

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"Easy Peas and Fennel" was selected by JoyfulBelly as one of our "Creative Dishes" for December. Your entry was posted on April 26th.

When we visited your website we were pleasantly surprised to find a new, incredible chef re-inventing Ayurvedic cuisine. We appreciate what you're creating for the world!

Please nominate other great chefs creating the new food revolution. We rely on our readers for suggestions!

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Anonymous said...

The major thing to remember about some dosha being predominant in your body (ideally you should try and achieve balance of all 3 doshas- which - Ayurveda says is almost impossible - so don't worry too much if you are mildly dominant in one dosha. But what generally happens is most all of us have major dominance of one dosha which is termed an imbalance of that dosha and your body becomes that "type" since that dosha is major in your body. So Vata imbalance equals Vata being the major player in your body)is to pacify it or bring it down. NEVER try and achieve this by "increasing" other doshas. Always try and achieve it by pacifying that imabalanced dosha. There is such a thing as all doshas being imbalanced in your body - so all doshas being equal is NOT the same as all doshas being imbalanced equally. This one sentence does look confusing but that's only if someone is looking at it with a "quick give me a crash course" kind of mindset. While Ayurveda isn't confusing it requires a bit of indepth understanding. It's really easy once you invest a little time in it. Ultimately - try to pacify the imbalanced dosha(s) but not by increasing other doshas or imbalancing them too.