What is Ayurvedic nutrition?

The dietary approach is an essential component of Ayurveda. It is based on the individual doshas. The doshas are three bioenergies composed of the five elements (earth, fire, water, air, ether/space). The literal meaning of the word can be translated as “that which can cause problems.” Which dosha one belongs to is innate. However, according to the Ayurvedic view of health, one can influence one’s own constitution through diet (and an adapted lifestyle).

What Ayurveda type am I? Take the test

If you want to know what Ayurveda type you are, there are several online tests available, the best known of which is probably the Banyan Botanicals Dosha Quiz. It’s in English, and you’ll need to register via email.

However, if you familiarize yourself with the different types, you can easily categorize yourself into a group.

Professional Ayurvedic Analysis and Guidance

If you’d prefer professional support, you can find it, for example, at special Ayurvedic retreats while on vacation. The Hotel Korinjak on the Croatian island of Iž, for example, is deeply rooted in Ayurveda and regularly hosts teachers (some of whom come directly from India or are graduates of the Wagholi College of Ayurveda or BSDT’s Ayurved Mahavidyalaya), who will work with you to determine your Ayurvedic type and provide you with specific dietary recommendations.

• You can check the hotel program to see when the next Ayurveda program is scheduled.

Ayurveda: What are you allowed to eat?

Listen to your body. This is one of the principles of Ayurvedic nutrition. What’s good for you? What isn’t? Especially at the beginning, you should stick to foods you’re used to so as not to overwhelm your body.

Recommendations are provided in the form of stimulating or soothing flavors that the individual dosha types can use as a guide.

Pitta Type (Fire with an element of Water)

A person who is predominantly Pitta can slightly temper the fire with sweet and astringent foods. As a Pitta type, you also tolerate carbohydrates much better than others.

Kapha Type (Earth and Water)

In contrast, Kapha types should opt for spicy, salty, or sour foods and spices and eat light meals to avoid exacerbating their tendency toward sluggishness and lethargy.

Vata Type (Air and Ether)

If you tend toward the Vata type, you can ground your mercurial nature with tart and spicy foods.

An Ayurvedic daily routine

Instead of focusing too much on the ingredients in your food, you can start by incorporating a mindful routine. Especially in our fast-paced world, it’s hard to consciously enjoy meals rather than viewing them merely as a necessary evil. After all, eating regularly is also part of the Ayurvedic lifestyle:

• Lunch is the main meal. Only light fare, such as grain porridge or soup, should be eaten in the morning and evening.
• You should avoid eating for one to two hours before going to sleep.
• Instead of ice-cold beverages, the Ayurvedic diet recommends warm water or tea.

Tip: Here’s something you can start doing right away as part of the Ayurvedic lifestyle: Drink a glass of warm (ginger) water as soon as you wake up. This will replenish your fluid levels and help you start the day feeling refreshed.

Also: Put your cell phone aside while eating, focus on the food in front of you, and savor the flavors. For example, the Ayurvedic, sweet, or savory breakfast waffles at the HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio.

The HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio specializes in Ayurvedic travel and treatments. Here, you can not only indulge in Ayurvedic delicacies but also learn how to prepare them yourself in a workshop.

Ayurvedic breakfast waffles (sweet or savory) from HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio

With the breakfast waffles from Gabriel, the Ayurvedic chef from the HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio, you start the day healthy and yummy. By the way, they are also a delicious highlight at brunch or at an extended family breakfast. The waffles are topped off with cashew chutney and a mouth-watering tomato spread.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Resting Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 2 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Main Course

Cuisine Ayurveda, Mexican

Servings 15 servings

Equipment

• 1 Waffle Iron / Waffle Maker

Ingredients

  

Sweet Breakfast Waffles

• 500 gr oat flakes
• 100 gr cane sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon / cocoa
• 600 - 700 ml cold(!) water optional: try it with orange juice and orange zest
• 50 gr cocos flakes, almonds, nuts, ... optional

Savory Breakfast Waffles

• 500 gr oat flakes
• 600 - 700 ml cold(!) water
• As you like pepper, cayenne-pepper, paprika, herbs, marjoram or coriander
• As you like salt
• 1 pinch of sugar
• 1 - 2 lemons (juice)

Cashew-Chutney

• ½ tbsp long pepper
• 1 tbsp salt
• 4 fresh, green chilis
• 1 clove of garlic
• 150 ml olive oil
• 150 ml water
• 400 gr cashews
• optional: basil leaves

Gabriels Tomato Spread

• 200 gr dried tomatoes
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• ½ tsp coriander seeds
• ½ tsp fennel seeds
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 2 cloves
• 1 Lime (juice)
• 40 ml olive oil
• 1 pinch of salt

Instructions

 

Sweet Breakfast Waffles

• Mix the oat flakes, sugar and cinnamon or cocoa (whichever you like better) well with the cold water.
• Let the oat flakes soak for at least fifteen minutes so that they absorb the liquid thoroughly.
• Then you can bake the waffles normally in your waffle iron and serve.

Savory Breakfast Waffles

• Again, mix all the ingredients together until well combined.
• Flavor the waffles to your taste with pepper, herbs and spices. Gabriel has provided a few suggestions that go well with the Ayurvedic way of life.
• Let the dough soak for at least two hours so that the oatmeal absorbs the liquid, oil and spices nicely.
• Then you can bake the waffles as usual in your waffle iron.

How to prepare the Cashew-Chutney

• Cut the green chilies into small pieces.
• Add the long pepper, the salt and the chopped chilies to a mortar and grind everything firmly. Important: The chili seeds must be thoroughly crushed, otherwise they will burn.
• Then chop the garlic clove and add it to the chili-salt-pepper mixture along with the rest of the ingredients.
• Mix everything together and crush the cashews as small as you want them.
• Then you can season the chutney with fresh basil leaves.

How to make Gabriels Tomato Spread

• Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and allow them to boil briefly.
• You can then blend the mixture roughly or finely to your liking.

Keyword Breakfast, Vegan, Vegetarian, Waffles

Which dosha type are the waffles best suited for?

These sweet waffles are suitable for Vata and Pitta

· Why? Oatmeal is naturally heavy, nourishing, warming, and oily. Combined with sugar and cinnamon, it has an extremely grounding and calming effect. This is the perfect remedy for the nervous, light Vata dosha. Pitta also benefits from the substantial, sweet energy of oats and sugar (as long as not too much heating cocoa is used).

For Kapha, oats, sugar, and coconut are less suitable, as they drag down the sluggish Kapha dosha even further.

The savory waffles with cashew chutney are suitable for: Vata and Kapha

· Why? The spices (cayenne, pepper, chili, garlic) provide the necessary fire to make the heavy oats more digestible. This stimulates the slow digestive fire (Agni) of Kapha. The bitter/tart character of dried tomatoes and thyme is also beneficial for Kapha.

Caution for Pitta: Green chilies, garlic, sour limes, and long pepper are extremely heating and are therefore not suitable for balancing the Pitta fire.

Integration into the Ayurvedic Lifestyle

In Ayurveda, the biological clock (the Dosha times of day) and the digestive fire (Agni) play an important role.

Breakfast is served between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. and should be warm, light, and easily digestible. The breakfast waffles should therefore definitely be eaten warm.

As mentioned earlier, a late lunch is the main meal in Ayurveda.

And how many breakfast waffles should you eat? Here, too, there’s an interesting Ayurvedic principle: as many as fit in your two hands!

This is an update from July 22, 2022

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