Your guide to Ayurvedic cooking

As hardcore carnivores, plant-based Ayurvedic cuisine based on India’s 5,000- year-old health regimen, was the stuff of our culinary nightmares.

And then we met Gita Ramesh, well-known author of three books including two cookbooks chock-full of recipes based on Ayurvedic principles of health. The one published recently — The Ayurvedic Wellness Cookbook, Recipes for Balance and Rejuvenation won the prestigious Gourmand Award 2023 — Diet and Vegetarian — at the UMEA Food event in Sweden.

In Ayurveda, the ancient twin of yoga, “One does not count calories but commits to a philosophy and way of life,” states Ms Ramesh in her book. Ms Ramesh is the joint managing director of the Kairali Ayurvedic Group, and co-founder of Kairali Healing Village in Palakkad, Kerala. She is also a bio-chemist and Ayurvedic practitioner, and her husband K. V. Ramesh comes from a line of Ayurvedic vaids (doctors).

After leafing through her magnum opus, and meeting her at Kairali Healing Village, our world view changed. Ms Ramesh explained that what and how you eat has the power to heal. We had been raised on meat- heavy fare — hefty pieces of chicken swimming in rich gravies; fried eggs plonked on vegetables to make greens more appetising, and lacy, batter-frilled cutlets glazed with a light film of oil.

Soon, we realised that the principle touted in the cook book was: “You become what you eat!” We were overweight and under-exercised. And so, we decided to try and reprogramme our taste buds by trying out some of her simple delicious recipes. Our journey on the road to culinary discovery had begun. Happily, enough, we felt satiated and energised rather than like prisoners on a starvation diet, out on parole!

Ms Ramesh’s book celebrates the vibrancy and diversity of plant-based Ayurvedic fare which many equate with boring boiled vegetables and drab wilted salads. An added asset is that the recipes are “simple to cook for healthy everyday eating and centred around the preventive aspect of Ayurveda,” she says in the introduction of the lush, beautifully designed book. The hard-cover volume hand-holds newbie converts to Ayurvedic cuisine and takes them through a master class on cooking and eating healthy. “An Ayurvedic diet is less of a diet and more of a philosophy — that eating should be a mindful, meditative experience,” she adds. Sitting in front of a TV, talking on the phone or listening to loud thumping music while you eat your quietly delicious meal is a no-no in Ayurveda. “Connect with the flavourful food you eat by being acutely aware of its colour, taste, nuance and texture,” says Ms Ramesh.