Food is where Ayurveda is easiest to try and easiest to misunderstand. This section collects twelve simple recipes from the everyday Indian kitchen, written in metric measures and cups, with numbered steps, a time and a number of servings. They are home cooking, the kind you might share with a neighbour, and nothing in them calls for special equipment or hard-to-find ingredients.
Each recipe also gives an Ayurvedic reading, clearly labelled as traditional. It says how the classical texts and later teachers describe the ingredients, in terms of taste, qualities and the doshas, and where the tradition itself is not agreed. That reading is a view from a traditional system. It is not a finding of modern medicine, and the recipes do not claim that any dish treats, cures or prevents a disease or detoxifies the body.
Every recipe ends with a section on who should be careful: allergies, pregnancy and breastfeeding, babies, diabetes, kidney or liver conditions, and medicines such as blood thinners. The recipes use food amounts of spices. They are not doses, and herbal products or supplements are a different matter, covered on the herbs and spices pages.
If you are new to the ideas behind the recipes, three pages give the background: eating for vata, ghee and kitchari. The wider picture is in the food section, including the six tastes, spices in the Ayurvedic kitchen and seasonal eating.
Drinks and teas
- CCF tea: cumin, coriander and fennel steeped in water
- Golden milk: warm turmeric milk, and why it is not a remedy
- Takra, spiced buttermilk: the thin, tangy chaas of the midday meal
- A pitta-cooling summer drink: fennel, coriander seed, mint and raisins
Soups, gruels and breakfast
- Mung dal soup: the lightest lentil soup in the kitchen
- Peya, rice gruel: the thin gruel of the classical texts
- A vata-settling breakfast: warm spiced porridge with stewed apple
Meals, sides and condiments
- Ghee-roasted vegetables: a warm tray bake for cooler months
- A kapha-light lunch: millet, spiced mung and sauteed greens
- Seasonal chutney: one fresh base, four seasonal versions
- Ginger and salt appetiser: a small pre-meal custom and the care it needs
- A simple churna for the table: a mild spice sprinkle
How to use these recipes
Treat each recipe as a starting point. Cooking in India varies by region and household, and no recipe here is the single correct one. Adjust salt, spice and sweetness to your taste, and to your doctor’s advice if you have a medical condition.
Hold the dosha language loosely. A quiz or a label is a rough guide, and many teachers advise by season and by how you feel today, not only by type. The pages on prakriti and vikriti explain the difference. Please read our medical disclaimer before you change how you eat, and see a doctor about any health concern.