Ayurvedic Mini-Guide to Cooking With Spices
Jan 13, 2022 | Written by Leticia Padmasri
In every cuisine, seasoning the food is a vital part of cooking. It is the very thing that distinguishes cuisines around the world. You could be cooking the same food, let’s say rice, but depending on the spices you use, that will tell you if it is Indian or Mexican rice.
In Ayurvedic cooking, spices and herbs have been used for thousands of years with incredible success. They play an essential role in nurturing our health. I have a drawer full of spices. Every meal is a great joy to choose the spices using the Ayurvedic principles. They make the food taste delicious. When food tastes good, it digests well, which makes us feel satisfied plus dissolves our cravings naturally without effort.
And more, they have incredible medicinal powers. Spices are what turn food into medicine.
Spices have been part of Ayurvedic cooking for many reasons:
They help to bring in all the six tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent) into the meal. In Ayurveda, we learn that a meal containing the six tastes will help us to feel more satisfied, regulating our appetite.
They balance our elements.
They strengthen our agni, the digestive fire.
They help the body eliminate ama, undigested metabolic waste.
They help balance almost any kind of digestive ailment.
They maintain our optimal metabolic rate.
They act as antidotes to the properties of certain foods as they counter heaviness, dispel gas, and ease digestion.
They are useful in most diseases of the lungs, head, or gastrointestinal tract.
They pacify our emotions and clear mental fog.
Do you remember the first time you cooked something? What spices did you use?
Most of us will keep it simple by using just salt and pepper. And many many cooks will take a shortcut to flavoring foods and use garlic and onion in pretty much in e v e r y t h i n g.
Keeping it simple is ok, but it can leave us spice deficient.
We may feel tired or crave sweets after a meal, experience acidity, boating, feel sluggish or get constipated.
Garlic & Onion
Using garlic and onions every day also has its impacts. They are foods of medicinal importance but are too stimulating as food for daily consumption. Garlic is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that does not discriminate between the bad and good guys in your gut. Onions are very heating and stimulating, also not contributing to a good environment in your gut.
On an energetic level, they are known to excite the mind and constrict the energy channels, which prevents us from experiencing mental clarity and higher states of consciousness. So, if you want to succeed in meditation, stay away from foods that overstimulate and cloud the mind. In some cases, increasing mental stimulation may be indicated but largely Ayurveda promotes a peaceful, less-reactive nature.
It is a great skill to learn to flavor our food without the use of these hot and troubled old standbys.
How to Cook with Spices and Herbs Using the Ayurvedic Principles
The season and the basic Ayurvedic principle “like attracts like and the opposite balances” will play a great role in your decision of what herbs and spices to use. If the hot qualities are predominant, you can reach for neutral or cooling spices like coriander, fennel, and cardamom. When the weather is cold, it is time to use warming spices such as mustard seeds, cumin, and fenugreek.
You can also use spices and herbs based on how you feel. If you feel signs of pitta imbalance (internal heat, fiery, and hangry), cooling spices will take care of you. If the signs are of Vata imbalance (spacey, bloated, and gassy), neutral and warming spices that are not too stimulating will do the job – fennel, cinnamon, fresh ginger. If you feel sluggish and heavy, it is time to bring out the chiles and ajwain.
So before cooking, turn inward and choose the spice combinations to find balance. For a proper combination of spices, get familiar with the spices’ actions and play with them.
It is important to use just enough that the food is enhanced by the taste, but not so much so that one taste is predominant in the finished product.
Cooking Methods
The proper vehicle for the spice’s nutrients to be infused in the food is oil and water because most spices are fat and water-soluble. When cooking then, the heat will activate the aroma and healing properties of spices which will interact with the oil and water and make the spices’ compounds available to us.
When to add the spices to the food?
You can grind them and lightly toast them in oil. Once the aromas come up, add the food, water, cover, and simmer. Or you can lightly toast the spices in oil and add at the end or at another stage of the cooking that makes sense.
Engage all your senses when cooking with spices: touch them, hear them simmering, smell their magical aromas, look at the beautiful colors and shapes, and taste them. Engaging all the senses will help you to be present in the cooking process, making the best choices for that moment.
It also will support your digestion, considering that we need to digest everything we consume with each of our senses.
Storage and Shelf Life
Storing herbs and spices properly is essential to maintaining their flavor, texture, and aroma. Keep them in airtight glass jars, in a dark and cool place, away from heat and light.
The optimal medicinal value of spices is best acquired by buying them whole. Whole spices are good for about one year. You can grind up a batch monthly which, after that, flavor and efficacy will be diminished. Use fresh herbs whenever possible. Parsley, mint, basil, thyme, and rosemary can grow easily in pots on your porch or windowsill.
Ayurvedic cooking often calls for both whole and ground spices. While powdered spices fill the whole body of the dish with flavors, the whole seeds bring bursts of extra flavor. If possible, purchase non-irradiated and organic spices.