Promotions View Cart Login/Register Create a diet Create an Ayurvedic Diet for Self Healing

Home Learn Ayurveda Seasonal Tips Doshas Gunas Tastes Digestion Weight Loss Cooking Good Eating Habits Diet & Recipes Create a Diet Favorites Ingredients Spices Recipes Clinic Products Books & CDs Digestion Weight Loss Food & Spices Herb Formulas Massage Oils Promotions Events About About Us Testimonials Help Getting Started Using the website Request help! Practitioners Links My Account Sign In Create New Account What's My Dosha? Make a Payment View Cart

Spices Written by John Joseph Immel, Asheville, NC

Digestion in Ayurveda | Type of Food | Spices

Spices are predominantly pungent taste. Like pungent taste, spices are generally hot, sharp, light, and dry. They are concentrated; a small quantity of spices has a large effect. Thus, spices can be used to balance undesirable qualities in food. For example, black pepper is light. It can be used to balance heavy cheese. Spices are ideal for kapha. In small quantity spices help vata. Spices provoke pitta.

Sharp versus Warming Spices

Black pepper is sharp. The tongue is the mirror to the digestive tract. As sharp spices like black pepper irritate the tongue, they also irritate the lining of the digestive tract. Turmeric is warming but without the pungency or sharpness of black pepper. Turmeric heats the body by thinning the blood and dilating blood vessels.

Spices & Detoxification

Spices build agni and burn ama, essential for detoxification. Circulation of toxins help in their elimination. Heat flushes all secretions.

Cooking with Spices

Maximize taste by extracting the flavor out of the spice first. Some flavors in spices are water soluble. Others are fat soluble. Make a paste by mixing spices with a small quantity of water. Allow some time for the spices to absorb the water. Then, fry them in oil. The action of boiling the absorbed water out of the spices pushes the flavor out into the oil. A spice infused oil spreads throughout the recipe and increases absorption of flavors into the ingredients.

If the cooking with onions, add them as the spices begin to brown. Onions are mostly water. The water in the onions lowers the temperature of the oil to boiling, preventing the spices from burning. Onions progress from opaque to translucent, then slices get dessicated and thin. As the water in the onions boils off, the temperature begins to the rise and the onions start to brown.

Once the onions are cooked in the spice infusion, create a broth by adding a combination of water, sweet, sour, and salty tastes and bringing to a boil. Then add other ingredients. Larger, chunky ingredients like potatoes take up to an hour to fully absorb a spice infused broth. Finally, garnish the recipe with fresh herbs and nuts.

Making the Meal
Make a paste from spices, infusion in oil
Sautee with onions, bring a broth to boil
Include the base, two ingredients to grace
Garnish each to individual taste.

Always Use Freshly Ground Spices

For maximum flavor, always buy whole seed and grind fresh before using. Spices with a strong aroma are high in aromatic oils. Aromatic oils are volatile dispersing quickly into the air giving the spice a strong smell. The mint family is especially known for volatile, aromatic oils. Volatile oils are generally carminitive, stimulating peristalsis and moving Vata downards. The aromatic oils are also the essential oils. The essential oil of a plant is also its "essence" and carry the medicinal value. In Ayurvedic terms, the essential oil is the prakruti of the plant. Freshly ground spices also have more prana (vital life force). Once a seed is ground, it dies and the prana leaves quickly.

Spice Churnas

A churna means powder. A spice churna is a mixture of several ground spices which can be added on top of any difficult to digest meal. Spice churnas are an easy way to take Ayurveda with you to the restaurant. And tell the waiter, "No ice please!"

Sweet Spices

Sweet spices are spices that work particularly well for dessert. They balance the heavy, dull, cold, gooey qualities of dessert foods. Some examples of sweet spices include cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, fennel, and cloves.

Root Spices

Root spices are generally less pungent that spices from arial parts of plants such as seeds and leaves. Root spices include turmeric, hing, onions and garlic.

Pure Pungent Spices

Black pepper and chili impart pungent taste without strong flavor.
Contact joseph@joyfulbelly.com if you would like to 1) republish this article in another journal; 2) send comments and edits; 3) submit your own articles on Joyful Belly; or 4) request additional topics!