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Highly aromatic & spicy, Allspice is an ideal appetizer that refreshes the mouth. It is a delicious addition to meats and desserts, where it doubles as a digestive aid. It's taste and astringency closely resembles cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves and it...
Amaranth represented up to 80% of the caloric intake of the Aztecs before the Spanish conquest. Amaranth tastes somewhat like corn, but is somewhat less sweet. Others have described the taste as nutty, like bacon or wood, or slightly bitter. It is...
Basil's warm and spicy aroma adds a passionate flare to any dish, bringing the heat of the Mediterranean sun to your table. Its bright green color and vigorous flavor is unmistakable in pesto. It adds verve to a home-made tomato sauce, and is a perky...
The word 'pepper' is dervied from the South Asian word 'pippali'. Pippali (long pepper) is a famous herb in Ayurveda for lung and heart conditions, and is a close relative of black pepper. The word pepper gradually came to include the unrelated New...
Love for cardamom resonates through history - for instance, ancient Egyptians chewed cardamom to whiten their teeth and sweeten their breath. Cardamom helps take the edge off of caffeine in the famous drink Turkish coffee. Cardamom is a member of the...
The entire nightshade family (solanaceae) aggravates Vata and Pitta, due to the weak liver of these two body types. All peppers aggravate Pitta due to heat. Note that black pepper...
Cinnamon is a small evergreen tree in the Lauraceae family native to Sri Lanka. Other members of this family include sassafras, avocado, camphor, and spicebush. Trees of the laurel family, including cinnamon, predominate in the world's laurel forests....
Appreciated since ancient times, cumin's aroma has wafted through kitchens since at least the second millennium BC, even flavoring breads and soups mentioned in the Bible. The highly valued spice was a currency to pay tithes to priests. The ancient...
Daikon is native to southeast and east Asia. From white to purple to green to pink, Daikon comes in several varieties. It's also known as white radish, winter radish, long white radish, oriental radish, and mooli. In Japan, many types of pickles are...
Cool and soothing, verdant and fragrant, fennel is a member of the carrot family that includes other popular spices such as cumin, coriander, dill and celery. Fennel is used as a flavoring in some natural toothpastes and mouth fresheners. Fennel seeds...
Raw garlic's benefits are many. A spicy root, garlic is known for clearing, which flushes everything out of your body. One student writes, "At first taste it was like a bee stinging my tongue.... my whole body got very warm."Clears...
IntroductionA steaming hot mug of ginger tea on a damp day warms up your bones and burns away thick, heavy congestion. When the weather is soggy, you feel tired and groggy. You naturally crave sunlight and heat. Pungent and light,...
The origin of lemons are a mystery. Do they come from southern india? burma? or china? Speculation abounds. Genetic study reveals lemons are a hybrid of a sour orange and a citron.
Like all roots cooked onion brings a grounding feel. Yellow onions are the standard onion in American grocery store shelves. White onions tend to be sweeter and crunchier. Red...
Rosmarinus, is from the latin "dew" (ros) and "sea" (marinus), and means "dew of the sea". Rosemary grows in arid Mediterranean conditions and, as its name implies, can survive on the humidity carried by the sea breeze.
Culinary sage, although a diaphoretic, has an anhidrotic action - it prevents excessive sweating. This is useful in night sweats of all kinds - from chronic febrile conditions to menopausal syndrome. Culinary sage stimulates the...
Opens Up the Lungs As an aromatic pungent, raw scallions opens up circulation to the lungs, chest, and skin. This quality is used to purge all cold related disorders from these organs. Scallions are helpful as both an expectorant...
Thyme tea has been used to stop gastric fermentation. It may be mixed with honey for sore throats. It's diaphoretic properties make it useful to sweat out a fever.
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Founder of Joyful Belly Ayurveda, John Immel, answers the question ‘What is Ayurveda?’