How to Make Brown Rice with Nettles, Lemon & Walnut

SERVINGS: 2

PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES

COOK TIME: 30 MINUTES

SKILL LEVEL: EASY

MEAL: LUNCH-DINNER

STYLE: WILDCRAFTED, WESTERN

PREPARATION: PUREE, BOILED

EAT IN: AUTUMN-WINTER

FOR OCCASION: THANKSGIVING

How Does This Ayurvedic Recipe Improve Wellness?

CLINICAL AYURVEDIC REVIEW

Robust and rugged, Brown Rice with Nettle Walnut Pesto imparts the hardy strength you need to feel great through the fall. Nettles naturally taste a little salty, giving this dish a "salt of the earth" strengthening effect. As your autumn schedule starts to stack up, this recipe puts you back in rhythm with the earth's reminder to slow down. Feel as strong as a powerful, stable brown bear traipsing through the forest after this nourishing meal of wild nettle, grounding brown rice, and warm, rustic walnuts.

Hearty Strength

Nettles offer a hearty earthiness to this rustic dish. This is a rough, tough plant that brings its strength as a gift for your body. Don't let the prickly nature of the plant fool you - nettles provide a stellar nutritional profile to build stamina. This wildly abundant plant packs more vitamins and nutrients than most give it credit for. Nettle is great when the back-to-school and work activity takes away time for self-care. Adding nettles to your diet offers a delicious way to infuse the body with the strength of the wild. It is also famous as a blood & yang tonic that can be used to fortify your body after menstruation, childbirth, or other blood loss, giving you strength and energy. To increase your rugged strength and build fall immunity, nettles are the way to go.

Get Ready for Winter with Warming Walnuts

Preparing for cooler weather is a ritual of sorts. You find the extra blankets in storage, trade your summer tank tops for long sleeves, and browse the market's shelves for familiar comfort foods. Believe it or not, walnut is a great choice to bring home this fall. Walnuts are warm and invigorating. A fireplace warms the hearth around it, and the stones provide long lasting, durable heat through the night. Similarly, walnut creates a long lasting fire within. Rich in healthy fats, walnuts also provide slow burning fuel that keeps your metabolism strong all day long.

Have you ever chewed a walnut slowly? First you taste the rustic tannins on the surface of the night. Later, you experience a layer of warm creaminess as you start to extract the oils from the meat of the nut. Walnut's rich creaminess and warmth helps your body prepare for cold weather by building its reserves for winter. It's important to enjoy these warming, building foods in autumn so you feel fortified and ready to take on cold weather and flu season. Warm, nourishing foods like walnut are especially desired for Vata disorders (such as the common cold) that are due to cold and deficiency.

Why Eat Whole Grains in the Fall?

Brown rice is a hearty addition to your autumn table. But have you ever wondered what makes brown rice brown? In brown rice, the hearty bran layer and the germ is kept intact. The germ is the part of the seed that germinates, and it contains all the vital nutrients and mineral of the seed. The bran contains the fiber. White rice is stripped of both.

That's why brown rice, and whole foods in general, are more nourishing to your hungry body. That's also why whole foods in general have more taste. However, the density of brown rice can be hard to digest, causing gas and bloating. To improve digestibility, soak your brown rice by placing it in a bowl of water the night before. When you're ready to cook the rice, start cooking it on the stove while you chop, blend, saute the other ingredients. These two steps will also greatly reduce brown rice cooking time so you can enjoy your meal.

In this recipe, the zest of lemon and pungent spice of black pepper further stimulate your digestion so you can process rice more easily. However, if you have sluggish digestion or are recovering for illness, choose white rice instead.

A Note on Nettles

Nettles are rich in fiber and have even been used to make durable clothing! While you may shy away from the idea of using a stinging plant, in many traditional societies it was customary to sting oneself with the nettle plant as a way of relieving the pain and inflammation from conditions such as arthritis. The compounds found in the nettle sting serve to improve circulation and lymph flow in the joints, but you need not sting yourself to enjoy the benefits! Cooking the nettles in a soup provides many of the wonderful qualities of the nettle plant to your body in a deliciously edible way.

You can often find nettles growing near stream beds wild, or in 'guerilla gardens' due to their popularity. Try growing some on your property. If you don't have access to fresh nettles, dried ones or even tinctures will do.

AYURVEDA'S GUIDE TO VITALITY & WHOLESOME NOURISHMENT

Your Ayurvedic diet is tailored to your individual body and your specific imbalances. With an Ayurvedic diet you feel joy and satisfaction because what you are eating truly nourishes and balances you. Disease results from diets and lifestyles that are incompatible with your nature. By eating a personalized diet matched to your body, you experience optimal health. See How it Works.

See a complete list of all biocharacteristics.

INCREASES Increases These Biocharacteristics (Gunas) Functional Ayurveda helps you assess imbalances through 20 main biocharacteristics (gunas). Aggravating these characteristics weakens your body and causes imbalance. By knowing which characteristics are habitually imbalanced in your body, you will be able to identify and correct imbalances before you get sick. Every characteristic has an opposite which balances it (i.e. hot balances cold). You restore balance by favoring diet and lifestyle choices that increase the opposite characteristic. Learn More	HOT ABOUT HOT BIOCHARACTERISTIC Hot is identified by increased body temperature, metabolism, or inflammation. LEARN MORE ABOUT HOT CLEAR ABOUT CLEAR BIOCHARACTERISTIC Clear refers to anything that cleanses or flushes out wastes, or that digests ama. LEARN MORE ABOUT CLEAR
DOSHAS The Three Doshas / Body Types According to the biocharacteristic theory of medicine, people tend to get sick, over and over again, due to habitual causes and imbalances that are unique to the person. Your body type summarizes this tendency, showing you the 'type' of conditions and imbalances that frequently challenge your health & wellness. Using body type, you can also identify remedies likely to improve your strength and resiliency. Your body type identifies physical and mental characteristics as well as your personal strengths and weaknesses. The calculation of your body type is based on your medical history. The 3 functional body types (doshas), are Catabolic (Vata), Metabolic (Pitta), and Anabolic (Kapha). Catabolic individuals tend to break down body mass into energy. They are easily stimulated, hyperactive, underweight and dry. Metabolic individuals tend to burn or use energy. They tend to be rosy-cheeked, easily irritated, focused, driven, and easily inflamed. Anabolic individuals tend to store energy as body mass. If they store too much energy, they could gain weight easily and have congestion. Anabolic people tend to be stable and grounded. Learn More	PACIFIES AGGRAVATES
HAS THE FOLLOWING	Subtaste: Crunchy CRUNCHY Makes an audible noise when you eat them. Can provide fun texture variation. SEE ALL 'CRUNCHY' FOODS / HERBS Moves Energy: Downward DOWNWARD Downward-moving (Adho Gati Marga) substances move food downward in the GI tract, settle the nervous system, and relax muscles. SEE ALL 'DOWNWARD' FOODS / HERBS , Inward INWARD Inward moving substances promote introspection, self reflection, stillness, or slow the system down. SEE ALL 'INWARD' FOODS / HERBS Tissue (dhatu): Bone BONE Bone tissue (Asthi Dhatu) includes the bones, hair, and nails. SEE ALL 'BONE' FOODS / HERBS , Red Blood RED-BLOOD Red blood (Rakta Dhatu) includes red blood cells and blood vessels. SEE ALL 'RED-BLOOD' FOODS / HERBS , Fat FAT Fat tissue (Meda Dhatu) includes adipose tissue and sebum (skin oil). SEE ALL 'FAT' FOODS / HERBS , Muscle MUSCLE Muscle tissue (Mamsa Dhatu) includes muscles and ligaments. SEE ALL 'MUSCLE' FOODS / HERBS
HERBAL ACTIONS (see all)	Medicinal Benefits, Uses & Herbal Actions of Brown Rice with Nettles, Lemon & Walnut Experiences are Personal Experiences vary according to the person and constitution. Individual results may vary. The list of herbal-actions below has not be approved by the FDA and should not be used to treat a medical condition. Digestion: Appetite Suppressant APPETITE-SUPPRESSANT Suppresses hunger without causing weight gain. SEE ALL 'APPETITE-SUPPRESSANT' FOODS / HERBS Mind, Stress & Sleep: Strengthens Resolve STRENGTHENS-RESOLVE Increases determination and courage by reducing stress and building strength. SEE ALL 'STRENGTHENS-RESOLVE' FOODS / HERBS Energy Vitality: Satisfies Stomach SATISFIES-STOMACH Provides a sense of gratification and fullness in the stomach. SEE ALL 'SATISFIES-STOMACH' FOODS / HERBS , Builds Stamina BUILDS-STAMINA Promotes strength, endurance and resistance in the body. Rebuilds weak tissues after a time of depletion. SEE ALL 'BUILDS-STAMINA' FOODS / HERBS , Nutritive NUTRITIVE An herb that is strengthening and nourishing. SEE ALL 'NUTRITIVE' FOODS / HERBS , Tonic TONIC A tonic herb restores function through strengthening tissue. This can happen through a combination of nourishing the tissue, and invigorating tissue metabolism. The tonic should not be withering, as in caffeine. SEE ALL 'TONIC' FOODS / HERBS Skin Care & Beauty: Diaphoretic DIAPHORETIC An herb that induces sweating, often by dilating blood vessels close to the skin. SEE ALL 'DIAPHORETIC' FOODS / HERBS Respiratory-Health: Flushes Sinuses FLUSHES-SINUSES An herb that relieves sinus congestion by flushing out mucus. SEE ALL 'FLUSHES-SINUSES' FOODS / HERBS , Soothes Throat SOOTHES-THROAT Soothes throat discomfort, including from a sore or ticklish throat. SEE ALL 'SOOTHES-THROAT' FOODS / HERBS Heart & Circulation: Cardiac Stimulant CARDIAC-STIMULANT Herbs that increase the heart rate. Useful in cardiovascular health, blood stagnation, and subjective feeling of heaviness in the chest area. SEE ALL 'CARDIAC-STIMULANT' FOODS / HERBS , Blood Tonic BLOOD-TONIC An herb that produces more blood cells in the body, or otherwise improves blood cell quality or hemoglobin content. Helpful for anemia and other types of deficiency. SEE ALL 'BLOOD-TONIC' FOODS / HERBS , Vasodilator VASODILATOR A vasodilator is an herb that widens the blood vessels by the relaxation of smooth muscle cells within the vessel walls, thereby increasing circulation systemically or to a local area. SEE ALL 'VASODILATOR' FOODS / HERBS Kidney & Urinary: Diuretic DIURETIC Herbs that promote urine formation, thereby flushing the kidneys and urinary tract while eliminating any excess water retention. As diuretics reduce water retention, they are often used to reduce blood pressure. SEE ALL 'DIURETIC' FOODS / HERBS Liver & Gallbladder: Cholagogue CHOLAGOGUE Cholagogues stimulate the production & release of bile from the liver & gallbladder. This refreshes and cleanses these organs, as well as increases bile in the small intestines. SEE ALL 'CHOLAGOGUE' FOODS / HERBS Constituents: Phytates PHYTATES Phytates prevent absorption of nutrients. They are commonly found in all seeds, including nuts, grains, and beans. Sprouting greatly reduces phytate content, as well as long, slow cooking with vinegar. SEE ALL 'PHYTATES' FOODS / HERBS , Aromatase Inhibitor AROMATASE-INHIBITOR Blocks estrogen synthesis by inhibiting conversion of progesterone and testosterone into estrogen. SEE ALL 'AROMATASE-INHIBITOR' FOODS / HERBS , Carbohydrate, Inositol INOSITOL Inositol is an alcohol sugar made naturally in the human body from glucose. It is lipotropic (aiding fat metabilism in the liver). It affects a variety of hormones, neurotransmitters, steroid, growth factors and water. SEE ALL 'INOSITOL' FOODS / HERBS , Fats, 5a Reductase Inhibitor, Tannins, Alpha Linolenic Acid, Protein, Rutin RUTIN Rutin is a flavonoid with anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Commonly used to treat conditions such as varicose veins, hemorrhoids, and high blood pressure. SEE ALL 'RUTIN' FOODS / HERBS , Silica Salts, Sodium, Omega 3 Fatty Acids, Essential Fatty Acids, Melatonin

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Joyful Belly is a recognized school of biocharacteristics medicine.