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2. In a large saucepan with a thick, heavy bottom bring toor dal and green chilies to a boil in 1 quart of water. Cook for 30 minutes to an hour when they are completely soft. Mash dal and green chilies.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan and sautee cumin, mustard, and fennel seeds with dry red chili, cilantro and chopped ginger.
4. Add spices and turmeric to above mashed dal. Squeeze tomatoes with hand directly over dal. Add some water to create a thin soup consistency. Adjust salt to taste and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Serve hot with any cooked vegetable dish and rice.
How Does This Ayurvedic Recipe Improve Wellness?
CLINICAL AYURVEDIC REVIEW
Bright and colorful, Ginger Dal adds a festive highlight to any meal. With its spices, Ginger Dal warms your body from core to limbs. This savory, heartwarming Indian favorite is belly filling. It provides comfort and calm as it satisfies a big appetite, but without the calories and heavy carbs of other comfort foods.
No South Indian traditional Thali plate is complete without dal. Almost every Indian meal includes dal in some form. Dal soups, like our spicy ginger and chili version, are the protein component of a hearty vegetarian diet. It is usually accompanied by roti (whole wheat flat bread), rice, a vegetable dish, sour chutney and something sweet.
Gets Your Blood Moving
Ginger, the major component of this spicy dal recipe, increases circulation. After a few bites, you will feel warmth in your chest and tummy. After about ten minutes, this welcome heat spreads all the way out to your fingers and toes. The hot, sharp qualities of many ingredients in dal- ginger, chili, mustard seeds and turmeric get your heart pumping and thin your blood, improving circulation and flushing out your lymphatic system. In the spring, while your body is working hard to move fluids and melt stagnation for a light summer ahead, this spicy blood moving soup helps you sweat out toxins and quickly melt winter stagnation.
Detoxifying
Bean soups are an essential genre for detoxification. The high fiber content of beans cleans the colon, but only if you can digest them well.
How do South Asians cook beans for better digestibility? Instead of thick hearty soups, the preference is for thin soups, just as satiating but easier on the stomach. So the first and most important tip is to add fewer beans. Think minestrone instead of chili. Yellow lentils, like all legumes, are difficult to digest for those with weak digestion. To improve digestibility, soak lentils overnight and pour off the water to leach out difficult to digest saponins. Boil for twenty minutes and pour the water off again.
Why do spices work?
Spices are the difference between a tasty meal and a bland one, and also the difference between healthy and poor digestion. Just as spices stimulate the tongue, spices also stimulate the stomach. So, a well-spiced dish digests better than a bland one, giving you maximum benefits of eating this dish.
WHY EAT AN AYURVEDIC DIET?
Eating Ayurvedically makes you feel nourished and energized. An Ayurvedic diet is
tailored to your individual body type and the specific imbalances you are working with
at any given time. Ayurveda shows you your specific body type’s needs and what
should be favored in your Ayurvedic menu. Watch as you eat less but feel more satisfied because what you
are eating truly nourishes you. Since Ayurveda believes all disease begins in the digestive
tract, food is your first medicine. By eating a healthy diet that’s ideal for your body, you
experience optimal health.
Find out by taking this free, easy quiz.
You'll learn your body type, and whether Ginger Dal is a good fit for your body type. Time to complete: approximately 1 minute.
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.
Taste is used to sense the most basic properties and effects of food.
Each taste has a specific medicinal effect on your body.
Cravings for food with certain tastes indicate your body is craving specific medicinal results from food.
Taste is experienced on the tongue and represents your body's reaction to foods.
Sweet taste causes physical satisfaction and attraction whereas bitter taste causes discomfort and aversion.
Kapha should use less sweet taste while Vata and Pitta would benefit from using more sweet taste.
One of the first signs of illness is that your taste and appetite for food changes.
The six tastes are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent.
Do you crave foods with any of the tastes below?
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.
Metabolic individuals tend to burn or use energy.
Anabolic individuals tend to store energy as body mass.
Catabolic people tend to be easily stimulated, hyperactive, underweight and dry.
Metabolic people tend to be rosy-cheeked, easily irritated, focused, driven, and easily inflamed.
Anabolic people are heavy, stable and grounded, but if they store too much energy, they could gain weight easily and have congestion.
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.
Stimulates the release of gas. Helpful for bloating or cramping abdominal pain. Propels food downward. Carminatives typically expel gas by relaxing the muscles of the intestines.
A sialogogue increases saliva. Sour foods are often great sialogogues, and increase output of all exocrine glands. Salty taste is very moistening as well. Bitter, pungent and sweettastes also increase salivary output but to a
lesser degree. Astringents.
An herb that increases appetite or settles a nauseas or nervous stomach. These generally increase the digestive fire, therefore relieving symptoms of sluggish or difficult digestion.
A class of laxative that adds bulk and water to stools. The size of a stool stimulates peristalsis and the stool passes more easily through the colon. It is important to drink plenty of water when using high fiber laxatives, as they can be dehydrating.
An agent that kills microorganisms or inhibits their growth. Antimicrobial is an umbrella term that can be broken down into specific categories of target microorganism, such as anti-bacterials, fungals, and virals.
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.
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.
John Immel, the founder of Joyful Belly, teaches people how to have a
healthy diet and lifestyle with Ayurveda biocharacteristics.
His approach to Ayurveda is clinical, yet exudes an ease which many find enjoyable and insightful.
John also directs Joyful Belly's School of Ayurveda,
offering professional clinical training in Ayurveda for over 15 years.
John's interest in Ayurveda and specialization in digestive tract pathology was inspired by a complex digestive disorder acquired from years of international travel,
as well as public service work in South Asia.
John's commitment to the detailed study of digestive disorders reflects his zeal to get down to the roots of the problem.
His hope and belief in the capacity of each & every client to improve their quality of life is nothing short of a personal passion.
John's creativity in the kitchen and delight in cooking for others comes from his family oriented upbringing.
In addition to his certification in Ayurveda, John holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard University.
John enjoys sharing Ayurveda within the context of his Catholic roots,
and finds Ayurveda gives him an opportunity to participate in the healing mission of the Church.
Jesus expressed God's love by feeding and healing the sick.
That kindness is the fundamental ministry of Ayurveda as well.
Outside of work, John enjoys spending time with his wife and 6 kids, and pursuing his love of theology, philosophy, and language.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The information and products on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any
disease.