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1. Boil the kale until leaves turn a vibrant shade of green green and strain.
2. In a separate pot, add the diced sweet potatoes with just enough water to cover them. Add the salt and boil until soft. Remove from heat and save sweet water for another meal.
3. Grate and sautee ginger in sunflower oil for thirty seconds. Then add cooked sweet potatoes and kale. Mix gently to avoid breaking up the soft sweet potatoes.
How Does This Ayurvedic Recipe Improve Wellness?
CLINICAL AYURVEDIC REVIEW
Orange like the rising sun, wrapped in bitter green crispness, sweet potatoes with kale make you feel brightly alive. Sweet potatoes give this meal substance, while kale's lightness bring this dish into a perfect balance. Ginger adds its pungent sweetness to spark your digestion and strengthen your fire! Altogether Sweet Potatoes with Kale and Ginger creates the perfect healthy recipe for balance year round.
Light yet Sustaining
This Ayurvedic recipe highlights sweet potatoes which are rich in complex carbohydrates, meaning these roots can satisfy the appetite for long stretches of time. Unlike white potatoes, sweet potatoes are light on your stomach, and recommended for weight loss while still being nourishing. Sweet potatoes won't make you feel tired like white potatoes either. The addition of healthy fats in the form of sunflower oil adds strength and vigor to this dish.
Easy to Digest
Sweet potato is unique among comfort foods because it is extremely easy to digest. This tuber is a helpful Ayurvedic remedy for those with heavy digestive symptoms. Despite the name "sweet," it may be a beneficial food for diabetics as preliminary studies revealed it helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. Sweet potatoes contain ample fiber to encourage good elimination. Ginger increases your ability to digest food with comfort by stimulating the release of digestive juices in your stomach. Cooling kale adds roughage, further supporting easy, regular bowel movements. This Ayurvedic sweet potato recipe is the perfect healthy recipe to include in your menu this week.
Gentle Cleansing
As spring warms up, your body enters a natural detox cycle. As your body starts to cleanse, you'll crave crunchy, refreshing foods like kale, celery, and raw fennel bulb. These bright, bitter greens cleanse your liver and blood. They work by purging bile from your liver and gall bladder, cooling down the heat of Pitta and lightening up the heaviness of Kapha. The dark green color of kale is also a sign of kale's rich nutrient profile. After a winter of sleepy comfort foods, fresh greens energize and revitalize you.
As a staple in the Ayurvedic diet, ginger's pungent sweetness enlivens your digestion and strengthens your fire. Fresh ginger is unique as both a pungent and a natural anti-inflammatory. It cleanses by burning toxins that have been lodged in your body. Thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties, it relieves symptoms of inflammation in the gut. Due to the sweet potato base, this Ayurvedic meal is gentle enough for cleansing even a delicate Vata constitution.
Spring Congestion
On warm days in Spring, your heart feels heavy and your respiratory tract congested. This is natural as your body is metabolizing stored winter fats to prepare for summer. As they are released, these fats congest your blood. Ginger is the perfect Ayurvedic food to give your circulatory and respiratory system a kick, restoring your pep. It reduces heaviness in the heart, brightens your mood, and makes you feel light on your feet.
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.
Is Sweet Potato with Kale & Ginger Good for My Ayurvedic Diet?
Find out by taking this free, easy quiz.
You'll learn your body type, and whether Sweet Potato with Kale & Ginger 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.
Here are the herbal actions of Sweet Potato with Kale & Ginger:
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.
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 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.
Restores the proper function of the body by cleansing the blood and balancing blood chemistry. In Ayurveda terms, they pacify Pitta in rakta. They were traditionally used to revitalize and detoxify after a long winter.
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.
Comments & Impressions of 'Sweet Potato With Kale & Ginger'
Do you like 'sweet potato with kale & ginger'?
Why or why not?
What makes it unique? Is there something you'd like to know about 'sweet potato with kale & ginger'?
This is a wonderful bright vibrant dish. Beauty and tasty too! I feel my hunger satisfied with each meal. I see few recipes with legumes. I read on a blog it's easy to get protein through a variety of freshly prepared vegetable dishes. Do you agree?
This was a great quick meal. It is surprisingly satisfying the ginger really makes it and it is Simply Beautiful. I would be curious though on how long other people cook the kale for. I boiled mine for only about a minute-and-a-half and it was a little tough. Or maybe I should have put the kale in the water and then brought it to a boil?
I love this dish and make it often. Sunflower oil aggrevates Kapha (currently out of whack), so I used sesame oil instead and halved the salt. Easy dinner or side dish
You're right! Kale can be difficult for vata, though cooking it well with oil and spices helps. If you'd like to sub kale, this list of vata-soothing ingredients might give some tasty ideas: https://www.joyfulbelly.com/Ayurveda/ingredients/dosha/Vata
This is a wonderful bright vibrant dish. Beauty and tasty too! I feel my hunger satisfied with each meal. I see few recipes with legumes. I read on a blog it's easy to get protein through a variety of freshly prepared vegetable dishes. Do you agree?
This was a great quick meal. It is surprisingly satisfying the ginger really makes it and it is Simply Beautiful. I would be curious though on how long other people cook the kale for. I boiled mine for only about a minute-and-a-half and it was a little tough. Or maybe I should have put the kale in the water and then brought it to a boil?
I love this dish and make it often. Sunflower oil aggrevates Kapha (currently out of whack), so I used sesame oil instead and halved the salt. Easy dinner or side dish
You're right! Kale can be difficult for vata, though cooking it well with oil and spices helps. If you'd like to sub kale, this list of vata-soothing ingredients might give some tasty ideas: https://www.joyfulbelly.com/Ayurveda/ingredients/dosha/Vata
* 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.