Ayurvedic Cooking and Food
Nourish your health and happiness
What is healthy and delicious food? There are so many guidelines and diets on what to eat (or to avoid), often assuming healthy food isn’t delicious. The good news is ….. a healthy meal must be delicious!
Ayurvedic nutrition teaches us how to nourish our natural flow. The basic principal: a good meal is when you feel satisfied and your belly is happy. It can be applied to any kind of food, not just Indian!
Our body and minds are continuously challenged by changes in the day and seasons. Moreover Ayurveda explains that we all have a unique metabolic make up or energetic constitution (“dosha”). All these factors influence our (im)balance. Ayurveda helps to make choices and adaptations to our recipes and diet that nourish your body’s needs, create a better energy balance in your body and prevent diseases. Eating this way puts you in touch with the seasons, your natural state and flow.
Painting: by Hanna Jan. 2024. Inspired by WooKwan Sunim, master of Korean temple cuisine. Inspiration for delicious and healthy food, comforting mind and body, prepared and eaten mindfully.
What can I do for you?
It sounds complicated with all those spices and guidelines. However, it actually is really straight forward and intuitive, for any kind of delicious food.
I would like to help you with practical ideas and adaptations to use in your daily life, with recipes that work for you. So its easy and inspiring to do, especially once you’ve tasted how delicious it is and felt the effect on your body.
- Join a group workshop or cooking class – see schedule
- Private cooking classes and personalized recipes
- Catering for groups and event
“I was so happily surprised to hear Hanna’s ideas and tips to be happy preparing food that is healthy. And then the taste of it when we took to eating! It was such a wonderful experience: delicious with all the different flavours there. On top of that I felt my belly smiling and happy, long afterwards. Thank you Hanna for introducing me to this different way of giving my body the fuel it likes and needs.”
What is Ayurvedic Cooking?
Ayurveda means ‘the science of life’, to be in flow with the natural world and your natural state.
Ayurveda is an ancient and holistic system of medicine from India, however, the basic cooking guidelines can be applied to any type of food and meal:
- Use of seasonal, fresh and pure ingredients, full of life force
- Predominantly vegetarian and/or vegan (plant based)
- The key to health is the health of your gut health: keeping the digestive fire going strong (=Agni) and clean of toxins
- Aims to include all six tastes. The body is built to look for the minerals and the nourishment that comes with the tastes: salty, bitter, pungent (spicy), sweet, sour and astringent.
- Certain combinations of foods are best avoided
- Food strongly influences both body and mind. Too much coffee is a simple example of how your body and mind become agitated. Every ingredient has an impact.
Divya Alter’s definition of Ayurvedic food explains well how it is not a strict diet, rather an evolving and personalized way of eating: the food that is most suitable for maintaining optimal health and overcoming disease in the context of your appetite, personal metabolic constitution, physical activity, geographical location, time of day, season and the time in your life.
Ayurveda teaches that each taste has a different effect on your state of balance of body, mind and spirit. Each taste has a vital role to play in our digestion, physiology, health, and well-being. The 6 tastes: Sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes, each have a particular quality and effect on our body and mind. For example, sweet stimulates the desire for food, whilst sour has a strong effect on digestion. Balancing flavors with fresh ingredients, spices and fresh herbs is yummy, aids digestion and brings health benefits.
Contact:
Phone: +31 (0)680071414
email: hanna.hellman@gmail.com