In this video you will learn, as part of your Ayurveda daily morning routine how to pull oil and how to make a wonderful tea that will detox your body and therefore your entire body. (By the way, most good dentists would nowadays recommend their patients to pull oil on a daily basis).
Category Archives: Cooking
ayurvedic detox juice
In this video you will learn how to make a delicious vegetable and fruit juice, full of essential nutrients and antioxidants that will detoxify your body. You should try to drink this every two to three days.
vegetable stock > lentil soup
Learn how to make a tasty, healthy vegetable stock that can be adapted as a base sauce for any meal or converted into a lentil or bean soup in this somewhat tongue-in-cheek video.
Ayurveda – detoxification
The first thing I did once I had read up on the subject of Ayurveda (see book recommendations in my last post) was to detoxify my body. I was keen to see if the Ayurvedic principles would work and, if they did, whether I would actually feel physically and mentally healthier. I was convinced by the argument that we are constantly putting toxic substances into our body on a daily basis: animal fats, pesticides and antibiotics, genetically modified produce, alcohol, coffee along with unhealthy bacteria in our water and air. Our bodies are sophisticated enough to adapt to the absorption and partial excretion of all these poisons to the point where we often don’t even notice any obvious effects from them. In reality, however, they all affect every person in different ways, be it in our sleep patterns, digestive disorders, inflammation, infections, mental sluggishness, mood swings and as the nefarious root of diseases such as arthritis, diabetes and cancer.
So I began with an ayurvedan three-stage detoxification process that starts from the moment you wake up until the moment you fall asleep. The three stages build slowly so that you have time to adjust your lifestyle and to incorporate new rituals into your daily routine.
Phase One
So let’s begin by taking a look at the best way to start your day during your first attempt at the first stage of detoxification:
- When you wake up, try to recall any significant dreams and begin your day with an attitude of gratitude for your sleep, health and the start of a new day. Stretching a litte is good too.
- Then go into the bathroom, evacuate as necessary and splash some cold or lukewarm water on your face. Better still, gently wipe your eyes with some pure rose water.
- From there you should go to your kitchen and drink 2-3 glasses of warm water, ideally with some freshly squeezed lemon juice, in order to activate your digestive system and re-hydrate your body after sleeping. You can at this point take any nutritional supplements you require and include the Ayurvedic herb TRIPHALA that can be bought in capsule form.
- In addition to TRIPHALA, which really promotes the detoxification process in your body, you should also make some “CCF” tea that you can pour into a thermos flask and drink throughout the day. This tea has a wonderfully detoxifying effect on your system. “CCF” stands for coriander, cumin and fennel. You simply put a small tea spoon of each of these spices into 1 litre of water and allow it to simmer for about 10 minutes. I also add some slices of fresh ginger and a tea spoon of fenugreek because of their additional flavour and health benefits.
- You should then pull oil. For me this took some getting used to, since I do not like the consistency of oil on my hands or in my mouth. But it is worth overcoming your issues. Pulling oil involves putting about a tablespoon of either sesame or coconut oil in your mouth and swilling it around, rather like you might do with a mouth wash, for 10 – 30 minutes. While you are doing this, you can be tidying up, preparing your breakfast, making your CCF tea, planning your day or whatever, so there is no time wasted. You should spit the oil out in the bin and not down the sink.
- Next, it’s back to your bathroom in order to scrape your tongue with a tongue scraper and then your brush your teeth. Oil pulling, tongue-scraping and brushing your teeth will help to get rid of all the toxins that have built up during the night, leave your breath smelling sweet and your teeth feeling as if you have just had a professional teeth polishing by your dentist. (By the way, as any good dentist will tell you, you should not clean your teeth for at least half an hour after your breakfast or any meal, otherwise you are actually brushing any residual sugars and food stains into the enamel of your teeth!)
- In Ayurveda, you get to enjoy two extremely healthy and detoxing breakfasts, if you have time. First, it is great to start with some fruit, for example, banana, kiwi, orange, mango, apple or berries. You should allow your body 20 – 30 minutes to digest these before eating your main breakfast. So this is the perfect time to have a shower and so on. Or you could use this time for meditation or yoga (more on these two subjects in a later blog).
- Before you shower, if you have time, spoil your body with a dry brush massage before you shower. This not only feels fantastic, but it also exfoliates dead skin that includes some of the toxins that are being excreted by the largest organ of your body. It can also help against the formation of cellulite and it moves toxins that have gathered in your body by “pushing” them towards your lymph nodes that vitally support your immune system. Concluding your shower with cold water is also medically proven to strengthen your immune system.
- After your shower, if you have time, massage your body with an appropriate oil, moisturising cream or body butter in order to feed and hydrate your clean skin.
To begin with, this whole process seems to take way too long, but after a few weeks, you will find ways to speed the process up and, as I said, to do two things at once. Furthermore, you will not only begin to feel so much better that your newfound wellness encourages you to invest the time, but you will also have more energy and be more efficient during your day, easily regaining the time you have invested in the morning.
For me, there were also several other very important consequences of incorporating these ayurvedic routines into my daily life, but more about those in a later blog.
Choose vegan: Update #4
Mixed salad topped with tempeh and vegan bacon fricassée
Well, I guess it’s been over three months now since I made the decision to become a vegan and I still have no regrets. I am still enjoying all the benefits and finding that the only disadvantage concerns the amount of time it takes to keep cooking two meals a day if the rest of your family are not vegans.
I am also still discovering new taste experiences from vegan bacon to liquid smoke and nutritional yeast and I have taken up jogging before I go to work in the morning. Although my sole motivation for becoming a vegan was animal welfare, the spin-off has been a loss of 3 kilos in 3 months and a renewed sense of fitness in body and mind.
In recent weeks, perhaps as the result of so many fatal and horrendous “natural disasters”, I have been stumbling across articles about how a plant-based life-style is essential for the protection of our environment.
Among the major issues we face in the modern day are climate change, dwindling natural resources, global health epidemics, and the inhumane treatment of animals. What do all of these problems have in common? Each one is intrinsically linked to, and largely driven by, our global society’s dependence on animal-sourced protein.
As developing nations have gained wealth and worldwide demand for meat and dairy has subsequently risen, the animal agriculture industry has mastered the art of producing animal products en masse in the cheapest, most “efficient” way possible.
As a direct result, the environment, our resources, and all life on earth are now in grave danger. In fact, our obsession with cheeseburgers and chicken wings has brought us into such a disastrous situation that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently labelled meat as “the world’s most urgent problem.” And this is not an exaggeration.
Industrial animal agriculture is responsible for producing more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector combined. Not to mention this destructive industry is to blame for widespread air and water pollution, plus mass deforestation, all of which are threatening species around the world and rapidly advancing global warming and resultant climate change.
Given the magnitude of the problems associated with industrial meat and dairy production, scientific experts have emphasised that there is simply no way for us to meet the targets spelled out in the Paris Climate Agreement unless we significantly cut back the scale of animal agriculture on an international level. Global problems are never some one else’s responsibility.
I am delighted to say, however, that some global companies are moving in the right direction. Google, for example, has designed their cafeterias to be “plant-forward,” analysing consumer behaviour to encourage their employees (or as they say, users) to consume more plant-based foods and fewer animal products at meal times. And the Human Society of the US’s comprehensive Meatless Monday campaign that has helped 263 school districts provide meatless meals one day a week (and consequently eliminated close to 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and saved the lives of 10.3 million land animals in just five years). This is especially encouraging because we know that changing human behaviour starts with education, whether we’re talking about racial tolerance, understanding that religion is a social construct or animal welfare and protecting our environment.
Furthermore, promoting a plant-based life-style has been a taboo in schools for decades since parents quickly put a stop to it by claiming their children are being brainwashed by radical lefties and animal rights campaigners, an objection which is mainly based on parents not wanting to have to change their own diet and certainly not wanting to have to go to all the extra effort of preparing vegan meals for their children. This objection is certainly not based on empirical evidence or an education that tells the truth about human meat and dairy consumption. I can only hope that this will continue to change thanks to the people in HSUS, Peta and other such organisations.
So, my friends, stopping asking others why they have become vegans and start asking yourself why you are not.
Finally, if you’d like to see the videos that effected this radical change in my life, here they are again:
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” Albert Einstein
Choose vegan: Update #3
Spanish “vegan” salad
I’ve just got back from a wonderful two weeks in Spain (Andalusia). It is so easy to relax there and I love everything about it: the people, the weather, the language, the culture, the music, the sea and the food. And they never seem to go to bed, not even families with young children. Ernest Hemingway wrote: “There is no night life in Spain. They stay up late but they get up late. That is not night life. That is delaying the day.”
Being a vegan in Spain was much harder than in Berlin. In fact, I failed to keep going. I had lunch on my first day in a chiringuito overlooking the Mediterranean. I asked the waiter for a vegan salad. He looked puzzled and asked for confirmation. “Just salad, please,” I explained, “maybe some tomato, cucumber, peppers and lettuce – nothing that has come from an animal.”
“Sí, señor,” he replied confidently as he went away to place my order with the kitchen. About ten minutes later, my vegan salad arrived (see photo above) complete with a mound of tuna fish and sliced egg.
I had a similar experience in the shops and supermarkets. It was so much more difficult to find almond milk or soya yoghurt and although I managed to buy some tofu, I could not find any seitan or tempeh.
There is a paradox here somewhere. It is currently harder to live a plant-based life in Spain where there is an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables than it is in Germany where there is an abundance of meat and where we import so much of our fruit and vegetables from Spain. How can this be? Why is that veganism, rather like buying organic produce, is a privilege of the stronger economy?
Leaving the politics, power and lobbying of the meat and dairy industry to one side, I can only assume that we are dealing with a matter of culture and education. When your country is more than three-quarters surrounded by a sea teeming with fish, naturally it becomes part of the culture to enjoy paella, salpicón, fish soup and barbecued sardines. Yet we know that doing something for cultural reasons does not make it morally right. Were Spanish children to be exposed to the truth about the suffering that these fish and other animals in the meat and dairy industry endure, I am confident that there would be a gradual shift in the culture too. Then, countries like Spain would become the ideal place to enjoy a plant-based lifestyle.
And finally, what about vegans killing flies or buying down pillows, leather sofas or wearing wool pullovers?
Logically, if the primary motivation for a plant-based lifestyle is to prevent the unnecessary suffering of animals, then it would be better to avoid killing wasps and flies and so on if at all possible. I hope you get my gist. To go into more detail rapidly becomes absurd. For example, when I was in Spain, there was a plague of jellyfish. These fascinating animals have no eyes, no heart and no brain. Would it be okay to kill them? I’d still say, better not.
With down pillows, leather sofas and wool pullovers, the answer is easier. In order to produce these goods, animal suffering is nearly always involved. One glance at the videos contained in the hyperlinks above should be enough to convince you.
Now I’m back home, I am back on course with my plant-based diet and feel better for it. However, I am still a bit jittery about the latest Brexit statements coming for the UK. Apparently, it could happen that UK citizens living in Europe will no longer receive their pensions. Ah well, as my son said, at least I could go and open the first vegan restaurant in Torremolinos?
“I would sooner be a foreigner in Spain than in most countries. How easy it is to make friends in Spain!” – George Orwell
Sticky peanut cauliflower (vegan)
This dish makes a great side dish with other main courses, or you can eat it as a main course. Above it is served with sweet potato rösti.
Ingredients
- 1 medium cauliflower
- 1 tablespoon natural crunchy peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons solid coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon tamari or other soy sauce
- Juice of 1/2 lime (reserve the other 1/2 for serving)
- Half teaspoon curry powder and half a teaspoon garam masala
Method
Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Cut the cauliflower into florets. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and then cover all the cauliflower florets completely in the sauce. Wrap the basted cauliflower in some tin foil – as loosely packed as possible so that all the pieces cook evenly – and place them in the oven, first for 15 minutes. Then uncover the florets and cook them for a further ten minutes until the turn crunchy and golden brown. Sprinkle a little of the leftover lime over the florets and serve hot.
In the photo above, I drizzled the meal in some homemade vegan chimichurri.
Choose vegan: Update #2
Mixed salad with tempeh drizzled in sesame dressing
Here’s another quick update on my new life as a plant-based eater, grouped under the headings of the questions you’ve been asking.
- Do I still feel healthier for becoming vegan?
Definitely. And on so many levels, even if some are subjective and I can’t actually prove them. For example, I still feel psychologically much happier in myself to know that nothing I consume is the result of any animal suffering. Once you know the truth about animal suffering, you can do nothing else. Yesterday on the subway I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt sporting the text: “STOP asking me why I am a vegan and START asking yourself why you’re not.” Nice.
Furthermore, my stomach feels lighter, I am coping with the heat better, I am sleeping better and I am losing weight.
2. Do I believe that eating meat is one of the main causes of global warming?
To be really honest here, I’m not sure anyone can know with absolute certainty what is causing global warming. The earth has gone through many weather cycles in its long history, so this could just be another one, but deep down I personally do believe that the current global warming can be attributed to our abuse of the planet. And if this is true, then eating meat is doing even more damage than flying by plane. To prove it, please watch this short video based on a recent study by the University of Oxford.
3. Why don’t you at least eat fish?
Well, long before I knew the truth about the origin of meat and dairy produce, I did think it was strange that some vegetarians would eat fish. This was based on my logic that one dead cow can feed many, but one dead good-sized fish can only feed one person. Now I am of the opinion that fish are not somehow lesser animals than dogs, cats, rabbits or frogs.
Sadly, the U.S. fishing industry alone slaughters more than 6 billion fish each year, and sport fishing and angling kill another 245 million animals annually. Without any legal protection from cruel treatment, these intelligent, complex animals are impaled, crushed, suffocated, or sliced open and gutted, all while they’re fully conscious.
Regardless of the method used to catch them, if the fish are still alive at the end of their terrifying journey to the surface, most have their gills cut and bled out or are tossed onto ice to slowly freeze or suffocate to death—a horribly cruel and painful death for cold-blooded animals, who can take a very long time to freeze or suffocate to death. Scientists estimate that fish endure up to 15 minutes of excruciating pain before they lose consciousness.
Click here for more information about the fish industry.
Or watch this surprising 4 minute film with Ewan McGregor.
4. Have I experienced any other positive or negative experiences since writing my vegan update #1?
I still find it hard to believe, after all these years of being a carnivore, that I don’t miss or crave meat. The only exception to this happened last night when I went to IKEA with my daughter and she ordered Köttbullar! For me, eating Köttbullar was a ritual. I always ate them when we went shopping in IKEA. My daughter left two on her plate. While we chatted for half an hour after we had finished eating, it was as if the Köttbullar were staring up at me and shouting, “Go on, eat us! We will only go to waste and then the cows and pigs have died in vain.” It was tough, but I managed to refrain. This morning I reflected on the fact that “Kot” in German means faeces. Not too far from the truth, then …
The other two issues concern my kitchen. On the plus side, it has been so much easier to keep the kitchen clean now that there is no more animal fat splattered all over the cooker. Cutlery and crockery are easier to wash (a soya-based yoghurt bowl can be cleaned much more easily than a dairy yoghurt bowl) and so your sink stays cleaner for longer too.
On the downside, the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables in the apartment has led to a minor plague of fruit flies! Which leads me to your final question …
5. Is it okay as a vegan to kill flies, wasps and bugs? And is it okay to buy leather goods, wool pullovers and down pillows?
The answer to these questions will form part of Choose Vegan Update #3.
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain
Choose vegan: Update #1
A few readers have asked me whether I have managed to maintain a plant-based diet since I started just over three weeks ago. Answer: yes.
So I thought I’d give you a quick update as to the pros and cons. I’ll begin with the pros.
Pros
- It feels good to know that no animal has undergone unnecessary suffering in order to produce my meal.
I receive a weekly e-mail from challenge22@anonymous.org.il that provides me with recipes, encouragement and information. This week’s newsletter included news about what happens to chickens, in particular in free-range situations. The males are still killed at birth because they can neither produce eggs nor grow fast enough to be raised for meat production. The dairy industry really is as cruel as the meat industry.
2. Weight loss and a general feeling of well-being
Without changing my sport/exercise regime, I have already lost 2 kilos in weight. More importantly, my stomach feels lighter somehow, I am sleeping better and I generally feel healthier, although I know this is entirely subjective.
3. Not craving meat of dairy
This has taken me by surprise. Even though I still cook meat for three out of my four children, I so far haven’t caught myself wishing I could be eating what they are eating. On the contrary, especially when I have to scrape away congealed fat off their dinner plates!
4. Adventure and experimentation
Inevitably, I’ve had to become more creative with my cuisine, at home and when eating out. I’ve now discovered, for example, almond milk, soya yogurt, tempeh, saitan and tofu and my culinary experimentation has undergone a revolution. What’s more, my fridge looks less like a morgue and more like a garden. And talking of fridges, you may need a larger one in order to store all your fresh fruit and vegetables! On a personal note, I have also so far discovered that I prefer to eat dishes just with vegetables rather than with meat substitutes.
5. Most meals do take more time
I was about to put this in the negative section, but then realised that it doesn’t have to be negative if your food preparation takes longer. If you become a vegan, you will need to take more time learning about your new options and reading labels. You will need more time when you go shopping on account of trying to find new shops and new ingredients. And you will need more time for food preparation. For example, making a breakfast from muesli, soya yogurt and fresh fruit will take you a bit longer than jam on toast. Yet being forced to slow down your pace of life a little and savouring your food can surely never be a bad thing.
Cons
1. It’s a pain cooking two family meals instead of one
So far, the only real negative I can think of is that I often have to cook two meals per meal: one vegan and one non-vegan. If you don’t really enjoy cooking, then this is a little annoying, but it won’t go on forever since most children eventually leave home. Or else they might even follow your example and become vegan. Children do what you do and not what you say.
Conclusion: Some of you have also asked me how much thought, preparation and research I had put into become vegan before I got going. The honest answer is, almost none. Having watched a few videos about the meat and dairy industry, I just switched from one day to the next. For me, that was the best way, otherwise I would have made endless excuses about all the things I needed to do before I one day became a vegan. Now I am learning everything as I go along. I guess you have to decide what’s best for you.
Resources: “You will never look at your life the same way again.” and “A life-changing speech.”
“If you think that being vegan is difficult, imagine being a factory farmed animal.” Davegan Raza
Lentil burgers
Time to a break from the heavier contributions and to provide another of my self-made recipes. This is something that I invented for my vegetarian son whose flight to New York for tomorrow has just been cancelled. Darn it! I’ve just made some of these for him to cheer him up.
Method and ingredients
Soak the red and yellow lentils (chana dal) for a few hours and boil them briefly but leaving them a bit firm and certainly not soggy. The burgers will have more of a “meaty” effect/texture of you leave at least the chana dal a bit firm!
Meanwhile fry up the following mix:
- Onions
- Garlic (optional and not too much)
- Peppers (red and green)
- Mushrooms (lots of)
- Kidney beans (mashed up)
- A tomato if you have one to hand
Season generously with:
- Vegeta
- Pepper
- Salt
- Sugar
- Paprika
- Thyme
- Mixed herbs
- Fresh basil
- Fresh chives
- Fresh parsley
- Fresh coriander (small amount if available)
- Sambal oelek
- Curry powder (small amount optional)
- Lemon juice (small amount optional)
Then mix the two mixtures together (cooked lentils and fried vegetables) with 2 whisked eggs and a cup of plain flour and a sprinkling of breadcrumbs.
Finally, shape them into burger shapes, coat them lightly in breadcrumbs and gently shallow fry until golden brown on both sides.
If desired, add some goat’s cheese to the mix for extra flavour and texture.
If you are not a strict vegetarian, these burgers also taste great sandwiched in a bun with a couple of strips of fried bacon and some ketchup and/or chili sauce.
Enjoy!