Ananda in the Himalayas, a luxury wellness retreat in northern India, has released an Ayurvedic cookbook, The Healing Plate. Drawing on 25 years of integrative health expertise, the book features more than 100 recipes illustrated by beautiful photographs, alongside guidance on digestion, immunity, sleep, energy, and seasonal eating. If a pilgrimage to the Himalayas isn’t in your immediate future, you can purchase the book from Ananda’s online store.
When news of this gourmet Ayurvedic manual crossed my desk, I was in ragged shape after a weeklong bender of media events with wine and whiskey brands. I was paying the price for last night’s delights, as the poet once wrote. I took this as a suggestion from the cosmos that it was high time to clean up my act, beginning with a dose of Ayurvedic wisdom.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” – Hippocrates
Ayurveda is a term you have probably encountered if you have ever wandered into a health food store, yoga studio, or the city limits of Palm Springs. From the Sanskrit for “knowledge of life,” Ayurveda originated in the misty past of ancient India more than 5,000 years ago. While Western medicine often focuses on isolated symptoms and ailments, Ayurveda emphasizes holistic health. Disease, in the Ayurvedic framework, stems from imbalances not only in the body but also in the mind and environment.
A central tenet of Ayurveda is that each person has a governing dosha, or constitutional type. Ayurvedic texts use the metaphors of air (vata), fire (pitta), and earth (kapha) to describe doshas. Your dosha type influences everything from digestion and libido to temperament and sleep. It is a medical heuristic remarkably similar to the medieval European theory of the four humors. The healthiest foods for your body depend on your dosha—in other words, someone with a fire dosha should eat a different diet than someone with an air dosha. The Healing Plate contains a self-assessment to help readers determine their dosha, with recipes curated accordingly.
Like many New Yorkers, I don’t eat in my apartment very often, perhaps once or twice a week. But I look forward to trying my hand at recreating Ananda’s wholesome dishes with The Healing Plate propped open on my kitchen counter. It will be a grand excuse to cook with spices like fenugreek, turmeric, and asafoetida. Stay tuned: I’ll report back on the condition of my chakras.
