1.Ayurvedic cooking is sensual. It encourages us to tune into all of our five senses when preparing a meal. How the food sounds, smells, feels, looks and tastes. The sizzle of mustard and cumin seeds in a saucepan of hot ghee and the waves of aromas that fill the kitchen, the luscious feel of hand mixing a mango and rocket salad or the feast of colours when we stir fry red capsicum, snow peas and yellow squash.
2.Ayurvedic cooking, above all, honours our intuitive process and encourages us to make full use of it in the process of selecting and preparing our daily food. By listening to our body and taking heed of its subtle messages we will find those foods that are naturally balancing and appropriate for us.
3.Ayurveda is concerned with how to live in harmony with the natural forces of the world. It advocates eating foods that are grown locally and that are in season. For example in winter we naturally gravitate and feel most nourished by root vegetables, onions and potatoes, warming foods which are cooked and served hot. In summer we tend to want more fresh fruits and salads, cooling foods which are served at room temperature.
4.Ayurvedic cooking celebrates taste and understands the effect of different tastes on the physiology of the human body. It identifies six different tastes. Sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent. These tastes are used to balance the body’s energies and to promote wellbeing, it is said that each meal should include all six tastes.
5.Ayurveda sees food as energy. This is why food made with love and affection and eaten in your own or a friend’s home is so much more satisfying than take away and restaurant food.
6.Ayurveda luxuriates in herbs and spices. These are used to enhance the flavour of meals, to make food more digestible and to nourish bodily systems that might be deficient or weak. Commonly used spices include: cumin, fenugreek, garlic, ginger, coriander, fennel, curry leaves and turmeric.
7.Ayurveda understands the intimate link between our digestion and our health. It sees the gut as the place that we “cook” our food in order to draw the most nourishment from it, well digested food being the basis for a healthy immune system and a contented mind.