Tridoshic Vegetable Curry

A few ideas on slowing down and still get everything done (and a great recipe too)

It is ironic that I am writing about the topic of slowing down and I know my beloved partner Mak is going to raise his eyebrows when he sees this post as he is surrounded by my 'busy ness' every minute of the day. If you were to see my house and my diary right now you would wonder what I could possibly offer you in the ways of ideas of slowing down. My front lounge room is piled high with catering boxes that were loaded in there last night after teaching all weekend.

Many of the boxes could easily have stayed in my van as they will be carted off to coorabel hall for the next module of The Vegan Chef and Lifestyle Training on Wednesday. However I had to whisk my van off to get a bed base built today and had to unload everything last night only to load it all back in tomorrow.

The bed base is being built in time for me to leave for Bawley point straight after the cooking class finishes next Saturday. See how busy my life is but I bet if you are reading this it is no different to how busy your life is. I woke up at 4 am today with my mind screaming at me 'I just can't do this, why on earth did I put so much in my schedule when I vowed to be more realistic this year. After three hours of sitting in my bed working on the computer this morning I stumbled into the kitchen in a daze and made my breakfast, sat down and stared at the trees and it dawned on me that I will cope as I always do but this time I need to just go slower and stop listening to my worrisome mind.

So in a slow fashion i have tested 3 new recipes, whisked my van off to get the bed built, sat down and read more about macrobiotic cooking and made myself a scrumptious lunch. If I do all the things I have to do today in this slow fashion I will actually get everything done and do it well.

So here are my ideas on how to slow down, it has actually been very easy today.

1. If you can then meditate, even for five minutes- I wanted to sit today and meditate for 20 minutes but knew if I did I would just mind fuck the whole time (pardon my language but it is the only way to describe this constant babble in my head).
Some days sitting meditation works for me often it doesn't.so instead I did number 2

2. Make yourself something to eat which is grounding and eat it before 9 am in the morning, the longer you leave it to eat in the morning the harder it can be to ground. When you have made your food just focus on eating and ideally outside where you can see the greenery. I find it better to eat alone like they do in Bali just so the mind can slow down, especially at breakfast.

3.Stop the mind from telling you how busy you are, stop the mind from worrying you. You just have to notice that the mind is making a noise and then just watch it rather than listening to the words.

4. Listen to the sounds around you when your mind is chattering non stop. This is from Osho, i read this earlier this year to really listen to all the sounds around you and keep on listening to the sounds around you and not to what your mind is saying or worrying you with.5. Find something you love doing and do it just for the sake of doing it. For me I love being in the kitchen even if it is just for

5 minutes grinding a few spices or rummaging through the fridge to see what veggies I have forgotten about. this slows my mind down and then I feel slower.

6. The best advice my yoga teacher gave me put your legs up the wall for 10 minutes in the middle of the day no matter where you are. This slowing down for 10 minutes will rejuvenate you and keep you going strong for a good 8 hours longer if you need to.

7. Do all of the above things with hands free- no mobile or ipad or notebook or portable computer any where in site.I hope at least one of those things helps you to slow down a little this week. And now to a recipe, on the weekend we covered Ayurvedic cuisine in The Vegan Chef and Lifestyle training and made some delicious recipes that help balance the dosha. There was no surprise that many of us in the group were vata imbalanced due to extremely busy lifestyles. The recipe I share with you all is great for balancing all doshas especially the vata dosha so another way that you can slow down is by cooking this up enough for two meals so you can enjoy eating it nice and slow on the night you make it and then you can really slow down when all you do is heat it up the next night.

Tridoshic Vegetable Curry

This recipe is totally inspired by Jacinta Mc Ewan http://www.omhealing.com.au/ who taught the Ayurvedic day on Saturday.

Ingredients

1 cup of fresh green peas

1 cup carrots, diced

2 cups green string beans or asparagus, cut in 1 inch pieces

2 tablespoons sunflower oil or ghee

2 teaspoons of cumin seeds

2 teaspoons black mustard seeds

1 teaspoon salt1 ½ cups water

2 teaspoons turmeric1 teaspoon coriander powder

½ cup fresh almond milk not strained

Method

Heat oil or ghee in large heavy skillet or wok.Add mustard and cumin seeds. When the mustard seeds pop, add turmeric.Then add all of the vegetables and water.Cook, covered until the vegetables become tender, about 15 – 20 minutes.Then add yoghurt/almond milk, and the rest of the ingredients, stirring well.Simmer uncovered on low heat for another 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with dhal and rice for a complete protein. Enjoy slowing down everyone and please let me know if you think any of my ideas are helpful.With huge love VeetPs- I hope I have slowed down enough today to have picked up all my typos in this blog post!!!

Categories:Mains

Tags:green beans Indian Curries