Nourishing purée
lentil
grain
squash and sweet potato
You know what that means: THE BEST PURÉE EVER!
Cue drooling.
So simple, so delicious, so comforting. This purée is here to warm you up and give you proper nourishment for these cold months of the year. And, if you add some roasted vegetables on the side (as shown in the picture), you’ve got yourself a proper meal according to Ayurveda!
Trust me. You’ll be licking the pot clean.
Been there.
Ingredients
The amounts can and should be adjusted to your needs. You don’t have to measure anything, this is a super simple recipe and it cannot possibly be ruined by any adjustments. You can totally play it by ear. Nevertheless, I’m giving you an example in the brackets - this will suffice for two large portions or 3-4 small ones:
quinoa (1/2 cup)
chana dal or yellow split peas (1/2 cup)
sweet potato (1/2 big or 1 small)
squash (1/4 hokkaido)
carrots (2 medium)
lemon (1/2)
coconut or olive oil (at least 4 spoons)
salt and pepper (to taste)
spices (turmeric, your favourite spice such as oregano / thyme / rosemary
How to make your purée
Just cook it all and mash it together
When you find your rhythm, the whole process takes about half an hour only. You need three separate pots to cook the ingredients, which takes about 20 min. Then you just put it all into one pot, mash it with a fork, add spices and voilá, the best purée ever is ready.
pot: wash chana dal and boil it in 3x the amount of water and a little bit of baking soda (NO SALT!). Make sure you check it from time to time to see if there is plenty of water - if not, add some. Boil until soft. TIP: If you manage to soak your chana dal overnight beforehand, you don’t need to put the soda in.
pot: chop sweat potato, squash and carrots into bigger cube shapes. Boil them all together in one larger pot with plenty of water and 1/2 tsp of salt.
pot: boil quinoa in 2x the amount of water, with a bit of salt. You’ll know that it’s ready when the grain becomes a bit bloated and soft, and there will be cute little tails coming out of the grains.
When all these three beauties are soft (and quinoa has its tiny tails), mash the vegetables with a fork, add the quinoa and chana dal. Then season it all:
add large amounts of extra virgin coconut or olive oil (don’t be shy!)
add spices (turmeric and at least 1 green spice - I love oregano & thyme or rosemary)
add juice from 1/2 lemon
taste it and add salt and pepper if needed
That’s it! Cannot get any easier!
As a side, I recommend roasted vegetables (light kinds, not root) and eat these two things together, as a proper meal (purée and veggies 1:1 ratio). Light veggies will balance out the Kapha properties of this meal by adding some bitter and astringent taste. This proper meal is recommended by Ayurveda as your first or second meal of the day.
Enjoy!
Ivu
