Vata-balancing overnight oats

This is a very easy recipe to make in advance and can stay in the fridge for a few days. Can be helpful during this Vata time of year, might well help if suffering with constipation. Go easy if suffering a Pitta imbalance.

Ingredients

½ cup of organic rolled oats

½ cup plant-based milk

1 tbsp of chai seeds/pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds

1 tbsp of maple syrup, date syrup or honey (avoid honey if on a Pitta reducing diet)

Vanilla extract to taste

Method

 Mix all the ingredients together in a glass container (straight into a jar which you can take with you to work etc). Cover and refrigerate overnight. You can always top with toasted nuts (avoid cashew and Brazil if on a Pitta reducing diet)

Pea and mint soup recipe

This is a really yummy and gentle soup for the digestive season that leaves you feeling clean on the inside.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of ghee or coconut oil

I small onion or leek chopped

1/4tsp of turmeric powder

Ground pepper and salt to taste

2-3 cups of garden peas (frozen is fine)

1 litre of vegetable stock

Handful of fresh chopped mint

Handful of shredded spinach, chard or kale

Method

• In a saucepan over a medium heat, heat the ghee/coconut oil and add the onion/leek, turmeric and ground pepper, and saute gently until the onion/leek is translucent.

• Add the peas and stir until coated with the oil and spice.

• Add vegetable stock and bring to the boil

•  Simmer with lid on for ten minutes

• Add the mind and green leaves and heat on low for another minute or so, until the greens have wilted.

• Blend with a stick blender or in a Vitamix and season to taste.

The antidote to fear is love - happy full moon!

So it’s the Gemini full moon today and there’s a real push in it to let go, let go and let go again of what you don’t need to be carrying with you as we head towards the winter solstice, unburdening and lightening ourselves in the process.

This moon is especially highlighting fear patterns, it has been coming up since the last eclipse, whether it’s this life time, societal, generational, ancestral or past life, it doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that we recognise it, keep going to the feeling it brings when we are triggered by it and then allowing it to keep moving through us.

This is not easy as I know only too well myself, but necessary though, unless we intend to keep repeating old and unhelpful patterns over and over again, impacting our mental and emotional well-being, let alone our physical vitality and spiritual connection.

When the moment takes me I love a full moon ritual, but it has to feel aligned, there is absolutely no point doing these things because we think we ought to, or because someone else has told us we should. It needs to flow. Instead maybe enjoy a warming dead sea salt bath - or do both!

If the moment takes you and you have the space for it, then maybe you might do something like this:

• Light a candle, smudge yourself, centre yourself, have the intention of letting go.

• Lie down, make yourself cosy, take a few deep breaths, hands on heart, taking a moment to connect to your heart - what does it need to let go of? Is there grief, stubborn unforgiveness, anger, rage, frustration, sadness. What do you no longer need to be holding onto? How did it come to be there, what it is you really need to let go of, a thought, a behaviour pattern, a way of being, a mind set, a fear?

• Listening to a yoga nidra - choose from here https://www.beinspiredby.co.uk/free-audios - while working with the intention of letting go.

• When you’ve finished, write down ten things you would like to let go of from your life and really feel into them as a possibility. Notice where there is resistance.

• Fold the paper and place in your hands, giving it Reiki if you can.

• Then give thanks to the moon for helping with your healing as you tear up the paper and burn it with the help of the candle. Make sure you have a bowl of water to hand to pop the burning paper in.

• Take the bowl of water and burnt strips outside and pour onto the earth (in a respectful way, especially if the paper is still not properly burned) or pour down the sink, but again respectfully.

• Say a little prayer of thanks and blow out the candle.

It’s a lovely ritual and helps you connect with your deeper self as well as the moon energy.

I find myself in Brighton on this full moon, after a weekend of reconnecting with one of my oldest and bestest friends in Chesham, who I haven’t seen since the pandemic and then down to a city I also haven’t visited since the pandemic but with very fond memories of many trips with the children, to catch up with another friend I haven’t seen for ages, and a return to the wonderful Infinity Foods and the Brighton Buddhist Centre tomorrow, it has been too long.

All of this feels timely, I have this sense that we’re finally moving out of the collective Covid fear and re-connecting, re-discovering and re-visiting activities and ways of being that dropped away during the pandemic, but that we are changed, and for the most positively too, more clear about the uncertainty of life, more grateful perhaps for all we have rather than all we don’t have, more determined to follow our heart, and let go of our fear.

The antidote to fear is love. If we do what we love there is no space for fear. So let go from the heart, as much s you can, so there is more lightness and more love to be shared and really, what the world needs now, more than anything else, is love. But this has to start with each of us individually. We have to find that love within ourselves if we hope to see it reflected back at us in the outer world.

Love on this full moon

Emma x

Warm & nourishing Ayurvedic recipes

Rice porridge

A warm & nourishing breakfast

Ingredients

2-3 servings

1/2cup of white or brown basmati rice

1/2 cup coconut milk

salt

stick of cinnamon (small)

sugar or maple syrup as necessary

dry fruits

almond flakes

1. Cook the rice and cinnamon with 3 cups of water until it becomes soggy

2. When the rice grains are very soft, add milk and stir continuously until the milk boils

3. Mix sugar/maple syrup, almond flakes and a few dry fruits (if they are pre-soaked much better)

   If you prefer more liquid form, add a little more hot water. If you prefer semi solid, keep on fire until it becomes thicker.

Coconut butternut squash

Ingredients

1 medium-sized butternut squash cut into pieces

1 can of coconut milk

2 cups of water/stock/broth

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/4tsp of nutmeg

1/2tsp of salt

Freshly chopped coriander to serve

1. Heat oven to 350f

2. Roast squash for approximately 30 minutes and then leave to cool slightly

3. Warm coconut milk and water/broth/stock in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the roasted squash to the pan along with the spices. Bring to the boil and then lower heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes. 

4. Remove from the heat and blend until smooth and creamy.

5. Season with salt and pepper

Sing's nutty granola recipe

Sing has very kindly agreed that I can share this recipe with you. It is brill for those of you navigating a Vata imbalance - more on this in one of my next newsletters so sign up for those if you haven’t already. Just go easy on the nuts and seeds.

This is a treat for those of you following a pitta reducing diet, but please avoid the honey using maple syrup instead and focus on almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts, avoiding cashew and brazil nuts.

If you are reducing kapha, just be mindful of its yumminess…and have with milk, avoiding yogurt.

It is very satisfying to make, full of prana and love, go organic if you can to reduce toxins - you can really taste the difference in comparison to those processed in a factory…

Ingredients

• 50ml coconut/vegetable oil

• 75ml agave syrup, maple syrup or clear honey - use agave or maple syrup if vegan

• 400g porridge oats - use gluten-free oats if required

• 150g mixed seeds and nuts

• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

• ½ tsp fine sea salt

• 100g sultanas, raisins or dried cranberries and coconut flakes (or any dried fruit of your choice)

What to do

• Heat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Mix the oil, syrup or honey and vanilla together in a large bowl.

• Add the oats, seeds, spices and salt to the bowl. Mix well so everything is coated, tip onto 2 large baking trays and spread out evenly.

• Bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring halfway through, until golden, crisp and smelling toasted. Add the flaked coconut and dried fruit to the granola, and bake for 2 more minutes. Leave to cool.

• Store in an airtight container for 2-3 weeks - good luck with that, doesn’t take long for it to be eaten in our house!

Thank you Sing, really lovely recipe and I am grateful to share.

x