By Lee Holmes from Supercharged Food (This recipe is from her new book Eat Right for your Shape)

Lee has adapted the traditional Baji recipe to make it more suitable for the fiery types:

“The absence of spicy heat makes it the perfect snack to balance out the Pitta dosha which is commonly fiery and ‘hot’ in its inherent characteristics of competitiveness, irritability, and the physical symptoms of skin rashes, inflammation and hypertension when in an unbalanced state.

My version will also be seen majoring on the superstar ingredient; broccoli. Broccoli is an excellent source of vitamin C, folate, vitamin K and chromium. It’s also high in fibre to aid in detoxifying the digestive system. As broccoli contains subtle bitter qualities that mimic the energy of air and ether; the effect on the fiery pitter is one of lightening, refreshment, toxin removal and cleansing.

The combination of the chickpea flour and brown rice flour makes a coating of complete protein; transforming it into a snack that’ll fill and satisfy your hunger for longer, as well as stabilising blood glucose levels. “

Broccoli Baji

Ingredients:

Serves 4

• 300 g (10½ oz/2½ cups) besan (chickpea) flour
• 2 tablespoons brown rice flour
• pinch of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• Himalayan salt, to taste
• 500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) filtered water
• extra virgin coconut oil, for shallow-frying
• 120 g (4¼ oz/2 cups) broccoli florets

Chia jam and Carrot and beetroot raita, to serve (recipes below)

Method

• Sift the flours, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a medium bowl. Gradually add the water, stirring well to avoid lumps.
• The mixture should have a smooth, paste-like consistency.
• Heat some coconut oil (about 4 cm/1½ inches deep) in a medium, heavy-based saucepan over medium–high heat. Once the oil is hot (a small broccoli floret should sizzle and float), working in batches, dip the broccoli florets in the batter to coat well.
• Drop into the pan and cook until crisp on all sides. Lay on paper towel to drain off any excess oil while you cook the next batch.

Chia Jam

Serves 4

This natural, sugar-free jam suits all doshas. Fruit jams are delicious, but obtaining the desired consistency and firmness usually requires a large quantity of white sugar. This recipe uses chia seeds to create a perfect consistency, and rice malt syrup to add sweetness to the apple and berries. Delicious on its own, it can be used as a topping for pancakes – or a dollop added to the mixing bowl will sweeten up cakes, and a spoonful added to the pan will highlight curries.

Ingredients

• 1 apple, cored and grated
• 125 g (4½ oz/1 cup) mixed berries
• 250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) filtered water
• 90–120 g (3¼–4¼ oz/¼–1⁄3 cup) rice malt syrup, to taste
• 35 g (1¼ oz/¼ cup) chia seeds

Method

• Combine the apple, berries, water and rice malt syrup in a small, heavy-based saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil.
• Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until the consistency is thick.
• Remove from the heat, stir through the chia seeds and transfer to a sterilised jar.
• The jam will keep in the fridge for 5 days.

Carrot and Beetroot Raita

Serves 3–4

• 520 g (1 lb 2½ oz/2 cups) sheep’s milk yoghurt (use greek style coconut yoghurt if vegan)
• 1 raw beetroot (beet), peeled and grated
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 small capsicum (pepper), finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• Himalayan salt, to taste

Method

• Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl by mixing gently with a spoon.
• The raita will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 3–4 days.

The post Broccoli Baji recipe appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Eat Right For Your Shape is a beautiful and easy to read, Ayurvedic food and lifestyle guide by Supercharged Food author Lee Holmes. I have spent a lot of time pouring over this book, and have cooked several recipes from it – loving every one. My favourites so far are the Green Bean Subji and Sweet Potato Hash. Below you will find my review and details on how to win a copy of this book for yourself.

“Even if you only follow Ayurvedic recipes one day a week, see this as a positive change.”

Lee recommends implementing changes at your own pace which is a suggestion I agree with – whenever faced with the idea of a radical diet overhaul I immediately think of all the foods I can’t have, then proceed to stick my head in the sand. Instead of coming at these diet principles from the approach of what you can’t have, think about it more like something that you can do in bits and pieces to suit you.

Lee makes it easy for you to get an idea of your Dosha (constitution/body type) and then choose the right recipes for you with colour coded symbols and helpful summaries. To start with, there is a quiz where you can find your dosha, and then a chapter describing the characteristics of each dosha so you can get to know it, and then a handy graph listing the best foods to eat for each type for easy reference. Not only that, there are meal plans as well.

The meals are also split into seasons and tagged for their appropriate dosha, with suggestions given on how to adjust the recipe for other doshas. I think that one of Lee’s aims is not to provide you a strict list of meals to eat (although there is meal plan for each dosha included), but rather to provide you with guide of what foods will boost your health, and then encourages you to incorporate this as much as is possible for you.

There is also a section explaining intermittent fasting – you might know this as the 5:2 diet – and the practice of this in a traditional Ayurvedic diet. While commonly recommended as a tool for weight loss, Lee also recommends this method of eating as a way to give your digestive system a ‘rest’.

One of the things I love about the way Lee writes is how laid back she is – she suggests just taking on as much as you would like to from her recommendations, and if you have a moment of eating some less health promoting foods, to absolutely NOT feel guilty about it.

But wait, there’s more.

Not only do you get a beautiful guide to eating for your dosha, recipes and meal plans, there’s also a section on incorporating Ayurvedic lifestyle techniques, including yoga, mindful eating and breathing techniques. This book is much more than a recipe book, it is a complete Ayurvedic lifestyle guide. And while there are several Ayurvedic books already published, many could be considered overwhelming, and I am yet to find one quite as pretty as this.

In case you missed it, check out my interview with Lee where we chatted about her trip to India which inspired her recipes for this book and how her eating style has changed over the years. We also chatted about intermittent fasting, some Ayurvedic principles and Lee explains Doshas and how we can balance our health by eating to suit our type.

Eat Right for Your Shape GIVEAWAY

Want to win a copy of Eat Right for Your Shape? Just comment below in 25 words and tell me what your favorite food memory is.

Share the Facebook or Instagram post for extra brownie points.

Competition guidelines

Competition ends Saturday 21st May 2016.

Winners will be announced in my newsletter on Monday 23nd May 2016

Only open to Australian residents.

The winning entry must be subscribed to my newsletter.

The post Book Review – Eat Right for your Shape by Lee Holmes + a GIVEAWAY! appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Look. at. this. Just look at this chocolate fudge, doesn’t it make you want to smoosh your face into your screen in the hope that you’ll be able to taste some of it’s deliciousness?

This Chocolate Fudge is from Lee Holmes’ new book Eat Right for your Shape.

If you think this looks pretty amazing, then scroll down and cheer because I get to share the recipe with you.

This doesn’t just look pretty, it’s easy to make and it tastes devine as well. Just blend, pour and set.

Ingredients:

Makes 15

• 270 g (9½ oz/1 cup) almond butter
• 80 ml (2½ fl oz/1⁄3 cup) extra virgin coconut oil, melted
• 30 g (1 oz/¼ cup) cacao powder
• 90 g (3¼ oz/¼ cup) rice malt syrup
• ½ teaspoon Celtic sea salt
• 1 teaspoon alcohol-free vanilla extract

Method

• Line a baking tray with baking paper.
• Process the nut butter and coconut oil in a food processor until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth and creamy.
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin to 3 cm (1¼ inches) thick and smooth the top with the back of a spoon or a spatula.
• Freeze for at least 1 hour before slicing and serving. If stored for longer in the freezer you may need to transfer to the fridge to soften a little.

Want more recipes like this? You can check out Lee’s book here.

In case you missed it, check out Podcast #21 where I interview Lee about this book.

The post Chocolate Fudge appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing the beautiful and inspiring Lee Holmes. Lee has created several amazing recipe books and her blog has always been a source of inspiration for my dinners. I am so keen to share her new book – Eat Right for Your Shape – with you, it is filled with delightful recipes and a beautiful and easy to read guide of Ayurvedic lifestyle practices.

In this podcast Lee talks about her trip to India which inspired her recipes for this book and how her eating style has changed over the years. We also chat about intermittent fasting, some ayurvedic principles and Lee explains how we can balance our health by eating to suit our dosha.

Watch the video here:

Or just listen to the audio:

About Lee

Lee Holmes holds an Advanced Certificate in Food and Nutrition and is a certified holistic health coach (IIN), yoga teacher, wholefoods chef and bestselling author of the Supercharged Food series, which includes Eat Your Way To Good Health; Eat Yourself Beautiful; Eat Clean, Green and Vegetarian; Heal Your Gut; and Supercharged Food for Kids.

She is a columnist for Wellbeing Magazine and Lifestyle Food Channel’s Healthy Eating Expert, and her articles have appeared in leading Australian newspapers and journals, as well as The Times and The Daily Express in the UK and The Huffington Post in the US.

Find Lee at her award-winning blog, superchargedfood.com

You can also connect with Lee on her social media channels here:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Google Plus

You can purchase this book here, along with any other of Lee’s books.

The post Interview with Lee Holmes – Podcast #21 appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.