Spice Medicine: The Healing Power of Your Kitchen
Cooking with spices is an easy way to add more flavor to your fork while increasing the health benefits of your food. In Ayurveda, spices are used to enhance digestion, which is the key to health. A strong digestive fire will keep what the human system needs and eliminate the rest. Spices also help to create balance gradually and gently over time, making them powerful medicines that can support health.
3 spices to use every day.
Cinnamon: Studies show it can lower blood sugar levels. Try sprinkling it on yogurt, fruit, or hot cereal.
Turmeric: It contains curcumin, most well-known for its anti-inflammatory properties. Try rubbing it on roasted vegetables.
Ginger: This is a powerful treatment for stomach upset, diarrhea, and nausea. Try adding it to stir-fry dishes, smoothies, or sipping it in tea.
Temper spices to boost benefits.
“Tadka,” or tempering, is a method used in Indian cuisine and Ayurvedic cooking where whole and ground spices are heated in hot ghee (clarified butter) or oil at the beginning of the cooking process or to flavor at the end. When you saute spices in hot ghee, they release their best flavors and aromas.
The ghee also extracts the healing properties of the spices and helps transport their therapeutic value to different parts of the body. In Ayurveda, we usually recommend including a ghee-spice mixture in at least one meal per day.
5 tips for tempering spices.
Prep your ingredients and your space. You’ll add everything in rapid succession, so be sure you can reach your spices and other ingredients easily.
Make sure the ghee/oil is hot, then reduce heat to medium and add spices.
Spices should be added in rapid succession with spices needing longer cooking go first.
The crackling or change of color of spices indicates that tempering is done. This usually takes only seconds, so be prepared to move fast.
A little goes a long way. You want the spices to enhance the food, not overpower it. Start with a little, and gradually add more as desired.
The beautiful colors and exotic aromas of spices can elevate an ordinary dish to a feast for all five senses.
Be well,
Avanti Kumar-Singh, MD
P.S. I think you’ll love my episode on the bioactive ingredients in spices and their health benefits with Dr. Kanchan Koya (aka ChiefSpiceMama). I also do a deep dive into the role of spices in Ayurvedic cooking with Chef Divya Alter. Happy cooking!
