These tests typically involve a series of questions related to physical characteristics such as body type, energy levels, skin type, sleep patterns and mental and emotional tendencies, like decision-making style, handling stress, and reactions to change. Through answering these questions, you can gain insight into which dosha is most dominant in your body and mind.

Click to read my article about doshas in Ayurveda: 3 Doshas

What is Ayurveda?

Ayurveda is a holistic medical system that originated in India thousands of years ago. It emphasizes the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit, and aims to achieve balance and harmony in all aspects of life. The fundamental principles of Ayurveda revolve around the idea that health and wellness depend on a delicate balance between three fundamental energies or doshas – Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.

3 Doshas: Vata, Kapha and Pitta

It is important to note that everyone has a unique mix of all three doshas (vata, kapha and pitta), but one usually dominates. By understanding your dominant dosha, you can comprehend your tendencies and make lifestyle changes that support your health and well-being. Ayurvedic medicine believes balancing the doshas is crucial for optimal health and well-being. Dosha tests can be a valuable tool in this journey by providing a starting point for identifying imbalances and making changes to support your health.

So raise your hand below in the comments, if you recognize yourself in the qualities of Kapha, the dosha of earth and water! I love Kapha people and actually my husband, my best friends have all Kapha qualities as they balance me, the strong Vata and Pitta person, so well!! I love their soft and sweet hugs, smiles and calm natures. Are you that person? Can I get a hug?!

We will soon dive deeper into doshas and how to balance them at the end of summer where we accumulated a lot of  fire, on my free webinar on the 14th of September: Click to sign up

3 Doshas: Vata, Pitta and Kapha

Each dosha has its own unique qualities and appearance. According to Ayurveda, doshas govern the function of all the organs in the body. When a person’s doshas are out of balance, this leads to ailments such as skin problems or digestive issues. In order to restore balance, it is necessary to identify the predominant dosha in a person and take steps to correct imbalances in other doshas.

VATA

PITTA

KAPHA

PITTA DOSHA

ELEMENTS: FIRE & WATER

QUALITIES: SLIGHTLY OILY, SHARP, HOT, LIGHT, FOUL SMELLING, SPREADING & LIQUID

Opposite Qualities That Balance:

– Room temperature or warm food and drinks
– Sweet, bitter,and astringent tastes
– Cooling foods (cooling by nature like coconut)
– Cooked foods – by sauteing steaming, boiling, stewing etc
– A little raw is ok, but not recommended as a main meal

Diet: Similar Qualities That Imbalance and Aggravate

– Pungent, sour, and salty tastes in excess
– Oily, fried food
– Spicy (hot) food
– Sour like yogurt, vinegar
– Alcohol
– Fermented foods (like pickles)

Lifestyle That Aggravates Pitta

-Anger
– Fasting, hunger, less food intake, skipping or not eating on time
– Staying awake late at night
– Not sleeping enough
– Working in hot environments, near heat / fire
– Excessive exposure to heat and sunlight
– Excess sex

In this part of winter it gets cold, dry and rough so we need more warmth and softness through warmer water/tea/soups, spices, oils, and layers of clothes!

However, we need to make sure not to overdo with spices and acidic foods and drinks like pickles, alcohol, onions-garlic, as it would create too much heat trapped in our digestive system which might create too much acidity, heart burn and other digestive and eventually other health problems.

Ayurvedic Daily Routine for Winter

A healthy daily routine for winter is key to wellness as every season. In Ayurveda, this is the season of Vata and moving into Kapha. They both require warmth and a gentle fire in the digestive system. This means lighter meals and healing teas. Fresh ginger is a very good friend these days, to be used as tea with lemon and honey or cooking your soups and stews with it. It is your insurance to apply what is needed at that time of the year.

Here is what Ayurveda suggests for a healthy daily routine:

1. Start your day with warm water and a few drops of lemon or lime juice. Have 2 tbs of aloevera to support alkaline, too. Don’t  start your morning with coffee on empty stomach which creates so much acidity
2. Try regular abhyangha (oiling-self massage) with warm sesame oil before showers and avoid keeping body too dry
3. Go for exercises that gives you rejuvenating energy like yoga, brisk walks, easy jogs rather than exhausting ones.
4. Make cooked warm breakfasts like oatmeals, porridges or simply cooked apples with warming spices (see next) and do not start with cold cereals, dry and hard crackers, frozen smoothies, raw fruits (especially heavy ones like banana)
5. Use warming spices like cinnamon, clove, cardamom, cumin, nutmeg, oregano, thyme, turneric, black pepper, fresh ginger. However do not over do the “spicy” as it creates too much fire and acidity.
6. Make your lunch the biggest meal of the day and have light, cooked dinners with vegetable soups and stews. Use ghee or olive oil.
7. Avoid dinners with heavy, oily, fried and with animal protein and using cooling oils like coconut oil. 
8. Take it slow like nature. Slow down, rest more and get cozy with a blanket and sweet tea or golden milk! Sleep about 8 hours. Make sure not to exhaust yourself, running around, not sleeping 8 hours

8 Winter Wellness Tips

Winter Wellness Tips

What do you think about the tips above? Do you also feel like these will make you feel better these days? Enjoy this wonderful season and just make sure to be in synchronicity with Mother Nature

If you need a helping hand to go through these transitions and apply the daily routines, join one of my programs like 10 Day Online Ayurvedic Winter Cleanse, or Winter Yoga and Ayurveda Weekend Retreat, or 12 Weeks Online Holistic Coaching Program Zenfitgourmet.

• In search of different ways of cooking the veggies, baking is always a delicious option! Sure the raw version in salad has much more vitamins and when you look for a warm dish of cabbage, try this!
• All you have to do is, slice the cabbage quiet thick about 3 cm.
• Cut a garlic clove in half and rub it on the cabbage slice.
• Then brush olive oil on it.
• Add spices like pepper, zahter or cumin or curry, choice is yours! Add also salt&pepper. Keep you garlic piece on top.
• Baked in the oven for 15 minutes, return to otherside and bake 10-15 minute more.
• Serve this grilled slice t-bone cabbage with mustard (joking!!). You can try garlic yogurt or salsa though. If you are not vegetarian, it goes great with salmon or chicken/beef!

Thanks to my friend Allison for sharing the recipe!

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Baked Cauliflower Recipe | Turkish Kitchen

The Prettiest Cauliflower Recipe! We can even call is a cauliflower Birthday cake!! (no don’t try on teenagers!!)

I first tasted this in Barcelona in a great vegan restaurant in 2015! That trip changed my life as we had the seminar with @nutritionschool @joshuarosenthal and I decided to do Yoga teacher training.

Barcelona inspired me to be brave, creative and colourful again! I miss traveling soo much but for now we keep memories alive and travel with the food we cook at home!

This cauliflower taste will blow your mind and be a feast for the eyes! The tangly tahini sauce, colourful decoration and sweetness of pomegranate, crispy smoky pine nuts are the best combination.

Course Salad

Cuisine Turkish

Keyword Cauliflower, Salads

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 3 people

Calories 240kcal

Equipment

• pot
• pan

Ingredients

• 1 Cauliflower
• Olive Oil
• 1/2 cup Tahini
• Spices: mint, pepper(red and black), cumin
• 1/2 Lemon juice
• 1 clove Garlic
• 1 cup Finely chopped parsley
• 1 cup Toasted pine nuts and pomegranates to decorate (Optional)
• Salt and black pepper

Instructions

• Put the oven to 180degree centigrades
• Cover your cauliflower with olive oil and sprinkle your spices and salt
• Bake it in the oven around 40-50minute, watch out the color towards the end, don’t over brown
• Meanwhile, mix tahini with lemon juice, stir well and then add some water to make the consistency as you wish
• Add mashed garlic into this and mix well
• When cauliflower is baked, take it out of the oven and pour over the sauce and then decorate with parsley, pine nuts and pomegranates.

Notes

Plus sometimes you might want to try different versions of cauliflower, other then the almost too trendy cauliflower rice:) Here is a delicious salad that you can enjoy with a touch of Turkish cuisine a unique combination of flavors of pepper paste, mint and onion!

Have you tried Cauliflower pizza? Click to see my caulidlower pizza recipe now: Unbelievably Delicious Cauliflower Pizza

This winter version is of course with butternut squash (or you can use pumpkin), sweet potato, leeks and herbs. You can serve warm or cold, a delicious nutritious meal by itself or as a side dish to your protein choice like chicken, fish or meats. If you add some chickpeas, it would strengthen its protein content, from plants side!

Ingredients:

– 1/2 leek, chopped into slices (about 1/2 cup of chopped slices)

– Half of a small butternut squash or a slice of pumpkin (about 1 cup of cut pieces)

– Sweet Potato, cut into cubes/slices, 1 cup

– Quinoa, 2 cups, boiled in water

– 6 tbs of olive oil

– 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

– 1tsp pepper paste or tomato paste

– 1 cup of fresh parsley and mint, finely choped

– 1 tsp curry powder or any other spice you like (cumin, turmeric, herbal salts, etc)

– 1 tsp garlic powder

– 1/2 tsp dried mint

– Salt and pepper to taste

– 2 tbs pine nuts or almond flakes

– 1tbs pommegranade sour sauce or balsamic vinegar

– 1tbs of pommegrande pieces to decorate (optional)

Method:

– Place sweet potato, butternut squash and leek into an oven proof dish or oven tray lined with baking paper, and drizlle 3tbs of the olive oil and spices like curry power, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix them all and make sure all veggies are covered with spices.

Method:

– Place sweet potato, butternut squash and leek into an oven proof dish or oven tray lined with baking paper, and drizlle 3tbs of the olive oil and spices like curry power, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix them all and make sure all veggies are covered with spices.

I call this a Veggy SPA! So give them a nice massage with olive oil and spices!

Bake them at 180 degrees celcius for about 30 minutes, check to see if vegetables are soft enough (if your fork can gently get through).

– Meanwhile using a fine mesh strainer, rinse quinoa with cool water until the water runs clear. Combine quinoa and water in a saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and continue to cook covered for 15 minutes or until all water has been absorbed. Usually, 1 cup of quinoa requires 2 cups of water.

– Chop your greens, parsley and fresh mints

– Place your pine nuts into a small pan and toast them until lighly browned.

– Add 3tbs of olive oil into a pan and sautee the onions at medium heat until they are soft and add the pepper paste and dried mint and stir a few more minutes.

– Add the cooked quinoas to onions and mix well.

– Turn off the heat and add the herbs, pommegrande sour sauce or balsamic vinegar and vegetables. Mix them all gently, without smashing the potatoes and squash!

Serve warm right after or you can also keep in fridge for the next days!