Simple One Serve Ayurvedic Veggie Kitchari Recipe (To make the perfect amount for just one bowl!)

April 26, 2023 by Lorien Waldron

Hello beautiful Wholesome Souls!!!

It’s been a few Moons since my last blog post here, and I tell you, it is SO beautiful and exiting – wonderful to be ‘back’ and sharing a super-duper practical and (in my opinion, and that of clients I have worked with over the years!), an essential recipe we ALL need in our Kitchens!

It is easy to make Kitchari for a group of people, there are a bunch of delicious and great recipes in my Ebook, ‘Simple Ayurveda in Your Kitchen’ (which has a lot of other goodies in there to inspire and support your holistic nourishment on a lifestyle level also!), however, they are for making Kitchari for 4 people, not for just 1, which often-times, if you’re single, or just making food for yourself one day, you most certainly need to have up your sleeve to avoid cooking too much (yay, no more leftovers!), and no more wasted food. Food is sacred and precious, and so are our resources and energy, the money we spend on our beautiful organic ingredients and food, SO — I am so excited to introduce to you (and yes, I will slowly bring out more ‘Single Serve’ recipes for you, and a little collection/Ebook focused just on this! Stay tuned for this), as I know you and I both need these ‘Single Serve’ recipes in our life! I got you! :)

For now, I introduce to you, the first of the ‘Single Serve’ Simple Ayurveda Wholesome Recipe collection with you!

Get your beautiful organic goodness and ingredients ready, put your favorite divine Vedic chants or other inspired divine music you love on – light a candle, say a prayer in your Kitchen for blessings of health and nourishment for you and your precious gorgeous body, and enjoy!!!

Before we get ‘into it’, I have some hot ‘One Serve’ Kitchari tips for you, that I think you’ll find helpful! :)

This recipe is for a super simple Ayurvedic One Serve Kitchari with spices, fresh coriander and your choice of seasonal veggies! If you wish to make it plain, without Veggies I recommend adding an extra tablespoon of rice so that it has a bit more substance and body! You can also make this with Whole Moong beans (they just require minimum 8 hours soaking) or Split Red Lentils.

My top Kitchari Veggie recommendations to consider are: Celery, Zucchini, Green Beans, Pumpkin, Carrot or Silverbeet / Spinach.

Simple One Serve Ayurvedic Veggie Kitchari Recipe

(To finally avoid food-wastage, left-overs which aren’t ‘ideal’ according to Ayurveda – for optimal cellular nourishment and digestion — AND, to make the perfect amount for just one bowl! Yayyy!!!)

Ingredients:

2 tsp of ghee or wholesome oil of choice***
1⁄4 cup of Split Moong lentils or Red lentils soaked for minimum 30mins up to 8 hours and rinsed thoroughly
2.5 tbsp basmati rice (or Quinoa) washed and rinsed 3 times
3⁄4 cup of organic seasonal veggies of your choice (This isn’t hard and fast. Feel free to add a bit more or a bit less if you wish!)
3 cups of ltered boiling water
1⁄2 tsp cumin seeds
1⁄4 tsp coriander seeds
2-3 fennel seeds
Teeny tiny pinch of asafoetida (optional!)
1 fresh or dried curry leaf or bay leaf (optional)
1⁄2 tbsp fresh ginger grated or chopped nely
2 tbsp nely chopped red onion or shallots (feel free to not be exact with this! A little more or less will still work well!)
1⁄2 tsp of fresh garlic crushed or nely chopped
1⁄8 tsp of turmeric powder
1⁄8 tsp of quality sea salt
A few cracks of black pepper to taste
1⁄4 cup of fresh coriander to garnish
A wedge of lemon or lime as a garnish to aid digestion
Optional dollop of coconut yoghurt and or homemade date or mango chutney on top as a garnish also!
Your love!

*Wholesome oils to choose from if on a Vegan/100% Plant-based Healing diet, (ie: not using Ghee): Cold pressed Sesame oil (for Vata & Kapha), Quality coconut oil (for Pitta) or cold pressed quality avocado oil (Suitable for Vata & Pitta). (If you’re not sure which is best for you and your body, reach out to book a consultation so we can establish a bio-individual set of recommendations specific to you!)

**Extra note for ‘cleansing’: if you feel a lot of heaviness and ‘heat’ in your body, this can mean that your liver is feeling burdened and needs a little break. If this is the case you may nd that sauteeing your spices and ingredients in a splash of filtered water, veggie broth or even celery juice can be a great substitute and allows for a little more lightness.

Creation process:

(Prior to starting the cooking make sure you have your two main ingredients; your soaked and rinsed lentils and also your rice, strained and ready to go in bowls next to your stove to save time and make your cooking process more efficient!)

Take a medium saucepan and place it on your stove over moderate to high heat. Add your Ghee or Wholesome Oil of choice and allow it to ‘melt’ or to simply warm for a moment or two.
Next add your Cumin seeds, Coriander seeds, fennel seeds and stir with a wooden spoon to allow the spices to toast and sizzle for a few seconds. Next add a teeny tiny pinch of asafoetida (optional) and a curry leaf or bay leaf (optional) and stir for another moment.
Add your fresh garlic, ginger and onion and turmeric powder, stir for a few minutes all together and saute until the onion is coated in the turmeric, golden and lightly caramelized.
Add your lentils and rice and stir regularly and vigorously for 3-4 minutes until well sauteed with the spices and onion and then add your ltered boiling water and stir to make sure there is no sticking on the bottom of the pot and to combine everything together harmoniously!
Add your Veggies (unless you are only using leafy greens like silverbeet and spinach in which case I recommend adding them towards the end, once your Kitchari is almost fully cooked to avoid over cooking them.)
Add 1⁄8 tsp of sea salt (or a little more to suit your tastes – essentially, a little pinch!), a few cracks of black pepper, your LOVE (of course) and a little handful of freshly chopped coriander and stir through.
Stir and bring to a boil for approx 10-15mins or until your lentils and rice are creamy, smooth and fully cooked. Stir every 5 minutes throughout this process to create a beautiful creamy consistency and to make sure there is no sticking on the bottom. If you see that there is sticking feel free to add a little extra splash or two of boiling water intuitively as you see/feel.
Once creamy and fully cooked, remove your pot of Kitchari goodness from the stove and let sit with a lid on for another 5-10mins to allow the avours to deepen and the Kitchari to settle and become even creamier. This step is optional, if time permits I recommend it though!
Your Kitchari is ready! Serve in your favourite bowl, add a generous garnish of fresh coriander on top, a squeeze of fresh lime or lemon juice to aid digestion and an optional dollop of coconut yogurt and home-made mango chutney (I have an amazing simple, yummy and sugar-free recipe for this that I shall post on the blog for you soon!) – as well as some extra salt and black pepper to taste and enjoy!!!

With immense love, joy, gratitude, blessings and prayers of goodness to you in your Wholesome Kitchen!!!

Aummm Shanti!

x Lorien

Wholesome & Feel-good Spring Lentil Veggie Soup Recipe!

October 24, 2021 by Lorien Waldron

Bowl of wholesome Spring lentil veggie Soup goodness! Ahhhh, it’s Spring – and such a beautiful, lush and refreshing Spring season it has been so far here in Australia right now too!

In Ayurveda, seasonal change is considered a magical and potent time of the year for giving extra love and nurturing to our beautiful bodies and from a digestion point of view – to focusing on foods that are ‘light’, ‘warm’ and ‘easy-to digest’, so that our body can devote energy to it’s natural seasonal change processes of cleansing, adjusting and aligning for the next season ahead!

So, when it comes to giving the body a little extra space, energy and warmth-filled-loving goodness to support our digestion and our immune system during seasonal change… the solution is Souper Simple! (I just had to go there! hehe) …If that pun didn’t give it away, the solution is, drumroll, yes you guessed it… Soups! Soups my friend are our Seasonal transition best-friend, and are a beautiful way to incorporate the potent, nourishing and ‘deliciousafying’ qualities of healing Ayurvedic kitchen spices and herbs into our cooking too – for literal added goodness!

In seasonal Soup fashion ~ I have personally been living off Soups in my Kitchen lately, since the seasonal change, making some of my staple go-to healing soup favourites from my E-book, as well as creating some fresh new yummy Soupy-goodness filled recipes and today I am so excited to be sharing one of my favourites at the moment, with you!

The Soupy downlo’ on this fresh new recipe…

If you have my E-book, you’ll see that this recipe is very similar to the ‘Sunshine Veggie Soup’ recipe in there that you are most likely familiar with (I think it is THE most commented upon recipe from the book! It’s popular, and for good reason!) It’s definitely one of my all time favourite go-to’s as it is not only packed with my favourite Vegies, but it literally feels like sunshine in my body when I eat it too, (hence the name!)

This new recipe I have for you today, has all the qualities I love about the ‘Sunshine Veggie Soup Recipe’, with a little extra! The two new main ingredients being; whole red lentils for added protein, fibre and oomph! And, fluffy steamed quinoa for extra protein and heartiness! Yuummm!!! (It’s so good, I’m excited for you to try it!)

The combination of healing Ayurvedic spices, vegies, lentils and quinoa (let alone garnishing with some yummy crunchy toasted seeds – also from my E-book) is…. Let me just say, simply Super (or Souper!)-duper wholesome, nourishing and feel good! It feels DIVINE in my tummy, and I hope in yours soon too!

This Soup is a ready to go meal all in one, and I feel confident that you are going to LOVE it and fall in love with making it a staple go-to wholesome feel-good Soup recipe in your Kitchen also! Yay!!!!

A few more reasons to love Soup during Seasonal transition (and in life in general!):

Soups are an amazing nourishing staple, they are simple, quick, easy to make and nutrient packed!
They are warming, light, high in fiber from Veggies and or lentils/legumes and generally speaking – are easy to digest for the body due to their warm, soft and smooth qualities!!!
They are easily customisable and adaptable and are a great meal to make when you’ve only got a few veggies left in the fridge!
You can make Soups in advance so that you have a nourishing wholesome meal for lunch or dinner ready to go on days when you’re busy and need something quick!

…Basically, what’s not to LOVE about Soups!!! …I love them SO much!

So, without further adieu, let’s get straight into the Recipe!

Wholesome & Feel-good Spring Lentil Veggie Soup Recipe!

Ingredients:

3 tbsp of Ghee, Coconut Oil or Avocado Oil
2 tsp of Cumin seeds
1 tsp of Coriander seeds
A pinch of fennel seeds
2 tbsp of fresh ginger finely chopped or grated
1 cup of finely chopped red onion (or shallots!)
½ tsp of turmeric powder
1 cup of celery finely chopped
3 cups of small – medium cubed pumpkin
2 cups of zucchini cut into quarters
2 cups of broccoli chopped into little florets (little trees!)
Approx 10-12 cracks of black pepper from your pepper grinder!
½ tsp of sea salt
1 cup of fresh coriander finely chopped
1 cup of whole red lentils (ideally soaked overnight, or at least for 1/2 a day prior to cooking!)**
1.5 cups of *cooked* whole Quinoa (white or tri-colour will work perfectly!)
Your love! (…Obviously, the *most* important ingredient, always! :)

**Note: A common question about the ‘Whole Red Lentils’, in this recipe is ‘Why do they *look* like ‘brown lentils’? The answer is that ‘Whole red lentils’ infact don’t actually look ‘red’ as their name suggests, they look ‘brown’ (like you can see in the photo’s here)! Also, if you don’t happen to have ‘Whole Red Lentils’ in the pantry as you’re reading this and are wondering what you can swap them for, you can easily use ‘French Green Puy Lentils’ instead and you’ll find they have a similar cooking time so you can follow the exact same steps!

Simple Creation process in 3 Stages:

This dish is simple, however within it’s simplicity, there are 3 key stages of preparation for it then all come together with the click of your fingers that I’m going to walk you through step by step! …There’s preparing the Lentils, preparing the Quinoa and then preparing the Soup herself! (If you already have lentils and quinoa prepared by chance, you can skip right to the bottom to making the core of the Soup straight away!)

Stage 1: Preparing your lentils… (as they require the most preparation!)

The first step and step that requires the most pre-thought and preparation is soaking and cooking the lentils. There are a couple of different ways to do this.

Lentil Cooking Option 1: If you own a pressure cooker (I recently started using an ‘Instant Pot’ pressure cooker for the sole purpose of cooking beans and lentils quickly!) then you can simply soak your lentils overnight or for at least a couple of hours, and then pop them in your pressure cooker with a bay leaf, pinch of salt and pinch of asafoetida and then cook for 10mins! After 10mins, voila, your lentils will be perfecto and ready for the soup!

Lentil Cooking Option 2: If you don’t have a pressure cooker (I didn’t for years also!) then you can cook the lentils on the stove in water for approx 50mins until they are soft, again with a bay leaf, a pinch of salt and a pinch of asafoetida. So, these are the lentil preparation options.

Stage 2: Preparing your steamed Quinoa

This step is super simple. If you’re familiar with cooking quinoa, then all you’re going to do is cook quinoa the way you know how. If you’re new to cooking beautiful fluffy quinoa then I have some instructions for you below:

How to cook beautiful fluffy Quinoa in 2 easy steps:

Step 1: Take a pot, place 1 cup of quinoa inside the pot, and fill the pot with water to rinse the quinoa and wash it, to help remove the ‘saponins’ that are naturally on the outside of quinoa and make it yummier and easy on the digestive system. Rinse your quinoa in the water a couple of times, use a fine mesh strainer when pouring the water out to prevent losing any little quinoa seeds and then place on the stove.

Step 2: Add 2 cups of filtered boiling water from the kettle (this will just save you a bunch of cooking time!) and a pinch of sea salt, place the lid on the pot and then bring to a boil! Once it comes to a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it cook with the lid still on for 15mins. After 15mins turn the heat of completely and let the quinoa sit with the lid still on (to utilise the steam) for another 5 mins before serving. The result will be beautiful gorgeous fluffy Quinoa! Yum!

Okay, now let’s get onto making the heart and soul of this soup – the warming, healing ~ liquidy Vegie goodness!!!

Stage 3: Now, to make the Soup! (this is the quickest part, your Soup will be ready within 20-25mins!)

1. Warm your Ghee or oil in your pot, then add your Cumin seeds, Coriander seeds and fennel seeds. Allow to saute for a few moments until you see the spices release little tiny ‘bubbles’ around them (a sign of them releasing their healing volatile-oil goodness into the pot) and then add your finally chopped garlic, ginger and onion. Stir and saute for a few minutes to soften the onion and allow the garlic and ginger to become yummy and then add your turmeric powder and continue to saute and stir until the onion is soft and caramelised.

2. Add your celery and stir for a few minutes, allowing the celery to soften and meld with the other ingredients already in the pot. Next, add your pumpkin, and stir for a few minutes to give it a head start before then adding the rest of the vegies. Next add the rest of the vegies; the zucchini and broccoli and stir. Add your hot water from the kettle, a generous amount of ‘black pepper’ from your pepper grinder (or approx ‘12’ cracks!), sea salt and some fresh coriander. Allow to cook for approx 20mins or until the pumpkin is soft and tender. When the pumpkin is soft, you know your soup is done!

3. Scoop your drained and cooked lentils into the Soup and stir to allow the lentils to merge with the vegies. And then optional is to add a few spoons of quinoa to your soup (this is really delicious) OR leave the quinoa as a side to enjoy adding to the soup as you eat it, like dipping bread into your soup, but it’s fluffy quinoa instead!

And your Soup is done!!!

Serve with some crunchy toasted seeds, fresh coriander, a little pinch of salt and a few more cracks of black pepper to suit your taste.

Enjoy and relax while eating… put some soft music on in the background, light a candle or two and take a moment to ‘center’ your mind and body before your first bite. When we do this before a meal we are relaxing the nervous system, which in turn relaxes the digestive system. This prepares the body to digest the divine food we are about to bring into our precious body optimally for great digestion and our ultimate Nourishment!

…Yum! Enjoy in bliss and if you make this recipe and love it please let me know on instagram, facebook or even good-old email (lorien@wholesomelovinggoodness.com) ! :) I love hearing from you and seeing your creations!

With love and joy to your home and family from mine!

Blessed and blissed nourishing!

x Lorien

P.S. If you’re feeling inspired to take your personal inner and outer nourishment and self-care to a whole-new delicious level, you might love my self-paced signature 6-Week Ayurvedic Food & Lifestyle transformation program, ‘Simple Ayurveda in Your Kitchen’!

It’s a juicy course to support you in not only becoming a creative intuitive genius in the Kitchen, with making staple wholesome Ayurvedic dishes for yourself and your family, but to also empower you to implement Ayurveda’s foundational healing wisdom and magic into your modern daily life! The wholesome doors to the program are opening for enrolment again soon, so if you’re ready to take your nourishment to a new level I highly recommend you join the ‘Waiting list’ here so I can let you know when enrollment opens for the last time this year!

Yes please, I’d love to find out more and join the Waiting list!

Wholesome vegan lentil veggie soup recipe

Wholesome 7min Carob Easter Truffle Balls Recipe!

April 2, 2021 by Lorien Waldron

It’s Easter 2021!!! Yay!!!

…And, it has been many many moons since my last blog post here!

(To go straight to the recipe, scroll below!)

…The moons we all experienced in 2020, over the last year certainly presented new and challenging situations for humanity, and each one of us to navigate and grow through – as a global family, we are very much still navigating and traversing these challenges and new approaches to how we live and go about our day-to-day lives, and this humble little blog had a little ‘2020’ hiatus of sorts as I navigated the changing world and took time to engage in further study, training and creative ‘offline – time’!

It feels so incredibly good to finally be back to the blog, sharing a fresh wholesome and brand new recipe with you!

And, while this post is actually about this delicious – lush and wholesomely scrumptious new recipe, I couldn’t go ahead and get straight into talking about it, without first saying a proper ‘Hello’ once again and acknowledging how good it feels to be back here, sharing on this humble little page with you.

I also hope this finds YOU and your loved ones well, thriving and finding nourishment in life’s daily magical moments and miracles!

…So, let’s get into this recipe!!!

Lush, chocolatey (though it’s really ‘caroby’), decadent tasting and yet unbelievably simple in both ingredients AND preparation.

If you have been looking for a wholesome, quick, simple, easy and feel-good choccy Easter treat to make for yourself, your friends or your family – look no further! :)

Full disclosure. I came up with this recipe in a hurry, when looking in my pantry and fridge for ingredients that I could make a ‘treat’ out of to bring to a girlfriends place for a Women’s circle I was going to. I had only 10mins before I had to leave the house. I had had a really full day, didn’t have anything pre-prepared and was unsure of what I could pull off in just 10mins – and definitely didn’t want to arrive to this beautiful gathering empty handed!

…What happened next was a ‘foody’ miracle’, (hehe), and – the ‘birth’ of this here recipe!

Dramatic language I know, but I’m honestly so excited about how simple and obvious this lush truffle recipe is that I am actually not afraid of sounding over the top and dramatic about it at all! :)

Medjool dates – Tahini – Carob – Cinnamon – Salt AND woman-power (my/your hands!)

With no time to get the food processor out, (and no need as if you’ve ever eaten a Medjool date you will know how soft and sumptuous they are!) I quickly removed the pit’s from my dates, combined these 5 core ingredients together in a bowl, and with clean dry hands proceeded to massage everything in the bowl together, into one luscious datey-caroby-tahine-y clump, and then into a dozen bite sized lush truffle balls to take with me!

The result…. A batch of lush, truffle-like, chocolate-free, sugar-free, no-fuss and super lush and delicious (…every woman at the circle asked for the recipe!) wholesome treats.

Treats that take only 6 ingredients. Require zero food processor (unless you prefer to not get messy with your hands). Can be made in less than 10mins AND, most importantly, that feel sooo lush, you may even say that if they were covered in a chocolate coating they would be a modern day wholesome Ferraro Rocher! (Btw, I’ve tried them covered in home-made raw chocolate, and it is amazing too!)

Without further-adue, let’s get Wholesome Easter Carob Truffle ball rolling!!!

First, a few key tips, before you get ball-making:

Make sure your hands are clean and dry as we are about to combine everything with your hands! …Yes, no food processor needed, just your beautiful bare hands. …This part is a little messy, however so deliciously fun, tactile, creative-feeling, time saving, dish-saving (yay for not having to clean the food processor after!) and no-fuss!
Carob powder like any powder can naturally get a little ‘clumpy’. Before adding your Carob powder, have a look at your powder and if you notice any lumps take the back of your spoon and gently ‘smoosh’ them out, so that your powder will blend and mix seamlessly when you get to mixing and combining everything with your hands!
If you are not into the idea of using your hands to make this mix, (I get it, it’s messy and definitely not everyone’s thing!) you can absolutely use a food processor to do it all instead, and they will still be super delicious and luscious! :)

Wholesome Carob Truffle Balls Recipe!

(Make approx 15 balls!)

Ingredients:

20 Medjool dates (with pits removed)
3 tbsp Hulled Tahini (unhulled will work fine also, but just have a richer/earthier taste!)
¼ tsp Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt
2.5 tbsp Carob powder (you could use Raw Cacao powder instead if you’re not a Carob lover or don’t have any Carob in the pantry!)
½ tsp Cinnamon powder
4 tbsp of desiccated or shredded coconut (for rolling them in at the end!)
Your love!

Creation process:

Step 1 – Making the mix:

Remove the pits from the inside of 20 Medjool dates and place the dates in your favourite bowl.
With clean, dry hands, use your hands to ‘massage’, soften and ‘squish’ the dates into one another.
Next add 3 tbsp of Tahini, ¼ tsp of Sea salt, 2.5 tbsp of Carob powder and ½ tsp of Cinnamon powder to your date bowl and begin to combine (this is where it get’s a little rustic and messy, but so fun!) all ingredients together with your hands by massaging the tahini, carob, salt and cinnamon into the dates for 1-2mins or until you feel they are well combined. Put your love into the mix and enjoy this creative, tactile and up-close and personal moment with your delicious ‘truffle ball’ mix! It can feel really therapeutic, stress relieving and like a lovely foody-meditation! :)

Step 2 – Rolling your truffle balls:

Take a small piece of your mix in your hand and roll it into a little ball with the palms of your hands until it is nice and compact, and a beautiful round sphere shape!
To coat the balls in shredded coconut, place your shredded coconut in a small bowl and roll each truffle ball into the coconut until satisfactorily covered! :)
Repeat this final step for each ball and ~ they’re ready to be served!!! Yay!!!

Pro tip: If you have a little more time up your sleeve, place them in the fridge for 10-20mins to let them harden a little before serving. (Doing this gives them a crazy ‘caramel-snickers-bar’ like texture that might really help hit that nostalgic chocolate bar–craving spot! :)

Yay!!

Enjoy!!

“We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.”

~Hermann Hesse

~~~

Wishing you and your loved ones a magical happy Easter and I hope this simple – yet super lush Wholesome Carob truffle treat recipe hits your yum-spot and inspires some relaxed, meditatively-messy hands on fun in the Kitchen these holidays!

And, as Mr.Hesse says in his quote above… Though we are living in some wild and uncertain times, we must have faith that we are ‘not going in circles, but that we are infact going upwards!’ May we keep ourselves nourished and have faith in life and one another’s goodness, always!

With love,

x Lorien