Black eyed peas with lettuce salad

Want to know my secret! How to move your digestion & improve elimination.

Just back from a yoga retreat vacation. Best way to beat Canadian winter blues is to head south to the atlantic. Nothing like sun, sand and yoga with awesome vegetarian food to warm you up. While at the ashram I had a chance to cook a meal for about 300 guests. Yes!!! That’s right.. never cooked this size before, but managed to with a little bit of help.. recipes from that meal later.

For now, I want to share my secret. If you are like me and have a slightly sluggish abdominal tract where things take forever (say about 24 hours) before they make their way out, you know what I’m talking about. I’ve even had a man comment ‘you look like you are pregnant’. thanks!! just what a girl needs to hear 🙂

All yoga practices ultimately engage the movement of prana—the innate life force. One of the main breaths of yoga is apana vayu—of equal importance in the practice of hatha yoga. apana, which is most active in the pelvis and lower abdomen, governs the eliminative functions (excretion, urination, menstruation) and the downward and outward flow of energy in the body. When this energy of apana is stuck, you end up with  that sense of unease, discomfort, nausea even sometimes.. Just because food is sitting away and taking its time to move downwards.

So how can you help Apana? I’ll share yoga poses next time. For now think foods that have some fibre. Lettuce was my answer. I’ve always avoided cold salads, warm foods help my body constitution. But I tried eating lettuce every single meal at the yoga retreat and cut back on some of the delicious freshly baked bread. That was soo hard to do. But so well worth the results. Flatter abs, (still some work ahead of me 🙂 fluid movement of food in my body..

Here’s my recipe for a delicious lettuce salad, exciting, never boring.

1 ½ cups shredded washed, rinsed and shredded romaine lettuce ¼ cup washed, peeled and cubed carrots 2 tbsp black eyed beans

Spice Mix 1 tbsp crushed fresh ginger 1 hot green thai chili pepper 1 tbsp sunflower seeds ½ tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp sesame seeds 1 tsp curry leaves 1 tsp coconut oil ½ tsp urad dal 1 tbsp raisins ¼ tsp lemon juice Salt to taste

Method

* Boil black eyed peas in water till soft. Drain and set aside.

* Mix shredded lettuce and cubed carrots in salad bowl. Add drained black eyed peas to bowl.
* Heat coconut oil in pan. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter, add the rest of the spice mix & stir till golden brown.

* Pour the spice mix into the salad bowl.
* Add salt to taste and mix in lemon juice.
* Stir everything together.

Wasn’t that easy? Enjoy this delicious and pretty salad. I’m sure your stomach will thank you for the lovely and light feeling you carry through the day.. with the thoughtful spices that went into this salad. Write in your comments, I’d love to hear how this salad worked for you.

–charuyoga–

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