Sophie came to a yoga workshop; she’s a Zumba teacher and I went to one of her classes. She has infectious enthusiasm and it was fun – I loved it! She needs to stretch more, she says, and I need to move more. If only we could swap classes but we both teach at the same …
Mangiamo! Let’s eat! Eating together round the big table is at the heart of the retreat community here at Viveka Gardens Yoga Farm. Dhal, rice and subji – and maybe chapatti, but that’s another story – is a meal that will extend to feed all. You don’t want to miss out on chutney with tamarind, …
Sometimes it’s nice to do a bit of old fashioned baking. The sweet, warm aromas, the cutting of the cake around a table with friends: it’s full of heart. The purist vegan in me is a little offended by analogues – here soya flour providing the binding agent lecithin that you would get from albumin …
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Inhale on 1, on 2 on 3. Exhale on 1, on 2 on 3. Leg raises can seem a little boring and I sometimes feel a pang coming to that point in the class. I try to encourage students not to throw them away by inviting them to count the breath, close the eyes and …
This aduki bean and root veg soup in a gingery-kombu flavour-combo was a recent innovation that the Monday Practice Class particularly enjoyed. I had wanted to use a classic sweet potato, reminiscent of a Japanese dish, and going with the kombu flavouring I wanted to use. But I couldn’t get any that were organic – …
This hearty, proteinaceous and wholesome dish has good measures of secret ingredients. Sweet, salty and tangy sundried tomatoes and oregano bring Mediterranean warmth and digestibility to earthy green lentils and grounding sweet potato. Celery and carrots, organic for the best taste, bring sweetness. You could use ‘normal’ potatoes as is usual in this dish. But …
Fried, salty food is not so good every day, but for a celebration it’s perfect. Gram (chick pea flour – protein!) is used to make a batter to coat vegetables and these are deep fried. The first time I made pakora I felt grown up, in charge of a pan of very hot oil for …
Sizzle! In this recipe the spices are fried in oil at a high heat and added in a dash at the end of cooking the dhal. This is a template for making a simple, wholesome, kind of all-in-one protein-packed curry in just about an hour. You can substitute yellow split mung dhal, toor dhal or …