Here’s our most-requested recipe from Dine with Myra: 7 days of simple Ayurvedic recipes: Ayurvedic Lasagne!
There’s a common misconception that creativity requires variety. People often try to stimulate their creativity by seeking out exotic ingredients and scouring the web for fresh recipes. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we’d like to introduce another idea — that creativity can be bourne out of simplicity.
This Ayurvedic Lasagne is balanced, nourishing, and fun to make. But if you look closely you’ll see that it’s actually our balance bowl re-imagined. There’s rice, mung beans, an augmenting vegetable (zucchini), and an extractive vegetable (collard greens). These simple ingredients are complemented by a beautiful melody of spices to support digestion. All of the elements are arranged in a new way, which gives a fresh experience.
Ayurvedic Lasagne
Serves 2
Preparation time: 1 hour
Augmenting & Extractive
Rice & Mung Beans
You'll need
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2 Tbsp ghee or olive oil
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½ tsp mineral salt
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⅓ tsp dried oregano
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⅓ tsp dried basil
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1 pinch rosemary
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½ tsp coriander powder
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¼ tsp fenugreek powder
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1 pinch ground black pepper
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¼ cup split or whole mung beans (whole mung beans soaked 6+ hours)
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½ cup rice
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1¾ cups water
Here's how
Heat the oil in a pot over medium heat. Then, add salt, oregano, basil, rosemary, coriander, fenugreek, and black pepper. Simmer until the aroma comes up to meet you. Add mung beans and rice and stir to coat with the oil and spices and simmer for a few minutes.Add water, stir and bring to a boil; reduce to simmer and cover for 25 minutes (stc), or 18 minutes (pc), allowing the pressure cooker to release naturally.
Zucchini strips
You'll need
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2 medium zucchini shredded in thumb width strips
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2 tsp olive oil
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¼ tsp mineral salt
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½ tsp fennel seeds ground
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¼ tsp turmeric powder
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Water to just cover the bottom of the pan
Here's how
Heat the oil in a small pan and simmer the salt and fennel until the aroma is present. Add in the turmeric and simmer briefly. Gently lay the zucchini in the pan and add the water, cover and simmer gently until almost tender and remove from the heat.
Note: A hand tool called the Shark, a vegetable peeler, or a Food processor makes this process easiest.
collard greens
You'll need
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2-3 large leaves of collards or another firm dark leafy green slice into thumb width lengths
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2 tsp olive oil
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¼ tsp mineral salt
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⅛ tsp ajwain seeds (optional)
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Water to cover bottom of the pan and steam
Here's how
Heat the oil in a pan and simmer the salt and ajwain, until the aroma is present. Add the collard strips and water and cover to steam until soft. Remove from the heat and uncover to cool slightly so that you can handle them.
Assembling the lasagne
In a small baking dish first lay a layer of collard green, then a layer of zucchini, and then add a pinky finger-tip layer of rice and mung then begin the sequence again until complete. Bake in the oven at 350F or 190C for 10 minutes.
Options:
Add a thin layer of fresh goat cheese between the collard green and zucchini or just on top. The goat cheese will make it heavier but in small amounts can work well. Too much cheese and it will be very heavy for agni and digestion.
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Use a small amount of cooked and blended cauliflower as a layer.
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Make wide noodles with spelt and rice from the Ayurvedic egg-free fresh pasta recipe and cook them for 1 minute in boiling water. Then layer them in with the collards, mung beans, and zucchini.
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Remember, this recipe, and all recipes that we share on the blog, are meant to inspire, not instruct. Swap out spices, oils, and any other ingredients to suit what’s available and seasonal.
Visit our Ayurveda Lifestyle page for kitchen essentials