On a sizzling day last week, we created this easy and refreshing recipe for dairy-free Thai iced tea. It’s a healthier twist to traditional Thai iced tea, using coconut milk instead of condensed milk and raw honey or organic agave nectar instead of sugar. It’s also chemical free. You might notice the color of our Thai iced tea is not as red or orange as the tea you might order at a restaurant. That’s because the vibrant color we’ve grown familiar is a product of artificial food dye.
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One of my favorite spice blends to uplift a pot of noodles or rice is the Japanese spice powder called shichimi togarashi. Being a lover of DIY kitchen projects, I decided to make my own adaptation of this digestive spice blend with an Arogya-touch. Not only does this blend bring an added dimension of flavor and depth to any meal, it also has medicinal value. In Chinese medicine, healthy digestion comes with good stomach-fire. When the stomach-fire is weak, digestion is poor, which also affects other systems of the body including immunity. This well-balanced, anti-inflammatory and flavor-enhancing powder promotes healthy stomach fire, and thus, improves digestion.
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I’m a big fan of delicious protein-rich snacks that travel well. With this in mind, I recently created this recipe for roasted chai tea infused almonds. These wholesome nuts have a touch of caffeine and a little sweetness, making them a delightful afternoon pick-me-up.
Plus, they’re easy to prepare and more cost-effective than buying pre-roasted nuts. Additionally, cooking or baking anything from scratch makes it easier to use better ingredients and control just how much sugar and/or salt goes in.
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Something a number of us here at Arogya have in common is a shared interest in visiting India. Our experiences there have also fostered a mutual love for traditional Indian chai, which is a creamy blend of black tea, milk, sugar, and aromatic spices, typically ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, nutmeg, and black pepper. On a cold, rainy day last week, we decided to create our own rendition of a warming, caffeine-free, and sugar-free turmeric ginger chai using our most popular healing blend. The result was a nourishing and calming tonic that’s perfect to sip anytime, as well as when the weather’s hot or cold.
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The first full moon of the Year of the Goat is upon us! This full moon is an exciting and auspicious time of culmination, intensity, and celebration. In China it is celebrated with a lantern festival where millions of lanterns are released into the sky for good luck, abundance and happiness in the New Year. What wishes would you send your good luck lantern off into the sky with? Whether or not you actually send off a lantern, this is an important time to investigate your deepest wishes and take action to help align yourself with what you desire for your life. One important way to do this is to clean and organize the home. The feeling we create in our homes helps us align with the greater forces of the universe to bring a sense a spaciousness, peace, and clarity to our hearts and minds. By clearing out old, forgotten things, we make more room for harmony, abundance and joy in our lives. Doing this at the beginning of the Chinese New Year helps set the stage for a year of happiness and abundance. So get a head start on spring-cleaning and align yourself with the positivity you wish to bring into your life.
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I was at the grocery store the other day and noticed that they were selling dozens of very ripe bananas. This sparked my desire to try and create a healthier yet dense version of banana bread. After some experimenting, I was really satisfied with the following recipe and wanted to share it with you. It uses a combination of nutritious barley and protein-rich almond flour. Barley is is a low-glycemic grain that’s loaded with vitamins and minerals, as well as hearty amounts soluble and insoluble fiber.
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I first fell in love with barley flour in 2005 when my mother and I visited Ladakh, a north Indian state nestled between the Kunlun mountain range and the main Great Himalayas. During our week-long stay, we were fortunate to meet a very kind taxi driver named Dorje. On our final day, Dorje brought us to the small village where he and his family lived. It was late September, which meant it was time to prepare for the long, harsh winter ahead. Dorje’s family was busy harvesting the region’s staple crop – an ancient form of domesticated barley which is used to make tsampa, or roasted barley flour.
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Occasionally, yoga students will ask what are the best ways to sit during meditation. Today, let’s examine 4 basic meditative seats that can help your practice and your posture. Each of these poses encourage an upright spine, which helps the breath flow deeply and the mind remain alert. They’re also excellent seats for practicing pranayama, or breath control exercises.
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We recently enjoyed a tasting of one of our most unique teas – a 2012 red pu’er made by the head tea master of Liji Gu Zhuang in Yunnan Province, China. In fact, we’re the only tea specialists in America to have an artisan red pu’er.
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Last spring, I fell in love with a ramps pesto thin crust pizza being served up at Fat Cat Pie Co. in Norwalk, CT. Fat Cat’s owner Mark Ancona kindly shared the pesto recipe with me: simply blend together ramps, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Eagerly, I went home and made some with my favorite Himalayan pink salt and organic olive oil. It was so simple and delicious!
I was reminded of it the other day when Sophie, who edits this blog, told me about wild ramps she’s been sustainably harvesting near her home. Ramps, also referred to as wild leeks, wood leeks, and spring onions, are perennial wild onions native to North America. Ramps truly are a delicacy
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