Spice up your Spring!
The five best Spring Spices to feel light and energised.
As mentioned in the blog post about the Kapha Dosha, spring has heavy and slow qualities, which makes it the perfect season to use all the spices. Spices have been used for thousands of years to bring health. You might see them mainly as flavour enhancers for your meals, but they are potent little power seeds that jumpstart your digestion, help release uncomfortable bloating, and make you feel light and full of energy as a result.
How many Spices do you use in your Cooking?
When I grew up, salt, pepper, and paprika were the go-to spices. When I started practising Yoga and was introduced to Ayurveda, a whole new world opened up. I felt like Alice in Wonderland.
But which ones to use for what? Luckily, living seasonally helps you narrow it down. And the spring season is the one where you can go wild.
The majority of spices have a pungent taste, which is what you need to balance the cold, slow, sticky and heavy Kapha qualities. Pungency creates heat and accelerates the digestive process. You probably have noticed that you start to sweat when eating a chilli hot curry, for example.
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Which Spices are best for Spring?
As mentioned, you are spoiled for choice. Here are five spices to give you some ideas; the first four are must-haves, and the last one is good to have but might not feature much in your kitchen just yet.
Black Pepper
Has pungent and bitter tastes with dry, sharp, hot, and light qualities
Black pepper stimulates digestion (one of the most important spices), expels phlegm, reduces gas and fever, gets rid of parasites, reduces ama, and strengthens Agni, your digestive fire. All you need to keep your digestion strong in spring.
You can sprinkle black pepper into everything.
Ginger
An absolute must-have in your kitchen: fresh and in powder form.
Ginger has sweet and pungent tastes.
Fresh ginger is heavy and oily, but this heaviness does not impact the heavy Kapha quality. Ginger is physically heavy because of its juices, and it sinks down if you add it to water. It is less heating than its dry version.
Whereas dry ginger powder has dry, light, and sharp qualities.
Ginger has cleansing, toning, and stimulating properties. It is used for a multitude of health purposes, such as digestive issues such as nausea, bloating, and feeling full; it helps in cases of muscular pain and relieves constipation. As a tea, it helps fight colds and coughs.
Ginger digests ama, toxins accumulated in your body.
You can grate fresh ginger into tea, dal, and vegetable dishes.
The dried ginger can be used in sweet dishes as well.
Turmeric
Turmeric and ginger are from the same plant family; therefore, it’s another must-have spice in your kitchen.
As ginger, turmeric is available in two forms: fresh and the more commonly known dried powder.
Its pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes and light, dry qualities make it perfect for balancing the spring’s Kapha dosha.
Turmeric is an excellent blood and stomach purifier, which helps with skin diseases, ulcers, and oedema. It's anti-inflammatory and antiseptic, great for wound healing both inside and outside, and helps heal the spleen, liver, and kidneys.
In its powder form, turmeric can be added to any tempering for vegetable dishes, dals, soups, or whatever you like. It works well with hot milk as a turmeric latte, which helps to digest the milk, and the fat of the milk helps activate turmeric’s active agent.
The fresh version makes a great pickle condiment to eat with your meal.
I have often been asked what’s best, fresh or dried. The dried version is more potent. You need to eat much more fresh turmeric to get the same effect as a teaspoon of dried turmeric.
Cinnamon
Do you also love cinnamon?
Its sweet taste makes it so pleasant. But it also has a very subtle pungent taste and is astringent (which means it pulls the tissues together).
Cinnamon has dry, light, sharp qualities.
It promotes sweating, makes you pee and heal, reduces gas and blood sugar, expels phlegm, relieves pains, strengthens Agni, and improves circulation.
Cinnamon comes in two forms: bark shavings or powder. It's best to buy the bark and grind it when you need the powder to keep it fresh and effective. To release and access the volatile oils, the bark must go into the tempering for dal or if you cook meat. You can also boil it for digestive or cold/cough teas.
The powder works in milk; it helps digest the milk and tones the nervous system. As cinnamon has a balancing effect on blood sugar, it is excellent in cakes, cookies, and any sweet dishes; the taste is an extra bonus.
Dill
Dill has pungent and bitter tastes, but it is also light, dry, and sharp, making it an excellent companion during spring.
The seeds reduce gas, strengthen menstruation and milk production during breastfeeding, stimulate the heart, expel phlegm, and help with any disturbance of digestion, colic, piles, rheumatic and other joint swellings.
Dill can be added to heavier vegetable dishes like potatoes for instant or in teas for colds or digestive issues. Because of its pungent taste, it is widely used in pickling (that’s more of a summer activity, though the pickles can be eaten in moderation during springtime for gut health).
Fresh dill, which has a subtler taste, works well with most vegetable dishes when added towards the end of the cooking process, likewise in soups and dals.
Final Thoughts
Revitalise your springtime routine through the strategic use of spices. We often overlook their benefits, not just as culinary enhancers but as potent allies in combating the sluggishness that can accompany the spring season. Drawing from Ayurvedic principles, spices can effectively counteract the heavy and slow qualities of the Kapha Dosha that dominate this time of year.
Spices offer a vast array of options made accessible through Ayurveda and a seasonal approach to eating, utilising their ability to stimulate digestion, alleviate bloating, and infuse the body with energy and lightness.
Each spice has health benefits and culinary uses, which promise a more vibrant and energised spring. Embrace the therapeutic power of spices and transform your meals and well-being with a few simple additions to your pantry.
Which of the spices are you most likely to introduce into your kitchen, or maybe they are already staple? Let me know. You can leave a message below, on Instagram, Facebook, or even in a good old email.
I love hearing from you!
Katja x
P.S. Remember, healthy eating habits are important to support Kapha’s damp and slow digestive fire.
