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Annapurna Kitchen

Volume III · Part II

The Ayurvedic Kitchen

Space, spices, technique, ingredients, combinations — the craft behind the recipes

The kitchen craft behind every recipe: how the Annapurna kitchen is set up, how spices and tadka work, how to choose and cook grains, pulses, vegetables and dairy, what never to combine, and how long food stays fresh. Several chapters include explorers you can use while you cook.

The chapters

17 chapters

  1. Chapter 9Setting Up a Sattvic KitchenThe classical texts call the kitchen the mahanasa — the great hall of food — and describe it as clean, well-lit, airy and tended by trusted, calm cooks.Read chapter →
  2. Chapter 10The Spice PharmacyIn an Ayurvedic kitchen the spice box is a small pharmacy.Read chapter →
  3. Chapter 11The Science of Tadka (Tempering)Tadka — also called chhaunk, vaghar or oggarane — is the moment when spices are fried in ghee or oil and poured over a dish.Read chapter →
  4. Chapter 12Grains — Choosing, Preparing, CookingGrains are the foundation of the thali and the main source of energy.Read chapter →
  5. Chapter 13Pulses — Protein Without the WindPulses (dals and beans) supply most of the protein in a vegetarian kitchen, but they are dry, rough and gas-forming — Vata qualities.Read chapter →
  6. Chapter 14VegetablesVegetables are mostly light and fibrous.Read chapter →
  7. Chapter 15FruitsFruits are cleansing and light, but Ayurveda treats them with care: they digest quickly and ferment if trapped behind a heavy meal.Read chapter →
  8. Chapter 16Milk, Curd, Buttermilk and GheeDairy is central to a vegetarian Ayurvedic diet and especially valuable after 55: it provides complete protein, calcium and vitamin B12.Read chapter →
  9. Chapter 17Oils and FatsSpace, spices, technique, ingredients, combinations — the craft behind the recipesRead chapter →
  10. Chapter 18Sweeteners and SaltsICMR-NIN (2024) reminds us that jaggery, honey and sugar are all sugars; none is a health food.Read chapter →
  11. Chapter 19Water — The First MedicineAyurveda devotes whole chapters to water (jala varga).Read chapter →
  12. Chapter 20Food Combining — The Expanded Viruddha GuideVolume II (A6) introduced the classical types of incompatible food.Read chapter →
  13. Chapter 21Cooking Methods ComparedAyurveda prefers cooking that makes food lighter and easier to digest while keeping it moist.Read chapter →
  14. Chapter 22Cooking for Each DoshaWhen a guest's dominant dosha or current imbalance is known, the kitchen can tilt the same menu towards them — usually with small swaps rather than separate meals.Read chapter →
  15. Chapter 23Freshness, Leftovers and StorageAyurveda regards food cooked more than about three hours earlier (paryushita) as having lost its vitality, and reheated, stale food as tamasic.Read chapter →
  16. Chapter 24The Kitchen Pharmacy — Traditional Home RemediesIndian households have long used kitchen ingredients for small everyday complaints.Read chapter →
  17. Chapter 25Fifty Kitchen Tips from the PanelSpace, spices, technique, ingredients, combinations — the craft behind the recipesRead chapter →