A simple formula for cooking balanced, nourishing meals every day (in only 30 minutes)

I’ve been experimenting with a new diet since last year, due to some health issues that kept coming back up: poor digestion, skin inflammation, low energy, just to name the most obvious ones. 

Those symptoms have been present throughout my life, and I’ve already tried many things to find relief and heal them. Both, more focused on external factors like food, but also the internal root causes. 

One of those explorations has already brought me years ago to Ayurveda, and its principles for a balanced life. It wasn’t until I came across Hale Pule, though, that I found an easy way to incorporate those principles into how I cook and eat every day. Like most people, I love exploring new recipes, but also like most people, on many days I just need to have a good system and cook something fresh, healthy, and tasty, ideally in about 30 minutes. 

And that’s what I found in the simple ayurvedic cooking course they offer. Not more recipes, but a simple formula that helps create every meal. They call it the 60:40 balance bowl. Each meal (besides breakfast) is easily composed following this principle, which is super simple and applicable to anything you feel like cooking. And the best part, it makes you feel so good, nourished, yet easy on your digestion, which leaves your body with more energy for other things.

So here is how the balance bowls work:

• 60% augmenting foods: they are generally more grounding, sweet foods, they build tissue, replenish and give us vitality and energy. Split into roughly 30% grains (rice, millet, buckwheat...) and 30% vegetables (think of carrots, fennel, zucchini,...) 

• 40% extractive foods: cleansing in nature, they ask your body to give something up in order to digest them and are essential in breaking down healthy fats. They often taste bitter or astringent. Split into roughly 20% "protein" (legumes, meat, fish,..) and 20% vegetables (like kale, mangold, spinach, many of those green leafy ones basically) 

And that’s it! This formula lets you create a balanced plate for every meal. Of course, there is a little more to it that is also shared in the course, like starting with heating up a bit of ghee, adding your spices, and then only the grains or veggies; keeping it always more moist than dry, and adjusting according to what you need, the season, and what your intuition tells you. 

That’s probably the main thing I took from this approach since I started eating like this around 1.5 years ago: once you get the basics, your intuition is the main guide. You cook following that, and you can be so creative and adjust everything to the season, how you feel, and what your family needs. 

I’ll leave you with that, and maybe you feel like exploring it for yourself - we’re not affiliated with Hale Pule, just sharing this as it’s been such a valuable gem in my life.