Recipes

Cauliflower and Rainbow Chard Curry

This quick and easy curry will up your vegetable intake and balance your doshas

By Amrita Sondhi /

Rainbow chard (Swiss chard with yellow, white, and red stems) gives this dish a colourful balance

Lululemon co-founder Amrita Sondhi offers up decadent vegetarian recipes, like this cauliflower and rainbow chard curry (followed by quinoa dark chocolate cake), to balance the mind, body and spirit in her second cookbook, The Tastes of Ayurveda

“I wanted a new recipe for the fresh Swiss chard growing on my balcony, so I came up with this quick and easy dish that my guests really enjoyed,” Sondhi said in The Tastes of Ayurveda, which offers recipes to balance the body’s three doshas: Vata (air), Pitta (fire) and Kapha (earth).

Ingredients

  • 30 ml (1 tbsp) good oil
  • 4 ml (1 tsp) whole cumin seeds
  • 1 l (4 cups) cauliflower florets
  • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) ground turmeric
  • 1 ml (1/4 tsp cayenne), to taste (omit to reduce Pitta)
  • 4 ml (1 tsp) good salt, to taste
  • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) ground black pepper
  • 1 l (4 cups) chopped Swiss or rainbow chard (to reduce Pitta: use 500 ml (2 cups)
  • 30 ml (1 tbsp) lemon juice

Instructions

  1. In a large pot on medium-high, heat oil. Drop 1 cumin seed into the oil to test; if it sizzles and turns white, add rest of cumin seeds and let sizzle for 30 seconds.
  2. Then add cauliflower, turmeric, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat well with spices.
  3. Add 1 tbsp water. Reduce heat to medium, cover pot with tightly fitting lid, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add chard and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, covered, so vegetables can cook in their own steam. When cauliflower is tender, remove from heat.
  4. Stir in lemon juice and serve.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Recipe from The Tastes of Ayurveda by Amrita Sondhi