Spices are a tasty and effective way to improve your digestion. These spice blends are basic, simple ways to perk up your digestion, which will help you pull more nourishment out of your food, and save time and money making really great homemade food.

What do these spices do for me? It’s just flavor, right?

Spices are sometimes herbs, and often are the seed of a plant. They hold all the potential energy that plant has dedicated to it’s future offspring. Just like herbs, spices offer many health benefits. In Ayurvedic approach to cooking, fall and winter are times to use more spice for more energy in your food and to warm up your digestion so you can reap the full benefits of your nourishment.  Here’s the benefits of the spices in the recipes below:

  • Coriander: balances digestion to offset spicy food and prpotect from acidity, binds toxins in the blood, calms the mind, relieves gas and constipation
  • Cumin:  Stimulates digestion, helps eliminate toxins and congestions, feeds friendly gut bacteria, hellps with nutrient absorption
  • Fennel: Balances your digestion, increasing or decreasing acidity as needed
  • Turmeric: helps cleanse and break down fat in the liver, anti-inflammatory qualities, anti-oxident, improves digestion and immune system
  • Ginger: Strengthens digestive and circulatory systems, breaks down fat in the stomach, relieves constipation, decreases inflammation and mucus, antiviral and antibacterial. Ginger is considered a “universal medicine” because it supports so many body systems and helps to bring them into balance.
  • Cardamom:helps calm nerves, aids digestion, helps eliminate toxins
  • Cinnamon:  improves circulation, warms the digestion, helps relieve coughs and colds, helps with glucose and carbohydrate metabolism
  • Cloves:  Helps warm and improve digestion, reduces toxins and congestions, soothes coughs, strengthens the circulatory system.
  • Nutmeg: Calms the mind, promotes sleep, relieves coughs and colds, increases nutrient absorption in the colon and stops diahrea, supports men’s energy, decreases morning sickness

(Information credit to What to Eat For How You Feel by Divya Alter.)

Here’s a quick video on how to make the spice blend recipes below:

Fall Savory Spice Mix

This spice blend goes great on vegetables, eggs, soups, meats: any dish that needs some savory seasoning. It helps fire up your digestive fire while balancing your stomach acid, and stimulates liver function for better digestion.

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Tbsp whole coriander seed
  • 1 Tbsp whole cumin seed
  • 1 1/2 tsp whole fennel seed
  • 1 Tbsp turmeric powder
  • 2 tsp ginger powder

Instructions
 

  • Dry roast the whole spices in a frying pan for a few minutes, just until they release their fragrance and you can smell them. Let them cool completely.
  • In a coffee grinder reserved for grinding spices, or with a mortar and pestle, grind the whole spices to a uniform consistency.
  • Pour the spices into a small mixing bowl and stir in the turmeric and ginger.
  • Transfer the spice mix one more time into a shaker jar (like an old spice container) for storage.

Notes

Taken from The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook by Kate O'Donnell.
Feel free to adjust the spices according to your personal taste preferences. These spices work together symbiotically, but there's no requirement on the specific amounts if you don't favor one particularly.
 

Fall Sweet Spice Mix

This is a great homemade version of pumpkin pie spice designed to perk up your digestion in the colder months. It works great in baking, on squashes, on your cooked grains (like oatmeal), and to make a soothing spiced warm milk.
Prep Time 10 mins

Ingredients
  

  • 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 Tbsp ground ginger
  • 1 Tbsp ground cardamom
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Instructions
 

  • Put all ingredients in an old spice container. Shake to blend thoroughly.

Notes

Adapted from the "Everyday Sweet Spice Mix" in The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook by Kate O'Donnell.
Keyword spices, sweet