Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners: Familiar Western Food Prepared with Ayurvedic Principles [Paperback]

Amadea Morningstar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 1995

Includes 200 recipes for healthful living, prepared from ingredients easily available in the West.

Product Details

• Paperback: 395 pages
• Publisher: Lotus Press; 1st edition (May 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0914955144
• ISBN-13: 978-0914955146
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars There are better Ayurvedic cookbooks, February 20, 2002

By 

Seth Heidkamp (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners: Familiar Western Food Prepared with Ayurvedic Principles (Paperback)

I own this book (ACFW) and The Ayurvedic Cookbook (TAC) and I must say that I rarely open this one, while I use at least 3 recipes out of TAC every week. The problem is that while this book stays true to the principles of Ayurvedia, the recipes aren't as tasty as they could be. This book tends to follow the Western macrobiotic ideals of "steam some rice, steam some veggies, let's eat", where TAC uses a wide array of spices. Comparing side by side similiar recipes, TAC's carrots and parsnips has about a half dozen spices, while ACFW's carrots, parsnips and peas has none. Which do you want to eat? This comparison is valid for many other recipes as well, which is somewhat disturbing given the importance TAC places on spices as a part of Ayurvedia. This book seems aimed at the more political/masochistic Western vegetarian (there is a sidebar on being nice to meat-eaters) who sees bland food as some kind of right of passage. While there's good information on Ayurvedia, you can do better with The Ayurvedic Cookbook.

70 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent resource, November 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners: Familiar Western Food Prepared with Ayurvedic Principles (Paperback)

This is a super book for people interested in Ayurveda who think this health system can be followed using only Indian foods. Morningstar prooves this myth wrong. Her recipes are familiar and are coupled with a wealth of interesting and useful information. I'm glad I have this book on my shelf.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Guide, OK recipes, June 2, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners: Familiar Western Food Prepared with Ayurvedic Principles (Paperback)

This book is interesting to read and great help in deciding what to eat to balance your vikrities (imbalances). You start out learning some Ayurvedic basics and then you can test yourself to find out what your dosha (constitution) is. Then you learn what foods and tastes agrivate or calm that dosha. It tells you a little bit about what the symptoms of an imbalance might be, but I got more descriptive information about that on the Internet. One reason I like this book is because me and my fiance are different constitutions, and this book tells us which foods will calm/ balance us both. There are simple instructions on most recipes that explain how to modify the recipe so that it suits a person with a different constitution. It also has codes for what seasons to eat what food, and every chapter or so has interesting blurbs about different foods and philosophies. That part I enjoy. And from my experience, Ayurveda WORKS. Fast and precisely.

Feeling flighty, hyper, dried out and flaky? Balance your Vata. Feeling irritable, is your skin oily, have heartburn, or an infection? Balance your Pitta. Are you overweight, or sluggish? Balance your Kapha. Eating ayurvedicly will heal all/ any of those (and many other) ailments very quickly. I haven't been sick at all since I started paying attention to my ayurvedic needs, and I used to get sick all the time. I am a Pitta person, and by eating to calm pitta imbalances, I wiped out acne in a short time (a week) - something prescription creams and antibiotics didn't help with at all. In doing so, I also managed to become a less angry, irritable person. But remember that this is a continuous process. Balancing one dosha can offset another. That's why its such a fine art and requires years of training to become a certified practitioner. This (and other ayurveda books) have helped me become more in tune with my body and mind. I also notice a lot of other people's imbalances, and surprisingly I am now able to understand other people's mood changes, personalities, and tendencies by determining their dosha and their imbalances. Granted, I didn't get this way just from reading this book alone, but this is the one that sparked my interest to read more about ayurveda elsewhere. I'd definitely get this book with another book on Ayurvedic philosophy, signs and symptoms of imbalances, and other non-dietic ways to balance your dosha (like yoga, oil massage and pranayama). I'd recommend maybe one by Robert Svaboda or Deepak Chopra.

The recipes are all very easy to make. I've tried quite a few of them, everything from their fruit bowls to pasta sauces. Unfortunately, they're not all ones I enjoy eating... I eat them more for their healing aspects rather than for their tastiness. However, from what I've heard, tastier ayurvedic recipes exist.

I also found a few spelling errors, and a medical discrepency. This book says Pitta people should eat/ favor apricots while every other source says pitta people should avoid apricots. Of course, many ayurvedic professionals disagree with certain things, but I found this confusing and discreditting to the author.

Overall, I like the book but think it could offer more in terms of knowledge, and tastier recipes.