Want to keep warm and have your skin thrive this winter season? Let’s see what trusty old Ayurveda has got to say about warm foods you should consume during the harsh winters! When the word winter comes to mind, the first thing which pops up is a hot cup of your favourite brew or your mother’s famous warm delicacy. Did you now that the food we eat is closely associated with the weather? Ritucharya is an ancient Ayurvedic practice and is comprised of two words, “Ritu” which means season and “charya” which means Regimen or discipline. Ritucharya consists of lifestyle and ayurvedic diet routine to cope with the bodily and mental impacts caused by seasonal changes as recommended by Ayurveda. Ritucharya is a powerful, health giving ayurvedic tool that helps us live according to the changes in season and make internal adjustments so that our doshas are in a state of balance. People do not know or ignore the suitable types of food stuffs to be followed in particular season, this ...
Indian
kitchens and kitchen gardens come stocked with plenty of herbs and
spices that we use to flavor our food and dishes with alacrity – and
sometimes with quite a heavy hand as many a tourist who has tasted
Indian food has paid testament to with watery eyes, a runny nose and a
tongue that seems to be on fire!
That said, many of these herbs
and spices find mention in ancient Ayurvedic texts, for as Hippocrates
so rightly said, food is medicine. And we’ll reach for those herbal teas
when in need – to alleviate coughs and colds, calm down the monthly PMS rage and even help that unstable stomach.
Sometimes
though, you do get bogged down with a dry cough that simply refuses to
quit and leaves you with a sore throat, an irritated audience and a
voice that rivals Kermit’s – and not in a good way. Most Indians, at
this stage, rely on kadha, or karha, a tea or
concoction where herbs and spices are boiled, usually in water, to
extract all their benefits – which is then cooled a bit, but served warm
and can also be stored in the fridge and then reheated and sipped on
3-4 times in a day.
So here’s a kadha that really works on dry, persistent cough and a sore throat that simply refuses to get better, medicines be darned.
Ayurvedic Cough Concoction or Kadha
- 4-5 bay leaves (tej patta) (in a pinch, you can also use the leaves of the cinnamon tree or even allspice)
- 2-inch piece ginger (adrak), peeled and crushed for maximum efficacy
- A 4-inch stick of licorice (mulethi)
- 10-12 peppercorns, crushed (kali mirch)
- 4 green cardamoms (elaichi), crushed
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (saunf)
- 5-6 crushed holy basil leaves (tulsi)
- Honey (shahad) to taste
Boil
3 cups water and add in everything but the honey. Simmer for 10-15
minutes, till the water level has halved and is dark green/brown in
color. Strain the water and discard the herbs and spices. Measure about
50-100ml of this concoction, and sip it warm. In case you find this too
hot (read: spicy) for your taste, add in 1 teaspoon honey to sweeten
before you sip. You can have this twice a day in summers or four times a
day in winters – all the herbs and spices used in this herbal “tea” are
pitta inducing. In summers they may unnecessarily cause too much heat
in the digestive system and have an adverse effect. In winters, this
becomes an advantage.
We hope this helps soothe your cough, alleviate that sore throat and also help in curing away that flu
faster as its spiciness will help in dissolving and expelling any and
all congestion. Happy healing to you, and do let us have your thoughts
about this kadha recipe in the comments section below.
Namaste.
Article by Rima J. Pundir
https://basmati.com/2017/05/17/sip-kadha-colds-ayurvedic-herbal-tea 
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