It is easy to spend summer worshiping a good tomato and admiring a decent eggplant. But if you ignore the rest of the summer goodness not only you miss out on a lot of deliciousness but also potentially undermine your health as I have recently learned at the cooking class by Ulli of Ulli Ayurveda.
You don’t need Ayurveda to tell you that summer calls for cooling foods, but honestly I have seen few people that go beyond iced beverages and raw salads, two obvious solutions to cool down your body and mind on a hot day. According to Ayurveda, ancient Indian healing system, there is much more to the summer diet that that.
To avoid sunburns, headaches, digestive issues and irritability driven by the summer heat Ulli, an Ayurveda practitioner in Istanbul, recommends paying attention to the green vegetables. In particular, Ulli reminds to celebrate such summer produce as cucumbers, okra, peas, beans, zucchini and leafy greens along with the corn and carrots. Ulli says that summer is a good time to enjoy sweet foods (and sweet foods does not equal sweets) such as whole grains, organic milk, ghee, young unsalted cheeses, fully ripe juicy fruits and berries. In addition, bitter foods such as leafy greens or astringent foods such as lentils and beans should become summer staples.
Ulli recommends going easy on meat, alcohol and caffeine in summer. She advises skipping hot spices (ginger and mustard, I will be back in autumn) and suggests substituting them with fresh summer herbs such as mint, parsley, dill, thyme, basil and such. Ulli also suggests avoiding sour foods (e.g. citrus fruit), salty treats (e.g. pickles) and vegetables with heating properties such as chili peppers, radish, onion and garlic.
At her recent cooking class Ulli showed how to apply these principles and create dishes that nourish and promote health in summer. She made a beetroot dip with kefir and zahter, a tribute to the Ulli’s favorite vegetable that she calls a superfood paired with a powerful probiotic (kefir) and wild thyme that is believed to help digestion, give courage and stop nightmares. Another dish on the cooking class menu was whole-wheat pasta in a creamy zucchini sauce showing that you don’t have to resort to a default tomato sauce when making your favorite comfort dish. Ulli also prepared balsamic wilted marple chard, a quick nourishing side with a smart dressing that balances the off-putting for some bitterness of the greens. Finally, Ulli shared her favorite summer beverage of cooling probiotic mint kefir (a wonder made possible only with a high-speed blender, sigh).
Just like everything I have eaten from Ulli’s hands before, all the dishes she prepared at the class were delicious and nourishing (and I think she needs to find a way for a lot more people to be able to cook and eat food like that). Yet her Mediterranean rosemary walnut quinoa salad made the most lasting impression on me, and with a few modifications it has become my favorite this summer. As Ulli mentioned it travels very well, so I took it on a plane ride to Russia and I pack it every time I am going to the countryside.
To me, who’s been lucky to try Ulli’s cooking on a number of occasions, this dish perfectly demonstrate Ulli’s Ayurveda-driven food philosophy: your meal should include all the six flavors (sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent) that satisfy your palate and nourish your body.
The grain salad has got a sweet, bitter and astringent forte, the three taste we should be looking for in summer. The sweetness comes from millet (Ulli used quinoa, still an exotic grain on the Istanbul food stalls, that I replaced with the dear to my Russian heart millet) as well as the roasted onions fortified by the homemade pomegranate molasses. Zucchini (in my version as Ulli does not include them) and herbs bring bitterness. And finally, pomegranate molasses and walnuts carry the astringent taste. Cured black olives do not dominate and only balance the dish with a hint of sourness. Onions, too pungent when raw, are tamed by roasting. The flavors in the salad work together so well that this single salad becomes as satisfying as a five-course meal. And that’s exactly how you want to eat in summer.
Millet Salad with Roasted Zucchini
This is not your throw together salad, but this perfect summer meal, rocking picnic dish and best in-flight meal ever is worth your effort. The preparation gets quicker if you have leftover millet or other favorite grain of yours or if you had roasted the vegetables ahead. Also, I often make this millet salad when I work from home and don’t mind that vegetables take a bit of time to roast while I draft a blog post or edit the photos.
Source: Adapted from Ulli of Ulli Ayurveda
Prep Time: 10 Min
Cook Time: 40 Min
Total Time: 50 Min
Serves: 2
Ingredients
For grilled zucchini and onion:
- 1 small onion
- 4 medium (450 g) zucchini
- 2 tbsp melted ghee
- 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp dry sumac flakes
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
For cooked millet:
- 1/2 cup millet
- 1 cup vegetable stock or water
- 2 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
Additional:
- 1/2 cup walnut halves pan toasted and crushed
- 1/4 loosely packed cup basil leaves torn into pieces
- 1/4 cup pitted cured black olives coarsely chopped
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp pomegranate molasses
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 210C/410F
- Roast zucchini and onion: Prepare a large baking tray, lined with the baking paper. Finely dice the onion and place in the corner of the baking tray. Cut the zucchini into 1 cm / 1/2 inch slices and dump in the middle of the tray. Whisk the ghee, fresh thyme, sumac, salt and black pepper and pour most of the mix over the pile of the zucchini and the remaining bit over the onions. Stir the onions to distribute the dressing. With your fingers rub the dressing in the zucchini slices and then distribute the slices on the tray without mixing with a pile of onions. Roast for 30 min to let the zucchini slices get nicely brown at the bottom. Next remove the onions, flip the zucchini slices and roast for 7-10 min longer. Cool down.
- Cook millet: Toast the millet in a medium pot on the medium heat. Toss now and then until you hear a cracking sound. Remove from the heat, pour in cold water (beware of the steam!), rinse the grains thoroughly and then drain. Add the vegetable stock or water as well as the bay leaf and salt. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to the low, cover with a well-fitting lid and let simmer for 5-7 min, or until the grains absorb all the moisture. Turn off the heat and leave the millet to rest covered for 20 min or so.
- Assemble salad: Stir the roasted onions, olive oil and pomegranate molasses in the cooked millet and let cool. Then toss in the cooled down roasted zucchini slices, toasted walnuts, olives and basil leaves. Enjoy!
