EKADASHI (english)

Last 6th of February of 2013, there was a birthday celebration for my lovely friend Chus. We went to her home where we ate some vegetarian food. Her husband told me that day was fasting day in Vedic culture, and it's called Ekadashi.

I was practicing yoga a long time ago also for a long time but I didn't know about its philosophy (besides, there are a lot of different kind of yoga!). I asked Miquel, Chus' husband and expert in yogi, about it...

Vedic Culture use yoga to connect with our divine nature (understood as kindness) and to be aware of it.

They recommend to fast to clean our soul, our body and our Karma.

Karma is energy that it comes from our actions in life and it conditions next reincarnations. Buddhism, Hinduism, and some other cultures believe in Karma.

http://ramyamaya.com/ekadashi_ayuno_de_segun_la_astrologia_vedica.html

Ekadashi means eleventh. "Eka" is 1 and "Dashi" is 10. It means the eleventh day after full moon and the eleventh day after new moon. Vedic astrologers calculate it and the results are fasting days.

 

Miquel also explained me that if they skip Ekadashi day, they just can eat legumes and cereals.

But our menu that day was, first of all, red cabbage with sesame sauce and, second plate, a delicious pumpkin and zucchini soup, and an ecologic birthday cake, of course! As Miquel said: "today is Chus birthday and we are humans", so... celebrate it!

 

This post is made to recommend you to cook red cabbage with sesame sauce. It's easy to cook, healthy (remember: vegetables provide you vitamins and minerals in general. Cabbage has a little bit of everything). It's a tasty and refreshing meal!

 

Before to start the recipe I want to explain you what sesame sauce is, just in case you don't know it. Tahini (sesame sauce) is an Arabic word and it means "to grind".

It's made from sesame seeds that are soaked in water and then crushed to separate the bran from the kernels. The crushed seeds are soaked in salt water, causing the bran to sink. The floating kernels are skimmed off the surface, toasted, and GROUND to produce an oily paste = sesame sauce. Yep, it contains fatty acids, but generally omega 3 and 6. It's used in North African, Greek and Turkish cooking.

 

Tahini provides you copper and manganese specially, just like Methionine (amino acid. As you well know, proteins are made up of amino acids. If you don't eat animal protein, it's interesting to try to get food that provides you these nutrients. Animal proteins and vegetable proteins are different... but this is subject for another "post").

 

After that...

 

You'll need chopped raw red cabbage. coriander, garlic, tahini, olive oil and herbs salt.

 

Fill a soup plate with the chopped raw red cabbage and mix with a level tablespoon of tahini. Add a bite of coriander (as you want!) and half chopped clove of garlic. Mix it all and you can add the olive oil and herbs salt (a little bit of either). You can try it, just in case you want to put more salt or oil, or other ingredient.

 

Can you see how easy and fast is it??

Beside, how healthy!

 

 

BON APPÉTIT and THANK YOU CHUS!!