How does a minimalist eat?

Here's a sweeping statement that I'll stand by: Simple foods simplify life.

A minimalist eats uncomplicated food. And when you break that down, it turn out to be vegetarian. I am by no means an advocate of vegetarianism, and this is not the arena to discuss the ethical issues behind meat and animal products.

But when it comes to minimalism, vegetarian food wins, here's why. (I would throw half of these reasons out of the window, but the other half is good enough.)

But before you vegetarians start gloating, vegetarian food does not automatically amount to minimalist eating. If your precious plant produce needs hours of prepping, needs to cook for half an hour over LPG fueled fire, simmering with spices flown in from 7 different states before it can be consumed, there's hardly anything simple about it, is there.

I am talking about raw foods. Locally procured, simply prepared and freshly consumed. Minimal time, effort and energy from plant to plate, and minimal digestive effort by the body.  Could you do it?

I am a big foodie, but I think this will be my year to start out in the sattvic, simple diet direction. It is not a forced decision, in fact it is not even a decision. Especially with my strong yoga practice these days, I notice the digestive load that complicated foods put on my body. (I mean even home cooked foods - fry 7 ingredients, grind with coconut, simmer with odds and ends that have been soaking overnight. The worst culprits are our starchy, nutritionally pointless breakfast items)

The myriad health benefits manifest themselves rapidly, and I spot the first effects in my yoga practice. There is so much more focus, I'm able to go deeper into postures and hold them for longer. The mind is clear and quiet.

I don't know how this will evolve. Right now, I'm eating raw food a couple of days a week, whenever possible. Going forward, I'll step up RF to alternate days, slowly easing into the system till cooked, complicated foods are like dessert -  an occasional, enjoyable treat. May take years though.

Lest you should think this is something of a fad diet, think about how sad it is that we now think of simple, straight-forward food as a fad. This is not any kind of diet plan. This is a lazy man's dream, a way of simplifying your life in one fell swoop. Think about it - no sweaty kitchen time, no complex recipes to remember, no stocking of dozens of ingredients, no expensive fuel to buy, no digestion pills to swallow after meals.

The RF menu is surprisingly wide open:

i. Practically any vegetable you can manage (Think beyond carrot and cucumber, you! tender green beans are great too. As is cabbage, radish, turnips, tomatoes, onion, capsicum, tender leaves of all greens like spinach. Actually, experiment. Try a snake gourd. You'll be surprised how many vegetables taste rather nice when raw)

ii. All edible fruit you can lay your hands on

iii. Sprouted pulses. Any pulse. Buy it whole, soak and sprout. Spritz lime juice and chow.

iii. All edible nuts and seeds. Include coconut in nuts, and in seeds, sesame, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds.


To take a minimalist approach to food, just think about how, and how much, you can reduce the number of steps it takes to get the food from the plant to your plate.

Remedy for a common summer ailment

In summer especially, it is common to develop boils on the rim of the eyelids (called styes). These swell up over time, turn red and painful, often shutting the eye out completely. I usually go to a doctor, get drops and things, and it takes about 3 to 4 days to subside.

I started to get a boil yesterday - it had swollen up a bit, and was making it painful for me to blink. Then my friend Asha suggested a cure - dab some saliva on it several times a day. Apparently this is a well-known remedy, but I had never heard of it.

This was last evening at about 4 PM, when the stye had already inflamed quite a bit. I did the application once every half an hour till bedtime, and this morning the boil is completely gone!!

If you are wondering which is the least unpleasant way to procure saliva, just dip a finger under your tongue to pick up a drop on your finger tip, and dab on the afflicted spot. Repeat often.

Gross, but effective!

Value buy: Vicco foam base cream

This is a lovely, lovely product. The only soap I use is Carbolic, but on a long day out, Chennai's humidity makes a portable, non-messy face wash tube indispensable. In the past I've used Himalaya neem, pears etc, but then I found this gem and I love it.

This blue tube says "Vicco turmeric with foam  base", and isn't immediately recognizable as a face wash - you will likely find it in the cosmetic aisle on the face cream shelf. (Way to kill a good product with bad labeling, Vicco!)

The contents are an unappetizing brown (and a bit runny, so don't squeeze too hard). You need only a tiny bit for a routine wash. The stuff lathers very well, smells wonderfully pleasant, and does a great job of clearing away oil and grime from the face. I find that it takes care of heat rashes too (the prickly variety).

At Rs. 30 for a 30 g tube, this stuff is brilliant, and lasts quite long.

Look for the blue Vicco tube with the grinning dude (why?) on the cover.

Making herbal hair oil

For a few years now, I have taken to oiling my hair regularly before showering - a ritual that I used to detest as a child, but that I quite enjoy these days.

I have no western medical explanation for this, but oiling the scalp regularly is considered "cooling" for the body. I do find that regular oil baths calm the nerves, prevent headaches and in general help me handle the heat much better.

Given my frequent use, I've found it advantageous (and fun) to make my own herbal hair oil.

Ingredients:

Oil (sesame / coconut)
Karisilankanni leaves (Bhringaraja, Eclipta alba / Eclipta prostata, False daisy)
1 clean old cotton towel (the thin "thorthu" ones, or an old square of Veshti)
water
a wok (kadai)
stove

Total time: 60 - 90 minutes

Eclipta Alba:

Bhringaraj or karisilankanni in Tamil is a robust ornamental shrub that is also known as false daisy. While two unrelated species of herbs are both known as Karisilankanni, the Manjal Karisilankanni (Wedelia chinensis / Wedelia calendulacea, yellow flowers) is unrelated to Eclipta, which has smaller but similar leaves and small white flowers.


Eclipta is commonly found in south India, and you should be able to get it fresh in a good produce market. We get it in Madras at the Koyambedu market, in the greens section. A fairly thick bunch retails for Rs. 10.

Oil:

My preference is for sesame (gingelly/til) oil. If you retain the practice of setting your hair with oil, you ought to go with the milder scented and less greasy coconut oil

Like most people, my oil-set hair days are behind me. Since I only use the stuff for soaking before a wash, I prefer the better recommended sesame oil that I find fragrant and calming. Also, sesame oil has a higher smoke point and will not burn easily, and it has a very long shelf life. Coconut oil on the other hand will turn rancid soon if you boil it, so make smaller batches if you choose this oil.

Whatever the oil, try to get fresh-pressed stuff from an oil merchant, and not the expensive, double-refined nonsense that sells in supermarkets.

So, here's the recipe.

Wash the Eclipta leaves for residual soil, and separate the leaves and the green stems from the thicker, darker stalk leading to the root. Place the leaves and stems with just enough water in a processor to grind into a thick batter. Notice that the batter is bluish black.

Place the batter in the towel / cloth square, and wring out all the juice. measure the juice into the wok, and add equal quantity of oil.

Place the wok on the stove, let simmer while stirring occasionally. The water will loudly splutter and eventually boil away completely. You will know this when there mixture quietens down, there is no more water vapour emerging from the wok, and the oil boils up in fine, transparent, foamy bubbles. After this point, don't let the oil boil for any longer, or the sediments will char.

The oil should be a lovely blackish green. Remove from fire and allow to cool, and then store in a glass jar. You don't have to filter out the fine, powdery sediment, it has a nice scrubbing effect on the scalp.

Use liberally on scalp and hair, soak for at least 30 minutes, and wash away with sheekha or shampoo.

I've been using this for over a month, and my hair fall has stopped almost completely. I also don't have flaking and other dry scalp issues, and I notice that my hair is growing faster.

You can use the same technique to prepare Henna (Marudhani, Lawsonia Inermis) oil too. The oil comes out a beautiful saffron orange, and is nice for henna dyed hair.

Note: if you strongly prefer coconut oil, you can try an alternative method. Grind the leaves into a thicker paste with very little water and pat into small flat cakes, leave in the sun till dry and hard. Then, drop the cakes into a glass jar filled with coconut oil, close and leave in the sun for a couple of weeks, several hours each day. The oil will change colour and extract the effective ingredients from the cakes, but wont turn rancid as quickly as when boiled.

These oils are fun to make, extremely good value for money, and are nice way to incorporate natural products into your body maintenance regimen.