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Food and Yoga: a Balancing Act
including recipes for Buckwheat Salad and Brown Rice Croquettes

by Adam Keen of www.imKeenon.co.uk

What we are trying to achieve with Yoga we are also striving to attain through food. A feeling of strength and groundedness, yet energy and lightness. An ability to know where we are with ourselves, yet a flexible approach to life which inevitably does not conform to even the best layed plans. We seek foods to give us energy, yet our choices often leave us feeling over-stimulated; good examples of these are coffee and sugar. So we then seek to find a balance with comforting foods which make us feel stable, held and secure; such foods as dairy and deep fried and oily-foods. In this way we are constantly swinging from one extreme to the other. We do not have energy, but are frenetic, lacking focus and concentration. Then we are dull and heavy, lacking enthusiasm, energy and inspiration. The same is said of our approach to exercising the body. On one side, most of us work at desk jobs involving sitting in chairs for extended periods, then often onto the sofa in the evening. This is then punctuated with an a lunchtime or early evening workout, where we fight our way through an hour what looks to the outsider as “manic physical jerking” to deafening music in packed gyms.

With a suitable Yoga regime and an eye on ones’ eating habits this vicious-cycle can be reversed. Yoga emphasises the fine line the individual must tread between the extremes in the principles of “Sthira”, strength of posture, and “Sukha”, comfortableness of posture. It talks of finding a middle-path amongst our constant striving, and then our lack of discipline, in “Durga”, diligence, combined with “Abyasa”, letting go and trusting in the world to provide. The Macrobiotic approach to how we eat can be viewed along parallel lines. Here, one is trying to find the balance between the opposing qualities of “Yin”, and “Yang”. We need both, but either extreme produces the negative qualities of these states.

“Yin” is our strength and rootedness, but in excess leads to heaviness and rigidity. “Yang” is our vibrant energy and creativeness, but on its own leads to the “up in the air and all over the place” quality we often perceive in ourselves.

On a practical level then, we can aim to develop a dynamic but controlled approach to working with the body, something which a good Yoga practise will nurture well. Though to gain the full affects of this work, it must be combined with developing eating patterns that focus on what in Macrobiotics are considered “Neutral Foods”; primarily the “Grains” such as Rice, Wheat, Barley, Millet, Buckwheat, and Quinoa, which straddle the middle ground, neither being too “Yin”, or too “Yang”. With these two attitudes working side by side, I truly believe revelational life changes will be experienced. Yet, I will leave you with a few more ideas to bare in mind. Firstly, even the best of systems is only a system, and never a substitute for listening to your own body. When starting, this intuition for how the body feels, and what it might need in order to balance itself, does not come easily. Hence the use of certain guidelines, but after time these should be abandoned and replaced with a natural wisdom.

Therefore, in the end, the only true quality to be strengthened is our ability to be mindful, and really listen to how we feel inside. It is also from here that joy and gratitude spring-up for me. When I cook, I try to immerse myself in the act fully. I ask myself what I actually feel I should eat, then as I cook, imagine how many people were involved in producing the ingredients in my hands. I observe the touch and colour of the foods and then try to find a quiet place to appreciate my meal and take note of its affects. A similar thing is experienced with Yoga, as I aim to cultivate a practise that leaves me feeling strong and energised, yet calm and settled. In constantly checking on how the various postures involved in my routine leave me feeling, as someone who like so many of us has worked with and through injuries, I start to realise what a blessing it to be able to move my body with a sensation of ease, free from pain…

... Recipes ...

Buckwheat Salad (serves 4)

Ingredients:

• Half an onion, 1 carrot, 1 stick of celery, all chopped finely.
• 300grams of Buckwheat (note: if not using fresh stock, use Marigold Bouillon or Soy Sauce liberally to give flavour to the Buckwheat)
• 50 grams of chopped walnuts, juice of a lemon, handful of chopped fresh herbs, teaspoon of honey, slug of olive oil, and salt and pepper.

1. Saute onion, celery and carrot in a pan until transluscent. Turn down the heat and add the chopped garlic and cook until the garlic starts to become golden.
2. Add the Buckwheat and stir until it is coated with oil, then pour in the stock or water.
3. Half cover the pan and simmer for a further twenty minutes until all the water is absorbed, then switch-off the heat.
4. Toast the walnuts in a heavy-bottom pan over a low heat for ten minutes, contantly stirring. Then coarsely chop or crush.
5. Combine Olive Oil, honey lemon Juice, parsley and Dill together, stir in the walnuts and season well, then mix into the cooked Buckwheat.

Brown Rice Croquettes (Serves 4)

Ingredients

• Half an Onion, two sticks of celery, half a tin of chopped tomatoes,
  dried oregano and thyme
• 1 cup of Short-grain Brown Rice.
• 50 grams Cashew Nuts, handful of Chopped fresh Basil, 50 grams of breadcrumbs, liberal amount of Olive-Oil, salt and pepper.

1. Cook the brown rice in double it’s quantity of water, covered, for forty minutes.
2. Saute Onion, and celery until transluscent, then add the Tomato, and dried herbs, lower the heat, and cook for a further ten minutes.
3. Toast the Cashew Nuts until golden, then chop finely, or process in a food-processor.
4. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl with the breadcrumbs and fresh basil, season, and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
5. Shape the mixture into golf-ball size rounds, toss in the Polenta Flour, and fry in a generous amount of Olive-Oil until golden.