Eat Rainbows – Cooling Yin Bounty Bowl

After I eat one of these bowls I feel high! The mixture of the stone fruit in with the spicy red onion, creamy avocado, cooling cucumber and spicy dukkah mixed carrot.. good lord. This isn’t your average salad bowl. The mix of the spices, tastes and textures are heavenly. Nope, no soggy tomato or lettuce here. This is a taste sensation.

Also, you’ll be tucking into a bowl that has all of the colours of the rainbow. It’s one thing knowing that the food you have just prepared is going to do you some good – the other is feeling good as you eat it. I feel that this is exclusive to wholefoods as I never to experience it with fast food. I think you know that too!

This is a cooling bowl, made in appreciation of yin energy. I am entirely new to even taking a step to understand the wisdom of yin and yang, but as I grasp it, yin and yang are relative terms and not absolutes. Interpreted, yin means ‘shady’ and yang means ‘sunny’. Yin corresponds with cool energy, the earth, the female, darkness, the moon, the cold. Yang corresponds with heat, the sun, the male, fire, the sky. In philosophy, yin and yang describe how either forces are interconnected and complementary. This can be applied to literally anything, and in macrobiotics, various foods and cooking are used to create meals that help balance our yin and yang energy. What food would you correspond with yin and yang?
Generally, lightly cooked, raw, watery fruit and vegetables (think cucumber, watermelon e.t.c) help you to feel more yin, and hearty, heavier dishes such as thick soups, chillis, stews, casseroles will help you to feel more yang. 

Symptoms of feeling too yang include feeling stressed, angry, irritable, trivial and hot.
Symptoms of feeling too yin would include feeling cold and shivery, lethargic, depressive and with a ‘poor me’ mentality.

As with everything in life, it is important to create a good balance. I have been identifying with yang lately – having moved cities I feel so up-in-the-air, oversensitive and overreactive, angry and overstimulated. There is so much going on around me and I am not creating the space for myself to relax – therefore I am looking after myself and creating balance with my favourite cooling Bounty Bowl in appreciation of yin energy. I hope you can benefit from it too.

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Ingredients

Bounty Bowl

• 1/2 avocado
• 1 carrot, ribboned
• 1/2 cucumber, chopped
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• Nectarine salsa (see below)
• pinch of salt
• black pepper
• 1 tsp dukkah (see below for instructions)

Nectarine salsa

• 1 nectarine, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 heirloom tomato, diced
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1 tsp fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
• 1 squeeze of lime

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Directions

1. Create the carrot ribbons: using a peeler, peel the skin from the carrots and discard, Continue peeling the carrot to create ribbons. Massage the dukkah into the carrot ribbons.
2. Place the carrot ribbons into your bowl and sprinkle with more dukkah.
3. Chop up the cucumber and place in the bowl next to the carrot ribbons.
4. Make the nectarine salsa: dice and chop the ingredients in a separate bowl. Squeeze in the lime juice, sprinkle with salt and pepper and then add to the bowl next to the cucumber.
5. Chop up the avocado and place in between the salsa and carrot ribbons.
6. Sprinkle with nuts and/or seeds of your choice, tahini and some more lime.

Enjoy, Anna

xx

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How to make Dukkah

• 150g hazelnuts
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 tbsp dried mint
• 1 tbsp peppercorns
• 1 tsp salt

1. In a small pan, toast the cumin, coriander and mint until fragrant. Transfer to a mortar and pestle with the peppercorns and grind and pulverize until they are a fine-ish powder.
2. In a small pan, toast the hazelnuts for 10 minutes until lightly browned and fragrant. Put on a teatowl to cool.
3. Fold the teatowel over the hazelnuts and rub until most of the skins have dropped off.
4. Whizz the hazelnuts in a food processor until slightly chunky (you don’t want to whizz them for too long, as they’ll start to release their oils and we don’t want that!)
5. Transfer the hazelnuts and spices into a small jar and add the salt, to taste. You can keep this up to 2 months or longer in the fridge. Enjoy!

Possible other ingredients to add:

• red pepper flakes
• dried herbs (e.g basil, thyme, fennel, oregano)
• lemon/orange zest
• cinnamon
• turmeric
• cloves
• caraway seeds