The transition from Fall towards Winter is marked by seeds falling from plant into soil to be held tightly by the Earth through the cold months. There is a ton of potential and there’s certainly a lot of excitement for future seasons of lush growth. Still, nature knows this future growth requires time, rest and nourishment from the roots.
What if we were to think of the needs of our body, emotions and mind in just this same way?
Right now we’re moving from Autumn, marked by the emotion of grief and letting go and ruled by the element of metal towards the season of Winter, which is ruled by water and can be dry and cold and filled with emotions such as fear.
Transitions give us lots of experience and bring about changes in emotion, energy and mind-state. This is the nature of life and our changing, shifting Earth.
It’s not a bad idea to take some time, create some warmth and let our wisdom and inspiration take hold… and nourish our bodies from root to seed to sprout to leaf to fruit.
This easy-to-assemble delicious-to-digest and completely customizable bowl is a pretty perfect recipe to add into your flow as you connect with the seeds (projects, ideas, relationships, practices) you’ve been nourishing in your life and begin the process of transitioning your plate from Fall into Winter.
What makes it perfect? It’s seasonal, grounding, contains all 6-tastes from Ayurveda + Umami (the savory taste), and contain plants in all of their life cycles:
- Quinoa and Sunflower seeds are full of potent energy and nutrition, protein and nourishing fat
- Alfalfa sprouts are mega-healthy and contain concentrated enzymes that make carbohydrates and proteins more digestible
- Spinach leaves are the developed manifestation of life with many vitamins, fiber, calcium and even protein
- Sweet Potatoes are a complete food give you iron and natural sweetness
- Avocado contains healthy, nourishing fat and can actually help you absorb the nutrients from the other delicious foods its paired with
- Mushrooms are the only vegetable source of vitamin D which helps keep your mood elevated
- plus Lemon which aids digestion and adds the perfect sour taste to make each one of your tastebuds feel seen and nourished.
When we hit all of these tastes and acknowledge the multitude of life-cycles present in one meal, we tend to experience a transference of this energy into our bodies and find ourselves satisfied and full and able to appropriately digest the meal. BIG PLUS.
So try it out: assemble your tastes and notice what impact you experience within yourself. This recipe is made for you, which means you have full freedom to change it as you like, to your tastes and the contents of your refrigerator. And if you make it, share it! I’d love to hear how your season is going.
- 1 sweet potato, cut into large pieces and roasted, separately with coconut oil, salt, pepper and garlic at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes until cooked through. Added bonus: you will have some leftovers if you're only making this meal for one person! Use a medium handful of sweet potato for this recipe 🙂
- ½ cup of quinoa, pre-cooked
- 1 medium hand of spinach, fresh
- 3-4 white or crimini mushrooms, sliced and cooked for 2-3 minutes on a pain with a tiny bit of coconut oil and salt
- 1 small hand of alfalfa sprouts
- 1 small hand of sunflower or pumpkin seeds
- ¼-1/2 avocado
- 1 slice of lemon
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil (to top)
- salt and pepper to taste
- Optional: tamari as a dressing
- Prepare the ingredients that require cooking: sweet potato (like I mentioned, you'll have leftovers which is FANTASTIC for snacking or other meals that call for it!), mushrooms and quinoa
- To assemble the bowl begin first with a hand of spinach as the base
- Next, layer in quinoa
- Add sweet potato, mushrooms, avocado and sunflower seeds
- Top with alfalfa sprouts and a squeeze of lemon
- Top with extra virgin olive oil and optionally, tamari
- Add salt and pepper as you like, upon any of the layers