Harnessing the qualities of late summer in one simple bowl.
Jump to RecipeLate summer is here. It’s in the air, the smells, the way night falls. It’s in the way our calendar has filled unexpectedly with all the amazing things we’ve been wanting to do this summer, but haven’t had time to achieve yet. In some ways, this is the peak of the season, and yet it’s winding down at the same time. There are full weeks, big adventures, and still so much heat to come. Which means that meals have to be CHILL CHILL CHILL. In their preparation, and their properties.
This recipe has been on repeat in our house this summer and it’s on the menu more and more as the season winds down (and ramps up!) and so it’s high time I share (and document!) it here! We’ve loved it because I can make everything ahead, its perfect for a hot night when it’s just too much to cook, much less eat. And, all of the components (specifically this very baller sesame sauce) are excellent in other dishes. But there’s another reason these noodles are saving summer meals around here: they’re just the right QUALITIES.
Here’s what I mean.
My mother got some great news this week.
A few months ago, she was experiencing some indigestion, a frog in her throat, and a bit of acid reflux when she ate. Her doctor took a peek and found that her entire esophagus was inflamed and, he was worried that beneath the inflammation was…cancer. He told her to take some pretty gnarly medications which would serve the purpose of helping to reduce the flare and help him to better see what sort of situation he might be dealing with in a subsequent procedure, 10 weeks later. Western medicine is exceptional at healing rather dire conditions quickly, and so she took home the medications and started the regimen, and the countdown to when the doc would tell her what she might be working with.
She ran through four? Five? Several medications to find one that didn’t have massive side effects, or at least only had side effects she could live with. Just a couple of weeks ago, she found a medication that seemed to work. In the meantime, we’d began working the Ayurveda.
Because inflammation, and specifically issues of the digestive tract in the stomach and abdomen, are related to pitta dosha. So, we set to work reducing the foods and practices that elevated pitta; reducing salty foods, paying attention to how much chocolate she was eating, and minding the her food combinations she was able to build an regimen that was easy to follow, and after the first few days didn’t *actually* make her feel like she was missing anything. And, she went about her life.
This morning, I took her to her procedure — smooth as can be. Her doctor saw no signs of inflammation in her digestive tract. She didn’t have 10 weeks for the harsh medications to do their work, but ancient Ayurveda had an opportunity to do work it’s magic.
The moral of this story is: THE QUALITIES OF THE FOODS WE EAT MATTERS. It’s not just about the macronutrients, it’s about the qualities we’re bringing in too. How do our meals promote the qualities in our bodies we want to see? If we want to stay cool, balanced and “not under fire” in the summer, we must help keep inflammation and pitta dosha at bay in the body. And these Essential Summer Sesame Noodles are just what the doctor ordered.
It’s important to note that inflammation is a very important natural response from the body, and we don’t actually want to stop it from happening…because it’s one of the body’s natural defense mechanisms. But what we don’t want to do is ignore it, nor do we want to treat it with the generalized approach newly broadcast by modern nutritionism. There is not a list of “inflammatory foods” that applies to everyone. Foods don’t inflame our system because of their innate nature; they inflame the system because they’re out of line with our own personal constitutions, or our digestive systems aren’t robust enough to process them completely. It’s not the foods fault, it’s ours somehow.
But it is true – from an Ayurvedic perspective – that inflammation is generally associated with pitta dosha. Pitta is the dosha of summertime, it’s hot, unctuous, spreading, intense and sharp. This is the dosha that we want to wind down before the arrival of fall, so that that extra fire doesn’t over cook winter in our bodies. And so, embracing the qualities of food and lifestyle that balance pitta are cool, moist, steady and flexible. By being less regimented but still sticking to supportive routines, and enjoying foods that are seasonally appropriate is the easy recipe for reducing inflammation in the summertime. For myself, the places in my life where I need to “soften up” a bit in the summer are on my bike and in my kitchen; I need rides and meals to be playful, low-lift and high-impact. Which brings us back to these noodles.
There are SO MANY noodle bowls you could enjoy in the summer time, and so many of them would be smart. But this combination of creamy sesame sauce, slurpy soba noodles, crisp cooling veggies, light protein and a tiny spike of chili are everything that my body needs to thrive in the summer.
It’s true that you could use this recipe as more of a blueprint, employing the sesame sauce (obviously!) cooking up some noodles, and swapping in the proteins and veggies that float your boat. But this combination in general is very well suited to cooling pitta in the heat of summer here’s the low down:
It’s true that there’s a million different ways to make this recipe your own. Employ your favorite noodles. Use whatever veggies you have on hand. Mix up your proteins; chicken and wild-caught shrimp are also favorites of ours in these little bowls. The only non-negotiable here in my opinion is the bomb sauce that literally makes the meal everything. I batch it up and keep it in the fridge so that grain bowls, salads and even the little chunks of meat and tofu we serve Leo can get “dunked” in the goodness.
This meal has made appearances as low-lift, high-fi nourishment on our busy weeknights, but it’s also popped out as a fun way to serve our friends, where all of the toppings are laid out over the table so everyone can choose their own dinner adventure, the noodles swimming in a big bowl of ice water so as not even to tempt room temp-ness. The leftovers are surely devoured for lunches in the days to come. Batch this up, make it your own and use it to fuel these last best bits of your summer.
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