Something Perfect Like Huevos w/Sautéed Radishes, Grapefruit-Coconut Crema and Urfa Oil

I didn’t put the pressure on myself to restock the fridge on the night we rolled back into town from three weeks of traveling in the new van. And so, when we woke in the morning, I had to get a bit creative with what we had left in the van fridge for late-morning breakfast. We had a few leftover homemade tortillas, so those became my base.  The last handfuls of dandelion greens picked up in Santa Cruz were perfectly perky, so they were chopped up as a bed for ghee-fried eggs. Before I dropped the eggs, I sautéed the last nub of a watermelon radish in ghee (because this tempers their spice a bit,) and as the eggs were cooking I mixed up a simple grapefruit-coconut crema with the top skimmings of a can of coconut milk in the pantry. The Urfa oil is a special condiment I’ve been playing with (and by that I mean drizzling everywhere.) 

At first, it felt like a mish-mash. I hadn’t set out to make fresher huevos rancheros, I was literally just trying to find something to eat. But as I looked a little bit closer, I realized what had composed on our plates was literally perfect spring meal; one that would lighten, nourish, sustain and thrill us with it’s flavors. It’s taken me a few days to think of this thing as a recipe that can be shared, but now I feel like it’s a perfect recipe to share because it’s not just a recipe for really delicious eggs, but also a blueprint for how to put together flavors to nourish your bodies all spring long.   Perhaps more than another recipe for an amazing cookie, or a delicious dinner, that’s what we all want, right? An answer for how to eat better, do it faster and get back out there to do the stuff we love to do.

A recipe for every spring meal

Thinking of ways to “blueprint” the nourishment my body actually wants and needs, without handcuffing myself (even further) to the kitchen has been a massive focus of mine in these early months of my formal training as an Ayurvedic practitioner. Food is literally medicine, prevention, and joy in Ayurveda. It’s the thing that gives us all the strength to be the strong, vibrant people we were born to be. This applies to all real, whole foods, but also goes more granular; in Ayurveda, the times that we eat specific foods matter. Each season has rather specific recommendations of flavors and food to keep us balanced. (The time of day and time in our lives also matters.) The ways that we combine those foods and flavors also matter in this 7000-year old system.

And so, what we eat in the winter is different than what we eat in the spring. And spring is HERE. So after months of listening to me talk about how we want to keep our bodies warm, fill our bellies with hearty soups and stews to bolster the blanket of warmth and hibernation our bodies need in the winter, it’s time to shed all that. Now, our bodies want lighter, fresher meals and foods that will help us to spring up, start anew, and meet the day.

For active bodies, and all bodies really, enjoying sweet foods is really important – sweet foods ground us, nourish us, and especially as athletes, these foods fuel our activities and busy lifestyles. But we can choose our sweet foods wisely. Enjoying more grains that are lighter in texture helps our bodies to be lighter (a heavy loaf of bread or a dense bowl of porridge are good examples of winter foods that may not play as well with our insides in the warm, bouncy spring.) Proteins are similar – choosing light proteins that are powerful, but not overpowering is important. Legumes, eggs, chicken, and tofu are great examples.

In the vegetable world, now is the time for us to incorporate more pungent, bitter and astringent flavors. While the land isn’t springing with vegetables just yet, there are some tender fresh starts that are ready for us to enjoy; herbs, tender greens, bitter greens, baby radishes, beets and carrots.  This fresh huevos dish with sauteéd radish, grapefruit-coconut crema + Urfa oil is one way to play those cards all at the same time.

And so, this group of recipes is actually a blueprint for balanced spring meals – a light grain (corn tortillas,) a protein (eggs, chicken, lentils, legumes, cheese), and some fresh, bitter spring greens (the dandelions.) Because greens want sauce, and because the dish is infinitely better with a little punch, I added the crema and the Urfa oil. Oh – and a sprinkling of hemp seeds. “A sauce” is the part of the blueprint that’s work remembering and playing on repeat all spring:

light grains

+ simple protein

+ fresh bitter greens

+ bright sauce

____________________

= a balance of PERFECTION

One last note on upping your bitter, astringent + pungent flavors

For those of you who are training, active, and moving a LOT through this season (and that’s many of us,) keeping the sweet and sour flavors of winter is really important. This is not a queue to shift all of your meals to the salads. Never do that.

But spring is the time when our bodies are ready to shed some of the extra lubrication that has been helping to protect, bolster and build our systems all winter long. This isn’t the same as “fat,” but it is a natural substance that we no longer need. Consuming these bitter, astringent, and pungent flavors helps warm up and sweep out this extra “stuff” that we don’t need. If we keep our foods light, spicy, fresh, and simple in this way, we’ll emerge into the season and the summer to follow feeling light on our feet, strong, rested and ready to charge — whether that’s on the bike, on the trail, or into chasing your little ones around the soccer field.