Centered cuisine: at the Chopra Center for Well-Being, food nourishes the body and soul - includes recipes and related articles on mind-body connections

Vegetarian Times, July, 1997 by Harry Schwartz

As a man who recently lost 100 pounds, going from a size XL to a 30-inch waist and who now works out 10 hours a week, I was anxious to visit the Chopra Center for Well-Being in La Jolla, Calif. I was not only about to talk with Deepak Chopra but to cook with his wonderful vegetarian chef, Ginna Bell Bragg. I learned from my recent weight loss that health and physical fitness are as much a function of the mind as the body. They are impossible to separate. I knew that the Chopra Center for Well-being would be a place where I would be understood.

Walking through the doors of the center, it is impossible not to feel the calm, the peace and the harmony. Colors, surfaces, the architecture and even the aromas are all perfect. One is immediately comfortable and soothed. After meeting Deepak Chopra, it was obvious why. He is a charming man with an aura of wisdom. During our time together, he was frequently interrupted by faxes from all over the world, but he never lost focus, he was there for me.

Chopra is steadfast in his views of the relationship between well-being and what we eat. To achieve this, the center brings the ancient principles of Ayurvedic medicine and eating to a Western lifestyle and diet. Ayurveda is a traditional Indian form of medicine relying on herbs, diet and folk remedies, and Ayurvedic cooking teaches that the same spirit animating all that lives also exists in food. Food is more than protein, fat, minerals and vitamins; it is essential to the physiological processes that unite the life within us to the life outside us. The quality of the food influences not just the physical being but spiritual vitality as well. When a spiritual reverence for food and the miracle of transformation inherent in it is present, the simple act of eating creates a ritual of celebration.

Chopra is indeed inspiring. His books are not only spiritual guides to well-being but inspirational influences to a lifestyle of completeness. As I listened to him, I learned many things that have improved my days and nourished my soul after applying them to my own routine.

Chopra's executive chef is a kindred spirit. We liked each other immediately and felt the same about the importance of love and harmony in the kitchen and the balance of spices and content in what we prepare. Bragg succinctly expresses this in a column she wrote describing "kitchen consciousness" as a "combination of tools for spiritual cookery: creating ritual to make the kitchen a sacred place, being clear and present while performing the task, pouring love from deep in your heart and soul into each vegetable chopped and each recipe prepared."

Bragg's cuisine is creative and delicious. Her book, A Simple Celebration, A Vegetarian Feast for Body, Mind and Spirit (A Harmony Book, 1997), written with David Simon, M.D., the center's medical director, is full of imaginative vegetarian recipes showing how to use various foods to bring mind and body into harmony. The book also gives food recommendations for the Ayurvedic body/mind types known as vata, pitta and kapha.

Bragg and I could have played together all day in the center's kitchen. In fact you can catch us doing just that on my new television show, "Chef Harry and Friends" airing in June. Produced by WUED in Tampa, Fla., the show is being distributed nationwide to public television affiliates. Dr. Chopra joins me as a guest, and we discuss cuisine, life and spirit. Then, Bragg and I prepare our own versions of Ayurvedic "soul" food. The recipes we prepared that day follow in this article. Each recipe contains a balance of foods and flavors designed to complement the vata, pitta or kapha in all of us.

Unless otherwise noted, the recipes are reprinted with permission from the recently released Chef Harry and Friends, Sharing the joy of the Table (Sourcebooks, 1997).

Morning Chai

The bitter, pungent flavors of this tea increase the vata and decrease the kapha characteristics.

4 cups water
2 tea bags black tea such as English
  Breakfast
1\4 tsp. ground cinnamon
Seeds from 1 papaya or 2 Tbs.
  papaya nectar (optional, see
  note)
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 cup milk or soymilk
Honey or sugar to taste

PER SQUARE: 303 CAL.; 7G PROT.; 12G TOTAL FAT (G SAT. FAT); 45G CARB.; 93MG CHOL.; 196MG SOD.; 4G FIBER. OVO-LACTO

Chapati Crisp Salad

Here is one of my favorite recipes from Ginna Bell Bragg's book, A Simple Celebration, A Vegetarian Feast for Body, Mind and Spirit (A Harmony Book, 1997). This simple salad increases pitta and deceases kapha.

6 whole wheat chapati (see glossary, p.
  134)
2 cups cooked chickpeas or 15-oz.
  can chickpeas, rinsed and
  drained (see glossary, p. 134)
1 cup fresh or frozen, thawed corn
  kernels
1 cup fresh or frozen thawed peas
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Juice of 3 limes
1 Tbs. honey or sugar
1 Tbs. tamari or Bragg's Liquid
  Aminos (see glossary, p. 134)
2 cups shredded romaine lettuce