Oatmeal is a great choice for breakfast. Cooked oats have sweet rasa, cooling virya and sweet vipaka (Vasant Lad: Ayurvedic Cooking For Self-Healing, page 235). It pacifies Vata and Pitta.
Here are a few variations for preparing oats (measurements in cups):
- The classic: Cook oats in water (1:2 oats-water)
- Granola: Toast oats and nuts and serve with warm plant milk
- “Endless summer”: Soak oats in dilluted yogurt overnight (1:1:1 oats-yogurt-water). Avoid fruits in this case.
- “Apple crumbles”: Stew sweet apples and serve with toasted oats
- Sunday morning: Make banana pancakes made of oat flour
Recommended spices to aid digestion (page 208-211):
- Cardamon - “It is a digestant. […] Eating 2 pinches of cardamon with oatmeal or cornmeal porridge will help prevent cavities in the teeth.”
- Cinnamon - “It is effective in diggestion, toxic (ama) condition and improves circulation.”
- Ginger - “[Fresh ginger] kindles digestive fire and improve digestion, absorption and assimilation of foodstuff.”
For sweetening the porridge, Banyan Botanicals published a guide of which dried fruits suit you the most:
Dried fruits, when cooked into oatmeal, are a great way to add sweetness.
Dates, raisins, currants, apples, and ripe bananas are suitable for vata-types.
For pitta-types, favor sweet apples, dates, raisins, and figs.
Kapha-types do best with apples, apricots, cranberries, and raisins.Ayurvedic food combining rules state that uncooked or raw fruit should not be added to other foods. However, when fruits and certain foods are cooked together, the qualities of the foods change and may become more compatible.