Sour taste makes you want more. And certainly it makes you want more food because sourness makes you immediately salivate. The sour taste balances flavors and brings out a multitude of different flavors in your dish.
Sour makes you want more Ayurveda knowledge
In Ayurveda you have 6 different flavors and one of them is sour (amla). Taste plays an important role in the Ayurvedic lifestyle as you can influence the doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) with each of the 6 flavors. You can either weaken or strengthen the doshas and that has an influence on your wellbeing.
Sour tasting foods are fermented foods such as sauerkraut, tomatoes, yogurt, vinegar and of course citrus fruits.
Citrus fruits and Ayurveda
From the Ayurvedic point of view citrus fruit belong to the cooling foods. That’s the reason why they belong into the summer season and not in the chilly winter month. In case you are planning to use citrus fruits to boost your immune system, when you feel an up coming cold or flue, please overthink it. If you wanna protect yourself with Vitamin C against the next flue or cold choose natural Vitamin C that you’ll find elsewhere than in lemons.
Vitamin C when having a flue
Citrus fruits contain quite a lot Vitamin C but because of their sourness they can lead to mucous membrane irritation. If you still wanna use natural Vitamin C to boost your immune system you can choose the Ayurvedic Amla Berry (Indian Gooseberry) or the Acerola Cherry, that is growing in South and Middle America or the Camu-Camu berry from the Amazonas. Instead of grabbing exotic Vitamin C bombs why not choosing local options such as rose hip, sea buckthorn or black currant.
Sour makes you want…
To taste sour can leave you with a grimace on your face. Sourness activates our appetite and our digestion. Sour taste induces sweating which helps our body to detoxify. Can you remember when you were biting into a lemon and what the sour taste did to you? That it made you feel more awake and energized and you could think clearer? Sour taste awakens your life spirits and also your senses.
From the Ayurvedic point of view sour taste increases Pitta and Kapha. For Vata types it’s good to consume sour foods as the sourness grounds, warms and calms Vata. Be sure avoiding too much acid as it can cause skin rashes, inflammation and muscle weakness.
Cooking tips using lemon juice
Acid makes foods mouthwatering, it lifts flavors, it sets off chemical reactions that are changing the texture and the color of foods and acid balances flavors. Just a little bit of lemon juice helps to open up a new taste variety in a dish. Legumes, grains, root vegetables need a bit of acid. Beans and lentils are getting more contrast from acid. Sweet, salty, starchy and fat foods can get balanced by it.
Tip Nr. 1
In the vegetarian, vegan and Ayurvedic cuisine very often legumes or beans get cooked. It’s a good tip to add a pinch of baking soda to the water so that the ph-value turns from acid to alkaline and that’s leads to the result that legumes are getting softer.
Tip Nr. 2
When you cook bean for your salad, cook them a bit longer as usual. When the beans get into contact with vinegar their skin becomes harder again.
Tip Nr.3
When you use canned tomatoes a dash of lemon juice and the metallic taste will be gone.
Further tips you’ll find in a book I really like a lot.
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