Meal Prepping for Living Ayurveda

Save yourself the time and stress that can come with cooking a meal after a long days work by starting off prepared. Meal prepping can help us enjoy eating from home more often, with regular rhythms for eating healthy meals everyday. We can relieve ourselves with less money spent on eating out with a little more effort and a plan.

The Importance of Maintaining a Consistent Eating Schedule

Eating at regular times helps to stabilize blood sugars and avoid overeating after not eating for too long. Eating, sleeping, and waking is key to regulate our rhythms with nature and pacify the vata dosha. 60% of the physiological body functions, heartbeat, circulation, menstrual cycles, urination, and bowel movements, are carried out by the vata dosha. Irregularity causes aggravation of the vata dosha, directly creating imbalances in the body and mind. Consider that in the line of Ayurvedic treatment, the vata dosha is always treated first.

When we eat at consistent times of day, our appetite and digestive enzymes will build regularly, aiding in assimilation and absorption of nutrients. Our digestive system, when in a rhythm of consistent mealtimes, will help us feel more energetic, lowering our levels of stress and mood swings.

Batch Prepping Produce

Cooking with ready-to-use ingredients makes cooking a nourishing meal feel easier and more enjoyable. Batch prepping your uncooked produce and ingredients for the week can save you time when cooking. On Sunday, or the off day before your work week, take the time to wash and chop all the hardier root vegetables and bulbs such as leeks, fennel, and shallots that will store well in the fridge once chopped. As for leafy greens, these can be easily washed and chopped the night before use for quick access. Soak your grains or legumes overnight to aid in digestibility before simmering.

Organizing the Pantry 

Storing dry ingredients such as grains, legumes, nuts, and spices in glass jars helps to maintain a clean pantry without the leaching of any chemicals from plastic containers. Using old nut butter jars is a thrifty way to jar your dry goods. Refilling your jars of grains, legumes, spices and nuts from the bulk section of grocery stores helps reduce waste and is often cheaper.

Consuming fresh oils and spices is important, so they should be stored with time in mind. Cooking oils should not be stored for more than a few months and herbs/spices no more than 6 months to preserve prana and prevent oils from going rancid. We recommend only using olive, coconut, or avocado oil for cooking, since seed oils cause inflammation and undergo processing which causes harmful byproducts. The consumption of seed oils results in ama, undigested toxins in the tissues, and is linked to chronic diseases such as heart disease and metabolic dysfunction.

Spice mixes bring the pleasure to eating any dish. Making large amount of spice blends to store for easy access when cooking can help make the cooking process flow smoothly. For everyday spice mixes such as kitchari, chai, and digestive spice mixes, keeping them available on hand can aid in whipping up a nourishing meal or drink. Reserving a coffee grinder for spices can allow you to make mixes quickly from fresh seeds.

Recipe Yields for Prana

Ayurveda emphasizes cooking simply and more often rather than making a big pot of one dish and storing it in the fridge as leftovers for several days. Cooking uncomplicated, seasonal meals that yield 1-3 servings if you are only cooking for yourself will optimize the amount of nutrients you get from your food. Every living being has prana, a vital life energy, including the fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains we eat, even once harvested from the field. Foods that are preserved by artificial measures such as freezing or extended refrigeration destroy the prana. It's a good rule of thumb to eat the food you cook within 24 hours of cooking it.

Everyday Shopping List

While eating and shopping for foods by the season is key to living Ayurveda and attuning your internal climate to the external climate, there are several ingredients that are great to buy year-round.

Veggies - beets, carrots, collards, kale, parsley, chard and follow what's in season

Fruits - lemons and follow what's in season

Grains - brown basmati rice, white basmati rice

Beans - green mung beans, split yellow mung beans

Fats - ghee (or butter to make ghee), chia seeds, coconut oil, flax oil, flaxseeds, hemp seeds, olive oil, sunflower seeds

Spices - coconut aminos, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, fennel, ginger (powder or root), turmeric salt, tamari

We hope this inspires you to start meal prepping with a foundation and add in your favorite seasonal varieties! Preparing and cooking food can and should be an enjoyable process that brings life-giving energy to you. Set aside time to meal prep and allow it to be a meditative practice that infuses your self care, your nourishment, with a peaceful attitude. Preparing our food does not have to feel like a chore, lean into the plan and personalize it to suit your needs and intuition. Now take these tips to action, get creative, have fun and enjoy your nourishment!

References

O'Donnell, Kate. The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook. Shambhala Publications. 2015

Ragozzino, Claire. Living Ayurveda. Roost Books. 2020

Article by Kaylee Vinson

Published 6/18/2025