Comment by up_and_up | Hacker News Reader

Comment by up_and_up | Hacker News Reader

Interesting read!

My wife practices ayurveda so we eat a lot of Indian food.

In terms of the flavor profiles they mention in the article, ayurveda has a concept of the 6 tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, astringent and bitter. A well-balanced meal should include all the tastes.

I am not sure how much ayurveda has influenced "Indian" style cooking, but I assume quite a bit. Maybe someone else can weigh in on it.

And yes it does require quite a number of ingredients.

Example, the breakfast I just made included:

Poha (flattened rice), mushrooms, coconut flakes, onions, green beans, almonds, potatoes, apples, cilantro, mustard seeds, hing, turmeric powder, cumin powder, salt, lime, chilis, coconut oil

Took about 20 mins to prepare.

>I am not sure how much ayurveda has influenced "Indian" style cooking, but I assume quite a bit. Maybe someone else can weigh in on it.

As amalag says (sibling comment), quite a bit, though less nowadays (because of traditional knowledge fading somewhat, time needed to make such food properly, work pressure, fast food, and increasing popularity of Western and other cuisines). There are a few books that talk about this, i.e. how traditional Indian food recipes incorporate Ayurvedic principles, for health (and taste :). One such book that talks about this a little, IIRC, is "Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution" by Dr. Robert Svoboda, who studied Ayurveda in India.

http://www.drsvoboda.com/prakriti-bk.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Svoboda

Indian style cooking used to mean ayurvedic cooking. Nowadays it is a bit more modern and not so healthy. For instance the poha recipe you shared is quite traditional (except for the mushrooms and apples). The 6 tastes are definitely more prominent in Indian cooking. Most Indian people will enjoy a nice bitter preparation. That is not something which is common in western cooking.

North Indian cooking is younger because of the Moghul/Persian influence.

Ayurvedic? Isn't that the one with the heavy metals? Maybe spice up the dish with some methylmercury seasoning salt.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com