2 Week Ayurvedic Cleanse | Meal Plan

 reading time: 6 min

As you may have read in my last blog post I spent the past two weeks on a "self-care staycation", doing basically nothing except go for daily walks, eating mostly kitchari (basmati rice + mung beans), meditating, journalling, staring at the ceiling (literally!), doing daily oil massages, nasal rinsing, oil pulling and tongue scraping, reading inspiring self-help books (Sacred Woman + You The Healer), and not talking.
 
I will probably do a separate blog post later this week where I go into the physical, emotional and mental effects the panchakarma had on me, as well as some lessons that I learned during that time, but for now I want to share with you what I ate during my Ayurvedic cleanse. Since I was/am trying to heal my kapha imbalance, the doshic meals are kapha-reducing meals!
 
→ The general rule is: Eat a doshic diet for about 3 days, then mono-fast on kitchari for 7 days, then go back to introducing your doshic diet for another 3-4 days.


What I Ate : 14 Day Ayurvedic Cleanse (Panchakarma)
- DAY ONE -

 
Breakfast
- Chamomile tea + an apple
 

Lunch
 
 - Kitchari aka kichari aka kichadi (basmati rice and mung beans with fresh vegetables and Ayurvedic spices)
 
what I ate for 1 serving, following the instructions in one of my Ayurvedic books: 
3 tbsp (1/4 cup) white basmati rice, soaked & rinsed
2 tbsp (1/8 cup) mung dal (split mung beans or sprouted whole mung), soaked & rinsed
1 cup of your favorite vegetables (e. g. Swiss chard, beans, spinach, bell pepper, squash, carrots, kale, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, okra, cabbage, Brussel's sprouts ...) – for this first kitchari dish I chose white cabbage, carrots, peas, red bell peppers, and red onion
1 tsp ghee, coconut oil or sunflower oil (i used sunflower)
1 thin slice of fresh ginger root, grated
1/2 - 1 tsp cumin seeds, ground
1/2 - 1 tsp ground turmeric
1 cup water
salt and pepper, to taste
cilantro and/or lime to serve
optional: coriander seeds, fenugreek, chili flakes, or mustard seeds



Dinner
- Chickpea and sweet potato tagine with quinoa, garnished with mint and cilantro (quinoa, chickpeas, tomato, sweet potato, green bell pepper, mint, cilantro, red onion, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, dried apricots – i omitted the flaked almonds and made a dressing of sunflower seed butter, lemon juice and almond milk), similar recipe

- DAY TWO -

Breakfast
- Chocolaty chai porridge with raspberries (buckwheat groats, unsweetened soy rice milk, chai tea – i just steep a bag of sugar-free and caffeine-free chai tea in the soy milk while heating it up and take it out before adding the rest of the ingredients once the milk is close to boiling –, carob powder, cacao powder, maca powder, cinnamon, chia seeds, honey + stewed raspberries)



Lunch

 - Kitchari with sautéed red bell pepper, baby spinach, garlic and chickpeas

 

Dinner

 - Russian cabbage soup (white cabbage, potatoes, carrot, tomato, tofu, onions, garlic, cumin, bay leaves, mustard)

- DAY THREE -


Breakfast
 - Millet oatmeal with apple & ginger compote (sub orange in the linked recipe for apples! i also added 4 soaked prunes and 1 tsp of honey instead of sugar)


Lunch
- Kitchari with oven-roasted broccoli and baba ganoush (basmati rice, mung beans, grilled broccoli, grilled eggplant, sunflower seed butter, roasted garlic, raw garlic, salt, cumin, lemon juice, black caraway)
 
Dinner

 - Spicy glass noodle soup (glass noodles, leek, red and green bell pepper, carrots, brown mushrooms, tofu, edamame, red curry paste)


- DAYS FOUR TO TEN -

Breakfast
- Kitchari with NO vegetables and no oil!
   
 
Lunch
- Kitchari with NO vegetables and a tiny bit of sunflower oil
 
 
Dinner

- Kitchari with NO vegetables and no oil!

 
 - DAY ELEVEN -

Breakfast
- Kitchari with NO vegetables and no oil! (i forgot to take a picture of it but it looked just like the one above)



Lunch

- Warm almond date smoothie (i used warm soy rice milk and also added 2 soaked prunes to it)



Dinner

 - Kitchari with pepper, salt, sunflower oil, black caraway and a few strips of nori


- DAY TWELVE -

Breakfast

- Kitchari with steamed cauliflower, peas, kohlrabi, fresh cilantro and black caraway, similar recipe over here


Lunch

- Red lentil lemongrass soup

Dinner
 
- Kitchari with sautéed broccoli, red and green bell pepper, carrots, kohlrabi, green curry spice and fenugreek
 

- DAY THIRTEEN -


Breakfast
- Polenta porridge with stewed cherries and raspberries (polenta, soy rice milk, cherries, raspberries, cinnamon, hemp seeds, honey)
 

Lunch
- Cauliflower broccoli and white bean soup (cauliflower, broccoli, white beans, leek, onion, garlic, soy milk) with wholegrain rye chapatis 



Dinner

 - Quinoa kitchari with steamed vegetables and spices (quinoa, red lentils, red bell pepper, brown mushrooms, kale, red onion, cumin, sunflower seeds)
 
 

Snack
 
- 2 balls of laddoo (chickpea flour, almond meal, sunflower oil, soy milk, raw cane sugar, cardamom, ginger), similar recipe


- DAY FOURTEEN -


Breakfast
- Ayurvedic oatmeal with dried fruits (rolled oats, soy rice milk, raisins, 1/2 apple, 1/2 pear, 4 soaked prunes, fresh ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, honey, ashwaganda powder, maca powder, reishi powder)

Lunch
- Warm Potato Salad (white potatoes, 1/2 apple, red bell pepper, radish, chickpeas, celery, arugula, dijon mustard, red onion, apple cider vinegar, sunflower seed oil, herbs)


Dinner

 - Pearl barley soup (pearl barley, leek, carrots, white potatoes, kale, celery root, tofu, mustard), similar recipe here or here
 
Snack
 
- 2 balls of laddoo


By the way, according to the Ayurvedic clock, it's best to have breakfast between 7 and 8 am (keep it light but filling enough to get you through till lunch), lunch between 12 and 2 pm (this should be the biggest meal of the day and can also include raw food as well as other meals that are harder to digest), and dinner between 5 and 7 pm (light and easy to digest). Kaphas in particular should avoid snacking, and eating past 7 pm!
Hydration & Supplements

Throughout the day: As for what I drank, I consumed mostly warm boiled filtered tap water, as well as some unsweetened herbal teas and my dosha-specific tea spices in hot water: equal parts of ginger, cinnamon, and a pinch of clove (for kapha). I aimed to drink 2 litres total per day.
 
In the mornings: During phase 1 and phase 3 I drank a glass of colloidal clay water on an empty stomach to flush my system and get some minerals into my body. This isn't part of the official Ayurvedic cleanse.

15 minutes before breakfast I also took 4 tbsp of flaxseed oil during the preparatory phase to loosen toxins from within my deep tissues as well as lubricate and anoint my internal organs. During the main cleanse, I took 2 tbsp of flaxseed oil before each meal, so 6 tbsp daily in total.
 
At night: Every single night I had my "triphala brew" which consists of 1 teaspoon of triphala powder and 1/2 cup of boiling water (to start slow, use 1/2 tsp in 1 cup of boiling water). This is a mild, but nourishing herbal laxative – and a very powerful antioxidant. But also very powerfully disgusting :D
Steep for 10 minutes, then drink. I chugged this concoction 1 hour after dinner to aid with detoxification and digestion. (And it made my skin super clear and smooth!!)
 
During phase 2, so the actual 7 day panchakarma cleanse, I also drank a glass of prune soaking water (4 dried prunes, soaked overnight in a cup of water) each morning to further promote healthy digestion and avoid constipation due to the mushy mono meals. You could also just get some store-bought prune juice if that's available where you live. This isn't part of the official Ayurvedic cleanse.

 As always, I took my vegan vitamin B12, and I also took a few drops of vitamin D in coconut oil, as I usually do during the winter months, to compensate the lack of sunlight!
If you ever give it a try, let me know how your Ayurvedic cleanse goes :)

♥

Maisy

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