Spring Gratitude Bowl

Two weeks ago I did a spring detox. There is a good reason why the 40 days of the Great Fast fall on the spring, time of new beginnings. Maybe because I was born in spring, this is when my year starts. I don’t care for the New Year resolutions, but every spring I take stock of what I am up to; my thoughts take shape, and new directions become clear. Some people undertake a major house cleaning, some remember that bikini season starts in a short while. Me, I make big decisions in spring.

It has been three and a half years since I have moved to Istanbul and started my food walks and cooking classes. Increasingly, peopls ask what’s next. People who have known me long enough think my “next” is around the corner as I normally don’t stick around for so long. People who have gotten to know me over the past three years think I can do more. You write in English, so why not in Turkish? You publish a blog, so why not to publish a cookbook? You host breakfasts, so why not dinners? Your crackers are so tasty, why not to open a bakery? You run cooking classes in Istanbul, so why not at the countryside family property? I am receiving abundant encouragement and generous offers of help, for which I feel grateful.

One of the most useful takeaways from my consulting career is starting with the end in mind. A good project manager always thinks in terms of the deliverables, tangible things they need to give client by the end of the project: it might be a strategy document approved by the board of directors, a purchase (or sale) of a key asset, people hired to execute the strategy and so on. The consultant team does not hang out at the client office and “boils the ocean”, they work to create the final deliverable by making a few steps in the given direction every day.

I started thinking of my life in the same fashion, with the end in mind: unfortunately, unlike with the consulting project you never know the deadline. Hence less time to boil the ocean. Hence less time to do stuff that is nice to do, get things that are nice to have and socialize with people who are nice to talk to. Yes, book will be nice, and you have my word for it, there will be a book; there will be other formal symbols of my ever expanding expertise and fame. But for the time being, I would like to focus not on pampering my ego, but on doing something that would really matter at the end of the day. I want to get pregnant.

Doctors have been recommending I do that for the past 10 years. I thought it only takes finding the right man, and I was diligently looking. I wish someone told me that it starts with you and your health, rather than the right man. I wish someone told me it’s not so easy to get pregnant so I was not worried about the unplanned pregnancy all these years.

But while looking for the right man I have learned a lesson taught by a Norwegian woman with whom we shared a train journey from Fez to Marrakesh 5 years ago. We bonded over the fact that I lived in Norway and we both practiced yoga. She told me, “You need to create space to meet him. If you work all the time, such space does not exist.” When I finally processed her words, I quit my job and came to Istanbul, the place where I felt I would find the right men. And let me tell you: when you change your location and your job, you create a lot of space for things to happen. With the right man at place, it is time to create space again. That’s why I decided to clear my mind off the other grand plans and to regain my health so there is enough for two.

That’s why I keep experimenting with what I eat. And that’s why I have done a spring detox recently.

The idea of cleansing your body, giving it a break from the routines and possibly introducing new habits is not new. It is everywhere you are looking. Religious folks of any confession are well familiar with it in a form of fast, abstinence from certain foods and other physical cravings.

I have never seen anyone fasting in my both families. We spoke on Sunday before the Lent, and I asked my parents if they were planning to keep the fast. Mom laughed, “We are permanently fasting” referring to how father’s pursuit for “live” food had changed the eating habits of them both.

In fact, I used to do a day long fast once in a while when I lived in Norway. It was a “work hard, party hard” time: I never missed a good party and went trail running every other day. The fasts when I only drank fresh apple juice were important to slow down the flow of the wild student life and to give a much needed break to my body.

This time I joined a guided detox: there was a blueprint to follow developed by an expert and the expert in question available in case of any issues and concerns; I am not in the position to recommend anything and only sharing my experiences.

I started with eliminating sugar and grains (2 months ago) and then dairy (1 month ago), so I was more than ready to kick off the fist part of the detox when I also eliminated nuts. I was letting go my food attachments one by one. Grains and sugar used to be at least 70% of what I was eating. After going no-grain I starting hanging on dairy. Without dairy I found comfort in nuts. Finally, I switched to the greens and mung beans, official protein of the detox. If you have ever tried to let something go, you know how it feels: first, you are disoriented, then you find your new position in the changed frame of reference and finally, you get used to the new reality and start wondering how you could ever live differently.

The spring detox culminated with two days of no food and no cooking, only juicing. In theory you could go for the Plan B of juices plus basic salad of raw beets and carrots or plain soup of mung beans. But if we are serious here, who wants the Plan B?

The first juice day was fine. I went purple, and then green, and then orange, and then purple again: beet, green apple and ginger were my favorite juice mix ever. I treated myself to a hamam that day, just before the crowds: if you want to nervously wait for your turn to get kese and sabun masaji, scrubbing and soap massage, come after noon. Every time I started feeling weak I made myself a juice. Next morning I woke up with the flattest stomach ever: yes, I took a few photos and no, I am not posting here. Maybe later, when I am after fame again.

On the second day after my morning yoga I had the first juice and then .. my head started spinning and I found it pretty hard to concentrate. I got dizzy and nauseac. Now, for years I have been “I can do it” type. Two days of juicing? Yes! Running 8k as my ex national athlete mother-in-law started her training on this distance? Why not? In part it is the discipline instilled by the Soviet upbringing of “faster, higher, stronger”, in part it is my ego that shuts down my inner voice at times. Thankfully, this time my “I can do it” state of mind lasted for only few minutes. I registered that my body was giving clear symptoms of not doing well. And it needed something more substantial than the juice.

So I resorted to a Plan B recipe. I sweated half of a small onion in a bit of coconut oil, added turmeric, salt and water to make a simple broth. Then tossed in a few tablespoons of mung beans and sprinkled with the chopped fresh herbs. 5 minutes later I was sitting on the coach, holding the warm bowl in my hands and spooning the soup little by little. That very moment I was the happiest person eating the most delicious meal on the planet. And for me that feeling was the biggest achievement of the detox: I knew I could listen to my body and feel grateful for the simplest things in the smallest quantities.

Spring Gratitude Bowl

The bowl is a cross of a few things: the breakfast I eat every morning as of lately (mixed greens with black cured olives, walnuts, sprouted mung beans and an egg), the simple idea of the Ulli’s detox soup and the play around the turmeric broth. This bowl is so festive with all the colors and flavors going on, that I can’t think of a better way to start a spring day.

If you don’t have any time to spare for the preparation in the morning, you can make the broth and prep the rest of the ingredients ahead; then you’d only need to reheat the broth and assemble the dish in the morning.

Serves 1

Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min

Ingredients:

For the turmeric broth:
1 tsp extra virgin coconut oil
1/2 small onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp ground turmeric
pinch isot pepper
pinch ground cumin
pinch ground ginger
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 cup water

1/4 cup finely chopped greens (parsley, cilantro, dill, green onions, mint, arugula etc)
2 tbsp sprouted mung beans
2 tbsp walnuts, pan toasted
2 tbsp fermented black olives

1 egg, cooked as per your liking

Directions

Make turmeric broth: Melt the coconut oil in a small pot over the low heat. Sweat the onion and garlic in the coconut oil for about 5 min: keep the heat low, stir now and then and don’t let them brown. Then add the spices, salt and water, dial up the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a minimum again, let the broth gently simmer with the lid on for 10 min. Meanwhile, cook the egg as per your liking (I let mine cook in a boiling water for 5 min)

Assemble gratitude bowl: Pour the broth in a bowl. Stir in the greens and the sprouted mung beans. Top with the egg. Finally, garnish with the pan toasted walnuts and black olives. Enjoy in gratitude.