This has to be one of the hottest summers we’ve had in years. Summer, according to Ayurveda, is Pitta season: hot, bright, humid, and intense. It’s also perfectly normal if your appetite feels a little off right now. Your body is working hard to keep itself cool, leaving less energy available for digestion than it has during the colder months.
The answer isn’t necessarily eating more raw salads, which can be taxing on the body when overdone. This month’s menu is a meal plan of sorts, built around ingredients that are naturally cooling and laghu (light), making them easier to digest while still feeling satisfying.
Breakfast is an ancient amaranth porridge topped with a decadent berry-chia jam. Lunch is a vibrant green pulao with basil seeds and a cooling sumac raita. Dinner is a nourishing moong and barley soup that may surprise you with just how refreshing a bowl of soup can feel in the middle of summer.
As always, protein and fiber are both here in abundance, but packaged in ways that are gentle on digestion and aligned with the season. I’m especially proud of this month’s menu because it weaves together so many of the Ayurvedic principles I’ve been studying over the past year, while still delivering the practical, high-protein and flavor-forward recipes you expect from Weeknight Simple.
I hope you enjoy cooking from it as much as I enjoyed creating it.
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And now, here’s what’s on the menu this month.
Amaranth Porridge w/Berry Chia Jam
Amaranth is one of those ancient ingredients that deserves a lot more attention. Revered in both the Americas and India (where it’s known as rajgira), this tiny seed is naturally gluten-free, a complete protein, and considered laghu (light) in Ayurveda. It’s even traditionally eaten during fasting periods because it’s nourishing without feeling heavy.
Here, it becomes a comforting porridge gently spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger, simmered in your milk of choice (I love A2 whole milk here). Stir in hemp seeds or an egg (yes!) for an extra protein boost, then finish with a quick berry-chia jam - which is the easiest way I know to preserve a little bit of summer in a jar.
Summer Greens Pulao w/ Sumac Raita
I don’t reach for rice often while developing recipes, although that’s changing as I’ve learned more about its properties and when it truly shines. Rice is naturally cooling and moistening, making it exactly what the body craves during the hottest months of the year.
This pulao is packed with everything green I associate with summer: spinach, cilantro, mint, scallions. But my favorite ingredient is one you might not expect: soaked basil (sabja) seeds. Traditionally used in cooling drinks and Indian desserts like falooda, they practically disappear into the rice while contributing a remarkable amount of soluble fiber. If, like me, you’re always thinking about blood sugar balance, this is an incredible hack to soften the glucose response of rice-heavy meals without changing the eating experience.
Served with a bright, cooling sumac raita, it’s the kind of meal I crave when I’m completely over salads but still want something fresh and light.
Herby Moong & Barley Soup
Soup in the summer? Stay with me.
Barley is one of Ayurveda’s most celebrated cooling grains, and when paired with yellow moong dal, the result is a soup that’s surprisingly light yet deeply satisfying. Together they provide plenty of fiber, a pleasantly chewy texture, and excellent staying power. Ayurveda also describes barley as having a lekhana, or “scraping,” quality, making it a traditional choice for supporting healthy cholesterol levels and weight management.
Finished with handfuls of fresh herbs and a squeeze of lemon, this one-pot soup feels like a nourishing summer khichdi.
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