Personally I am not a big fan of the season. The heat, the stickiness, rise in temperature etc., but I look for my balance by swimming a lot, and eating cooling foods. The one thing I like about summer is that it allows me to use all the cooking styles forbidden otherwise, in the name of giving us fat. With the change in the external environment our internal environments (within our body) needs to be adjusted too. The first thing that you would do is changing what you eat and the way you cook your food.
Like summer’s abundant open blossoms, the energy is outward and expansive, and highly sustained. Summer represents the fire element according to Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is a time for upward rising energies; also we need to disperse heat. Lighter cooking styles and using a higher flame, which harmonizes with expansive summer fire energy. It is the best time to use deep frying, barbeque, stir frying styles of cooking, grilling, quick sauté with oil, pressed style, raw and roasting.
Now I can see you cringe your nose, saying, what sort of a dietitian is she, she says ‘deep fry’. But you would be surprised using the right oil (sesame cold pressed) you can actually do very well if you use this cooking style. Also, how many of us barbeque? Not too many Indians, but in the West it is very popular in summers. So why not start including these cooking styles to make your balance with summer.