January 18, 2022

Kapha-Balancing Fruit Crumble Recipe

R Amadea Morningstar, MA, RPE, RYT January 18, 2022

As you find yourself nestled in the heart of winter, I hope you are embracing this season for all its gifts.

Winter is a time of rest and regeneration, a time to slow down and turn inwards, stay close to home, and find pleasure in the things that bring warmth and sweetness to our days. It’s an opportunity to come into balance with the elements.

For many, the inward nature of wintertime offers the perfect opportunity to experiment with making and enjoying sweet homemade treats. There’s nothing like a home-baked pie, crisp, crumble, or cookies to bring warmth and comfort to your home during these long months.

However, keep in mind that Ayurveda considers winter to be the season of kapha dosha, a time when the slow, dense, heavy qualities of kapha tend to accumulate (here are two tips to counter this).

If we’re not careful, our intake of sweets and baked goods can aggravate these qualities and leave us feeling sluggish, lethargic, and weighed down in both body and mind. It’s all too easy to go overboard on the sugary sweets and find ourselves arriving in springtime with a kapha imbalance.

So, how to enjoy the sweet delights of the kitchen without aggravating kapha?

I work with many people of a kapha constitution who love sweets but find that most sweets throw them off balance and leave them feeling unwell. This recipe is an exception to the rule—it is balancing for kapha dosha and even helps calm the sweet tooth as well.

This delicious fruit crumble provides sweetness and comfort, but it won’t aggravate kapha dosha.

A Look at the Ingredients

This recipe features simple ingredients and health-promoting spices that work in harmony to create a flavorful and nourishing treat that is easy to make and versatile enough to be enjoyed at any time of day.

The shining star of the crumble is fruit—any kind of fruit you have on hand.

I recommend using fruit that is local, seasonal, and organic for the most flavorful and satisfying results. The beautiful thing using these simple, high-quality ingredients is that it allows the natural sweetness of the fruit to fully shine.

The spices in this recipe are carefully chosen to create delectable flavor, ignite healthy digestion, and balance excess kapha with their warming and stimulating qualities.

Cinnamon brings that sweet and spicy harmony that we all know and love. It has a taste profile that is pungent, sweet, and astringent, and a heating action in the body. These qualities kindle a strong digestive fire (agni), while also helping to break up excess kapha and eliminate toxins (ama) in the digestive tract.
The addition of coriander may be surprising for the bakers out there, but its distinct flavor adds a wonderfully unique taste to this crumble. At the same time, it is well known for its ability to promote strong and healthy digestion.
Ginger is well-known and loved for its sweet and spicy flavor and host of healing benefits. Warming and stimulating, it’s a wonderful ally for digestion and one of the best spices for burning away toxins and removing excess kapha.

Besides the fruit, the only sweetener added is a small amount of apple concentrate or honey. According to Ayurveda's view of honey, this sweetener is wonderfully balancing for kapha dosha. And while it’s not recommended to cook with honey, don’t worry—you’ll just add a small amount at the very end.

Lastly, the granola and shredded coconut topping adds just the right texture and flavor. While fruit and grains are typically considered a poor food combination, the oats in granola are a particularly light grain and are generally quite digestible. Be sure to choose a granola that is unsweetened or sweetened with fruit juice!

We all deserve a good dose sweetness in our lives, but there’s no need to create imbalance in our bodies in exchange for that experience of delight.

Not only is this recipe delicious and deeply satisfying, but it will also leave you feeling nourished, healthy, and well.