Simple Swaps
Kapha can actually get away with eating tomatoes but as Pete’s imbalance is Vata, it may be easier overall if you just avoid them as well.
The taste of tomatoes are sweet and sour, red pepper paste with a little tamarind concentrate can mimic the taste of tomatoes with aggravating Vata or Pitta too much.
Tamarind
You can buy many different types of Tamarind from supermarkets. You can even get the raw form in packets from Indian shops. It’s a bit of a chore though, however if you feel up to the challenge, feel free! You simply break up the tamarind into pieces, boil it in some water until it resembles a sauce and then pass this through a sieve to separate the seeds and pulp from the sauce. It will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
I like to use this concentrate which again is available from Indian shops or it can be easily found on Amazon. A little goes a long way so ensure that you use little and keep tasting your food and add more to get to your desired level of taste.
Red Pepper Paste
This is a super easy recipe and you can make it in batches beforehand for all of your cooking. The tamarind will add the sourness required for that tomato taste and the red peppers will add both the colour and the sweetness.
I often buy the red peppers which have yellow, orange and red in them, sometimes I include green ones as well but I feel they are sweeter with red orange and yellow.
Remove the core and seeds and chop into rough chunks
Place them in a food processor and blend until they are in small rough chunks and slightly frothy. (see right)
Add them to a pan with some ghee or olive oil and cook them until they resemble a jammy consistency and you start to see the oil separate and the peppers are soft. (see right).
This is what they should look like after cooking. Jammy and the oil are beginning to separate. When ready, place the sauce in a jar and it is ready to be stored in the fridge for the rest of your recipes. I usually use about a tablespoon at a time.