Oil & Spice and Everything Nice

Blog Author: Emilia Wheaton
​Blog Editor: Kristen Kennedy Smith

Oils can be part of a healthy, tasty diet as well as a key aspect of an Ayurvedic self-care routine. Just when you thought your favorite oil couldn’t get more rich and delicious or more soothing and nurturing, we’re here to tell you they can! Enriching oils, such as olive, sesame, or almond oil, with spices or herbs is one way to enhance the taste and healing capacity of an oil. Best yet, the process is super simple and leaves plenty of room for you to get creative with which spices and herbs you’d like to infuse in your oil of choice. 

The process is called blooming and requires very little equipment or expertise. The idea is that the spices or herbs are heated which allows the chemical compounds that give the spice its’ unique flavor, scent and healing properties to become more readily available and absorbed by the oil. Taking cinnamon for example, follow these simple instructions:

1. Place an empty pan over medium heat
   
2. When the oil shimmers (don’t let it bubble or smoke), add your spices (either whole or ground) to the oil
   
3. Heat the spices in oil until the aroma of the spices is strong and delightful (be careful not to over-do it though, as you can burn the spices and that’s not what we’re going for here)
   
4. If using whole spices, you can pull them out of the oil before cooking, or keep them stored in the oil to continue infusing their goodness
   
5. Use your oil to sautee, add to stews or soups, or to apply your body as a traditional Abhyanga massage. Read more about Abhyanga massage here.
   

Warming spices, like ginger, mustard seed, black pepper or cayenne are perfect for adding to cooking oil to be used as a dressing or cooking oil for your favorite recipes. Using warming spices as a body massage oil can bring comfort and soothing energy to Vata Dosha. Ginger, black pepper, or clove bloomed in oil will give Kaphas the jolt of energy they need. If you are feeling a Pitta imbalance, try blooming oil with cooling spices like cumin, fennel, cinnamon or cardamom.

Blooming spices in oil is a great way to impart the benefits of spices to our body. By deeply infusing herbs and spices to our cooking and massage oils, our body can receive the special properties of each plant. When it comes to cosmetics, it is incredibly important that we are careful of what we apply to our bodies, as the skin has an incredible capacity to absorb good stuff as well as toxic chemicals. Instead of reaching for a lotion with a long list of mysterious ingredients, consider peeking through your cooking cabinets for some oil and spices or herbs that most resonate with your Dosha.