The Chocolate Pudding Blues

Back to school season can give us the blues. While chocolate isn’t the answer to everything, it can be a cooling, soothing antidote to summer’s impending end, and a sweet reminder of pleasures yet to come.

How does chocolate pudding beat the blues?

The Ayurvedic taste of chocolate in its pure form of raw cacao is bitter, giving a cleansing, dilating and cooling action, almost like an air-conditioner to the inner body. It has a secondary taste of pungent, which can be stimulating. Chocolate is often craved when kapha is present - sadness, stagnation, depression, what we often call the blues. The bitter-pungent taste counters that heaviness with an expansive lightness and a stirring spicy lift.

Because bitter is not exactly appetizing on its own, raw chocolate is typically paired with sweet tasting foods. The Ashtanga Hridayam, one of Ayurveda’s key ancient texts, describes the sweet taste as “providing a feeling of contentment and pleasure to the body and comfort to the sense organs.” Combine the comforting power of sweet with the dilating power of bitter it is no surprise that chocolate has been shown to alleviate pain.

Instead of milk and sugar, combine raw cacao with nature’s whole foods like banana, almonds, or avocado for a healthy treat. With spices you boost both the health and the flavor. Cardamom lends a peppery warmth while improving digestion and balancing blood sugar. Turmeric powers up the energy of bitter with its own anti-inflammatory, brain boosting action.

Chocolate Pudding Blues
Serves 2

A late summer treat needs to be no cook, no bake, no fuss, easy to make, and deeply restorative so you are free to enjoy these waning august days. This pudding is that - it comes together in a minute, all in your blender, so it’s a quick, easy step to rich, sweet comfort. With fresh blueberries, it’s a divine pairing to beat the blues.

Ingredients

1 large ripe avocado
2 tablespoons raw cacao powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch each of cardamom, turmeric
a sprinkle of pink salt
1 tablespoon maple syrup, or to taste
1 cup fresh blueberries

Instructions

Blend all the ingredients except the blueberries in an electric blender until it is a smooth consistency. Spoon into bowls. Divide the blueberries into bowls and taste. Sprinkle with cinnamon, a few grains of sea salt flakes, cacao nibs for an extra crunchy bite of bitter, or a drizzle of raw honey. Of course, you can replace blueberries with raspberries, strawberries or the juiciest, freshest fruit available to you now.