Tulsi

In the tradition

Tulsi has a place in the home before it has one in the kitchen. A tulsi chaura — the raised pot in the courtyard or on the balcony — is watered and lit with a lamp in many homes every evening, and in Kartik the plant is married to Vishnu in Tulsi Vivah. Two kinds are grown side by side: green Rama tulsi and purple-leafed Shyama (or Krishna) tulsi.

The classical texts call it Surasā, "of good juice", and place it among the fresh greens and aromatic herbs.

How Ayurveda reads it

Tulsi is pungent and bitter, light and dry, and heating. Those qualities are why it is described as settling Kapha — heavy, damp, slow — and Vata, while able to raise Pitta when taken in quantity or in the heat.

The texts describe it as dīpana, kindling the digestive fire (agni), and as a herb for the season when Kapha gathers, late winter into spring.

In the Indian kitchen

A few leaves go into the morning chai through the winter, crushed in with ginger. Leaves are chewed fresh from the plant after the evening prayer, and added to kadha simmered on the stove. It is rarely cooked into food; tulsi is a drink herb.

How we use it

We use dried tulsi leaf, cut, in our kahwas and teas. It brews best simmered or steeped hot for five minutes or more; the peppery note comes through first, the sweetness after.