One of the key tenets outlined in Ayurveda’s Guidelines for Healthy Eating is to eat food prepared by loving hands in a loving way and what better person to share your love with through this practice than your mom for Mother’s Day!? To get you in the kitchen embodying this traditional Ayurvedic ritual, we are sharing our Lemon Chai & Chia Seed Muffin recipe. We hope that it inspires you to prepare this treat with an open heart and lots of love for your mom, a mother figure, a special woman, a loved one or even just yourself.

Since Mother’s Day is celebrated in the spring, also known as kapha season, you will find that this recipe is not overly sweet, moist nor heavy. Instead, these muffins are seasonally appropriate and kapha balancing, meaning that they contain a light, warm and slightly dry texture to counterbalance the heavy, moist and cool qualities associated with kapha dosha and kapha season. In this recipe, we utilize our versatile Golden Milk powder which contains antioxidant-rich turmeric and chai spices of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, Indian sarsaparilla and black pepper to deliver digestive support and vibrant flavor with each bite. The inclusion of lemon provides a burst of citrus and vitamin C while chia seeds contain a nutritive boost thanks to their abundance of magnesium, fiber, phosphorus and protein. You may notice that the recipe below calls for gluten-free all-purpose flour; however, you can certainly use regular all-purpose flour if you desire. Please note that if you are focusing on balancing kapha dosha, gluten-free all-purpose flour that contains garbanzo bean (chickpea) flour, will best support kapha as chickpeas are considered light and drying in nature. 

makes 12-16 muffins

-2  cups gluten-free, all-purpose flour

-½ cup coconut sugar

-1  tablespoon Golden Milk powder

-2  tablespoons chia seeds

-1  teaspoon baking powder 

-¾ tsp baking soda

- 1 pinch of salt

-1  large egg

-½ cup unsweetened, plain plant-based yogurt 

-8  tablespoons of ghee

-1  tablespoon lemon zest

-⅓  cup fresh lemon juice

-½  cup plant-based milk 

-1  tablespoon pure maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, Golden Milk powder, chia seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

3. In a medium-sized bowl, mix the egg, yogurt, ghee, lemon zest, lemon juice, milk and maple syrup. 

4. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients.

5. Spoon mixture into a greased or lined muffin pan(s). Fill halfway or all the way to the top, depending on how tall you would like your muffins to be.

6. Bake at 350° F. for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

We hope you enjoy this tasty and nutritious Ayurvedic way to share your love with mom on Mother’s Day. No matter how you decide to spend this joyous day, our wish is for you to feel nurtured by the motherly embrace of springtime and enjoy quality time with mom, a special woman in your life or simply make space for your self-care needs.