The Solstice Diet
The Solstice diet is a simple, nutritious, and cleansing yogic vegetarian diet (much of the diet is vegan). Yogi Bhajan designed this diet to support the Solstice experience. The spicy soup for breakfast and spicy mung beans and rice served at dinner are part of his recommendations.
A non-spicy version of the soup and dinner dish is available to anyone who can’t tolerate spicy food.
Organic Food Upgrade
Meals are included in the registration fee, and much of the food at solstice is organic. However, we’ve had overwhelming requests for more organic food at Solstice. Since using organic food and ingredients significantly increases food costs, please consider a $20 or more donation to support organic food at Solstice (rather than raising the price for Solstice). If eating organic is important to you, please contribute to support organics at Solstice.
Please bring reusable/washable cups, dishes, utensils, and cloth napkins for your own use at meals. Cups, dishes, and utensils may be purchased on-site for a nominal fee.
Menu
Breakfast: A potato, celery, and onion soup is served with bananas and oranges on the side.
Lunch: Quinoa tabouli, hummus, stuffed grape leaves, tortillas [note that because Yogi Bhajan did not design a lunch menu, this meal may vary somewhat.]
Dinner: Mung beans and rice with lettuce, steamed beets and carrots, and hot sauce served on the side. A special meal is served for dinner on the night before camp ends.
Yogi Tea: Yogi Tea with soy milk or cow’s milk (upon request) will be served twice daily: after Sadhana and nightly at the Yogi Tea Café. There are also hot water and alternative Yogi Tea options provided all day long. On White Tantric Yoga® days, Golden Milk will be added to the menu. Golden Milk is a traditional recipe for joint health. It is a delicious combination of milk, turmeric, cardamom, and almond oil.
Special Dietary Needs:
If you have special dietary concerns, we cannot support them in the kitchen. You may bring dry foods, however please do not bring anything that requires refrigeration. We also suggest you keep any food items in a tight lidded container so animals cannot get into it.
Solstice Diet Recipes:
Solstice Potato Soup
Mung Beans and Rice
Solstice Hot Sauce
Yogi Tea
Golden Milk
Tantric Burger ingredients
More about the Solstice Diet:
“Yogiji designed the Solstice diet to support the transformation that occurs there. A physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional shift happens from Solstice, and the diet allows for maximum balance and integration of these changes. The mung beans, rice, and vegetables, and the potato-vegetable soup are easy-to-digest meals (for most) that quickly restore our energy. This diet is also alkaline, which enhances the functioning of our glands and soothes our nervous system.”
~Jot Singh, Solstice Kitchen Manager
The Solstice Diet
By Jot Singh Khalsa, Millis, Massachusetts, USA, who has served as the Solstice Kitchen Manager for over three decades.
Yogi Bhajan was a man of great vision. He told us that everything would be taken care of if we would revolve our lives around attending Summer and Winter Solstice. He designed the Solstice experience to challenge us, for he was preparing participants to serve, be exemplary for, and lead the future. Yogi Bhajan came to teach and be with us year after year, until his health would no longer allow. He did not wish for Solstice to be vacation-like. He wanted us to vacate our routines, to cleanse our bodies, clear our minds, and elevate our Spirit.
When Yogi Bhajan came to the Solstice site, he would always request the food that we were making and serving for the camp dinner that day; our traditional mung beans and rice, hot sauce, beets, carrots, and lettuce. It was extra incentive for us in the kitchen that “we better get it just right” for the Master would be eating the food. Sometimes he would visit the kitchen, just checking to see that everything was clean and orderly. All of that helped to establish the highest standards in the kitchen.
Yogiji designed the Solstice diet to support the transformation that occurs there. A physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional shift happens from Solstice, and the diet allows for maximum balance and integration of these changes. The mung beans, rice, and vegetables and the potato-vegetable soup are easy-to-digest meals (for most) that quickly restore our energy. This diet is also alkaline, which enhances the functioning of our glands and soothes our nervous system.
After sharing with the Master that many were seen at the local Subway sandwich outlet during lunchtime one Winter Solstice about ten years ago, a tasty and digestible lunch was introduced (in previous years there were just two meals per day!). Increased requests for raw food options inspired us to add a salad at dinner in the summer of 2009 that had been introduced at Winter Solstice 2008.
Food of the Yogis: An Ayurvedic Perspective on the Solstice Diet
By Jai Dev Singh
