First published 27 May 2008 · revised and expanded 30 October 2026.

Five parts coconut milk, one part sugar, one part mung bean flour, and cardamom. That’s it.

This recipe is as simple to make as it is satisfying. It is a big hit and something of a conversation-starter!

Ratio
5 : 1 : 1
Heat
medium-low, just to a bubble
Serve
cooled
Doṣas
vāta ↓ · pitta ↓ · kapha ↑

What you need

Start with this much coconut milk

  • 1 liter (about 4¼ cups)coconut milk 5 parts; not coconut water
  • 200 ml (a scant 1 cup)sugar 1 part; preferably Sucanat
  • 200 ml (a scant 1 cup)mung bean flour 1 part
  • 1 tspground cardamom “a good deal, but not too much”
  • to tastehigh-quality vanilla “same thing goes”

The calculator reads “parts” by volume. The cardamom follows the rule of 1 teaspoon per liter of coconut milk; the vanilla is to taste.

Method

  1. 1 Warm the coconut milk

    Take 5 parts of coconut milk (not coconut water). Heat on a stove at medium-low until it starts bubbling a bit.

  2. 2 Dissolve the sugar

    Mix with 1 part sugar, preferably Sucanat. Stir until it has dissolved. Take off the stove.

  3. 3 Stir in the mung bean flour

    Stir in 1 part mung bean flour. You’ll need to stir slowly and completely to get the fine flour to mix in.

  4. 4 Add cardamom and vanilla

    Add a good deal of ground cardamom, but not too much. (For 1 liter of coconut milk to start with, I add 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom.) Same thing goes with some high-quality vanilla.

  5. 5 Cool

    Allow to cool before serving. That’s it.

Vāta and pitta decreasing, kapha increasing.

Why it works

That one-line verdict from 2008 can be checked against the classical texts, quoted here from my translation of Vāgbhaṭa’s Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam.1

Mung · mudga

Leguminous grains like mudga (green gram), āḍhakī (pigeon pea), masūra (lentil), etc., cause obstruction. They are astringent, sweet, constipating, pungent in post-digestive taste (kaṭupāka), cold in potency (hima), and light. … Among these, mudga is superior and causes little cala (movement/vāta) …

Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam, Sū. 6.17–18

Mung is the best of the legumes by Vāgbhaṭa’s reckoning, the one that “causes little” vāta.

Coconut · nārikela

Vāgbhaṭa praises coconut water as “unctuous (snigdha), sweet (svādu), aphrodisiac (vṛṣya), cold (hima), and light” (Sū. 5.19), but this recipe wants the milk pressed from the flesh. The fruit itself sits with the dates, jackfruit and banana in his group of rich fruits, which

… are nourishing, heavy, cold, remove burning sensation, emaciation, and consumption, purify rakta-pitta (bleeding disorders), have a sweet post-digestive taste, are unctuous, constipating, and increase kapha and semen.

Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam, Sū. 6.121–122

There is the “kapha increasing.” The same verse accounts for much of the pitta-calming too: these fruits “remove burning sensation” and “purify rakta-pitta.”

Sugar

Matsyaṇḍikā, khaṇḍa, and sitā are aphrodisiacs, beneficial for those emaciated and injured, and alleviate raktapitta and anila. … All sugars alleviate burning sensation (dāha), thirst (tṛṭ), vomiting (cchardi), fainting (mūrcchā), and asṛkpitta (a bleeding disorder).

Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam, Sū. 5.49–50

“Anila” is vāta and “raktapitta” a pitta disorder: the other half of the verdict. A nice detail: when Vāgbhaṭa lists the sweet foods that do not add kapha, he names “green gram … honey, sugar” among them (Sū. 10.33). Two of this pudding’s three main ingredients are on that list, so the kapha comes mostly from the coconut. Whole-cane Sucanat is a step closer to jaggery, whose unwashed form “greatly increases … kapha” (Sū. 5.48).

Cardamom and vanilla

Cardamom (elā) is one of Vāgbhaṭa’s “three aromatics,” which as a group are “appetizing, and digestive stimulant,” though they also “aggravate pitta” (Sū. 6.160). On its own, elā appears in a group that “alleviates poison, internal burning sensation, and pitta” (Sū. 15.14), and P. V. Sharma’s modern materia medica gives it a cooling potency and calls it balancing to all three doṣas.2 Vanilla is an orchid of the Americas, unknown to the classical texts.

For kapha. If kapha is your concern, keep the portion small and lean on the cardamom.

Curious about another ingredient? Ask Vāgbhaṭa answers from the same translation, with the verses quoted.

Sources

  1. Vāgbhaṭa, Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam, in Vāgbhaṭa’s Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam: A Full English Translation, tr. Renay Oshop (2026). Loci quoted: Sūtrasthāna 5.19, 5.48–50; 6.17–18, 6.119–122, 6.160; 10.33; 15.14. Paperback pp. 12, 14, 17, 23, 26, 43, 59 (root text). In short quotations the translation’s parenthetical glosses are sometimes omitted.
  2. P. V. Sharma, Dravyaguṇa-Vijñāna, vol. II (Varanasi: Chaukhambha Bharati Academy, 2005 reprint), elā, pp. 719–721.

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