To usher in the new year, we asked creative people to share the homemade recipes they count on to detox, cleanse — and refresh.
“I’d always considered myself fairly healthy until I started to deconstruct my diet,” says the conceptual artist Anicka Yi. Her work, which takes the form of sculpture, video and fragrance, is known for its (atypical) contents — think human bacteria, digital clocks, ants, Teva sandals, soap and tempura-fried flowers. (Google her and you’ll find endless lists like that, each one with a completely different set of ingredients.)
Yi’s daily meal plan also consists of carefully considered items. She recently gave up sugar, dairy, animal protein and nonfermented soy after experiencing some health issues and then seeing her sister fight, and ultimately succumb to, colon cancer. But, as Yi explains, she didn’t make those changes “out of fear; one thing death teaches you is that it’s kind of arbitrary. It’s more about wellness while I’m here and wanting to take more control over how I’m feeling.” Plus, she says, “We don’t practice our politics when it comes to nutrition” — meaning that just because people worry about the environment doesn’t always mean they eat sustainable or ethically produced foods.
Yi remains realistic, though, aiming for what she calls an “80/20” ratio of overall wellness. The former accounts for her plant-based diet and the latter is a “travel/extremely busy/reckless pleasure adjustment.” “Sometimes, there’s a part of me that says, I need to have some lobster,” she remarks, laughing. Here, she shares how she tries to begin every day: Upon waking, she drinks a glass of warm, filtered water with lemon juice followed by more water and vitamins, and stretches and meditates. She then whips up a chia bowl and green smoothie (along with some raw almond milk, as needed). Here, she shares some of her favorite breakfast recipes.
Anicka’s Chia Bowl
∙ ½ cup chia seeds
∙ 1 ½ cups homemade organic raw almond milk*
∙ 1 handful of sprouted organic raw walnuts (“It’s important to sprout the raw nuts to get the most nutrition from them, but also to release any mold the nuts may contain on their skin,” Yi says.)
∙ ½ handful organic goji berries
∙ 1 tablespoon açai powder
∙ 1 tablespoon organic hemp seeds
∙ 1 tablespoon organic sunflower seeds
∙ 1 tablespoon organic pumpkin seeds
∙ 1 tablespoon organic cacao nibs
∙ 1 tablespoon organic raw coconut flakes
1. Soak the chia seeds in the almond milk overnight.
2. Mix it all together and serve. Makes one bowl.
*Homemade Organic Raw Almond Milk
∙ 4 cups of raw organic almonds
∙ Filtered water
∙ A pinch of salt
∙ Nut milk bag
1. Blanch the almonds and then squeeze each one out of its skin.
2. Let them sprout for two days in filtered water in the fridge.
3. Rinse the almonds in water.
4. Put 2 cups of almonds, 2 cups of filtered water and a pinch of salt in a blender. Pulse until smooth.
5. Pour the mixture into a nut milk bag and strain into a bowl. Repeat this with the remaining almonds and filtered water.
6. Store in glass jars in the fridge. Will keep for 3 days.
Anicka’s Green Smoothie
∙ 6 cups organic spinach
∙ 1 bunch parsley
∙ 1 bunch cilantro
∙ 1 bunch watercress
∙ 1 green apple
∙ 1 Bosc pear
∙ 1 clamshell of romaine hearts
∙ 2 lemons, juiced
∙ 4 cups of filtered water
1. Mix the items in a blender
2. Serve and store the rest in the fridge. Makes 6 servings.
Related: Anicka Yi Is Inventing a New Kind of Conceptual Art
