The Deep Purple Table: Beetroot, Blackberries & Trusting Your Intuition
- Jul 18
- 4 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
A Note on Eating Indigo
Indigo is the colour of the space between light and dark - the deep violet-blue of twilight, of the sky just before the stars come out. This week we eat purple. Follow the links below for the full recipes:
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Welcome to Cook in Colour
Welcome back to Cook in Colour, where we cook by chakra, eat by season, and follow the Celtic Ogham tree calendar as our guide through the year.
This week we step into the deep stillness of the Third Eye Chakra - Ajna - during the reign of Holly, the fierce green guardian of midsummer.
It's a week for indigo and purple food. Food that is quiet, rich, and deeply nourishing. Food that asks you to slow down, look inward, and trust what you find there.
The Third Eye Chakra - Ajna
Ajna | Element: Light | Colour: Indigo | Seed Mantra: KSHAM
Located between the eyebrows, Ajna is your centre of intuition, inner vision, and knowing. When this chakra is open, you trust your instincts before logic catches up. You see patterns others miss. You know what you know.
When it's blocked, doubt creeps in. You second-guess yourself, overthink simple decisions, and dismiss that quiet voice that always seems to be right.
The antidote? Eat indigo. Cook slowly. And listen.
This Week's Menu
Breakfast is lavender honey overnight oats - creamy, floral, and prepared the night before so you wake to something that feels meditative before the day even begins. Lunch brings beetroot chips with goat cheese and figs - deep purple, crisp, and jammy, a plate that looks like the Third Eye on a plate.
Dinner is the centrepiece: portobello mushrooms roasted in a blackberry balsamic glaze, dark and glossy and deeply satisfying. And for a treat, a rustic plum and blackberry galette - golden-crusted, oozing purple juices, and celebrating the exact moment of late summer we are in right now.
Full recipes are linked above - grab the shopping list and recipe card PDFs to plan your week.
What the Land is Offering Right Now
We are in the heart of Holly time - Tinne in the old Irish - and the hedgerows are beginning to offer up their late summer bounty.
Blackberries are just starting to ripen along the hedgerows. The first ones are always the sweetest - pick them now before the birds get them. They are the star of both this week's dinner glaze and the galette.
Fresh figs are ripening on trees in sheltered gardens and along south-facing walls. If you have a fig tree or know someone who does, now is the moment.
Wild plums and damsons are beginning to appear in orchards and along old walls. If you have a local source, grab them - they will not last long.
Beetroot is in season and at its sweetest. Look for firm, deep-coloured roots at farmers markets or pull your own if you grow them.
Lavender is at its peak in gardens everywhere. If you do not grow it, ask a neighbour - most people are happy to share a few sprigs.
Medicinal Herbs in Bloom
Late July is peak time for medicinal herbs along the hedgerows. Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) — named for Artemis, the Greek goddess of the moon — has long been known as the herb of dreams. Its silvery leaves have been used for centuries to support intuition, deepen dreaming, and open the inner eye. Mugwort illuminates what lies beneath the surface, bringing hidden patterns and emotions into the light where they can be seen and understood. A few leaves tucked under a pillow or brewed as a gentle tea before meditation is an old Celtic practice for those seeking clearer vision and a deeper connection to the wisdom within.
Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) is also in full bloom now, draping damp meadows with frothy, almond-scented cream flowers. One of the three sacred herbs of the Druids, it was woven into garlands for ceremonies to lift the mind and open the senses. It contains salicylic acid — the natural precursor to aspirin — yet is gentler on the stomach, and its sweet tea has been sipped for centuries to soothe fevers and quiet the body before ritual.
Holly - Tinne - The Fierce Guardian
We remain in the reign of the Holly tree - Tinne, pronounced "chin-yuh" - the Ogham tree of midsummer from July 8 to August 4.
In Celtic tradition, the Holly King rules the waning half of the year, governing the slow descent from midsummer to winter solstice. While the Oak King presides over growth and expansion, the Holly King governs reflection and inner work.
This makes Holly the perfect companion for Third Eye work. The Third Eye asks us to look inward, to sit with ourselves, to trust what we see in the dark. Holly stands evergreen through the turning of the year - it does not flinch from the shadows. It protects what is sacred.
This week, cook in the spirit of the Holly. Be still. Trust what you know.
This post is part of the Cook in Colour series - seven weeks of chakra-aligned recipes following the Celtic Ogham tree calendar. A new colour, the Ogham tree, a new set of recipes every week.
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