While it is understandable that food and beverage consumption must be the last thing on a person’s mind when experiencing a migraine, it is often an essential aspect of recovery. Staying hydrated and eating at periodic intervals ensures that your symptoms don’t worsen. Migraine attacks are extremely debilitating and can often last up to days. If you do not have immediate family or friends you can depend on to help you through an attack, it is all the more important for you to take extra precautions.

Here are a few recipes that can keep you hydrated and relieve symptoms of pain and nausea during an attack. You can keep them pinned onto places where you can see them easily, especially if you are already in the middle of a migraine attack. These recipes use ingredients rich in magnesium and vitamins to help ease the symptoms of the condition. Avoid gluten-rich food and also do not eat leftovers or old food that’s been in the fridge for some time during an attack:

1. Bean and barley soup
Heat a little olive oil in a pan and add 1 large onion, a big stalk of celery, and 1 diced large carrot and cook for 5 minutes. Add 9 ounces of water, 1/3 cups each of dried black, northern, and kidney beans, chili powder, cumin, and oregano. Cook until soft; It should take around 2 hours or less. Season with salt, add lime and have the soup hot.

2. Quinoa
Wash about ½ cup of quinoa and boil it in 1 cup of water along with coconut sugar, 1 cinnamon stick, and raisins. Do this in very low heat. You can eat as is if you like the taste, or add some coconut cream or shredded coconut or even top it with sunflower seeds. This can be eaten cold or hot.

3. Sweet potatoes
Bake cleaned sweet potatoes on a baking rack for about an hour turning it every 20 minutes. Cool and slice about one-third of the sweet potato. Scoop the insides. Mash and add 1 teaspoon cumin powder, ¼ teaspoon of coriander powder, pepper powder, tomatoes, scallions, and black bean and a dash of lime. Divide the mixture, place it on the sweet potato slices, and bake for another 15 minutes. Serve it with chopped cilantro for freshness.

4. Pureed honey mustard chicken
Make a marinade of 1 teaspoon honey mustard, 1 teaspoon honey, 1 teaspoon olive oil and 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar. Cut up smaller pieces of chicken breast and add to the marinade. Add chopped bok choy to the top compartment of the steaming pot. Chop one potato and place it in the smaller dish along with the bok choy. Add about a liter of water in the steaming pot and steam for an hour in low heat. Ensure that chicken is cooked thoroughly. Add to the blender, make a puree, season with salt, and add a dash of coconut oil.

5. Shrimp pasta
Cook the pasta as per instructions. Melt 2 teaspoons of butter in a saucepan, add some garlic, red chili flakes, and oregano and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add about a pound of raw, deveined prawns. Cook till the prawns are soft and pink. Add some more butter, cooked pasta, and steamed broccoli florets. Garnish the dish with chopped parsley and eat it warm.

6. Apricots peaches and pistachios
Make a shallow cross on the surface of 4 apricots and 2 peaches and add them to boiling water for a minute. Blanch them into ice-cold water. Peel, remove the seeds, and slice and arrange in a bowl. In another pan, add sugar and honey and about ½ cup of water and boil for 5 minutes. Add a drop of orange flower water after removing from the heat. Pour this over the fruits and add pistachios. You can serve with crème fraiche.