Category: Beverage

Bell fruit –carrot and Bottle gourd juice:

April 3, 2018

Star apple, bell fruit, Jambi, water apple, what not? So many names for this tropical fruit. This abundantly grows in a hot climate and is loved by all.

I had mixed this tropical fruit with grated carrots and bottle gourd to make an early morning dose of nutrients.

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Ingredient:

Bell fruit – 4 to 5

Bottle gourd – ¼ cup (grated)

Carrot – 1 (Grated)

Ginger powder – ½ tsp.

Water – 1 cup

Salt – ¼ tsp.

Any Sweetener – (if u need) I am using very little sugar free natura.

Method:

-Clean and slice the bell fruit.

-Blend bell fruit, grated carrot and bottle gourd, water, ginger powder, and salt. If needed, add any form of sugar and churn nicely.

-Sieve this mixture and collect juice. Your nutrition rich, power packed juice is ready, to kick start your day.

 

Turmeric Milk /Turmeric Latte:

October 26, 2017

This is an age-old remedy for sore throat during flu season in India. Turmeric is a key ingredient in Indian cooking and has a very important place in our kitchen shelf. It offers many health benefits since it has both anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antiseptic and anti-oxidant properties. It is considered as a “natural aspirin” in Ayurvedic medicine. In our family we combine turmeric and pepper with milk to make concoction to soothe sore throat. Pepper corns is said to help in absorption of turmeric by the body.

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How we prepare –

Ingredients:

Water – ¾ cup

Milk – ½ cup

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Black Pepper corns – ¼ tsp (crushed) or pepper powder-2 pinch

Sugar – 1 tea spoon

Method:

-Boil water, add turmeric and pepper and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.

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-Add milk and sugar and heat a bit, sieve the mixture and drink as warm as possible.

-It really gives a soothing effect.

Note: Vegans can use any other form of milk.

Plantain stem and Moringa Rasam:

July 16, 2017

Where to start about the benefits of these two super foods? From my childhood, we used to relish banana stem and its flower in various dishes. Every part of banana plant is useful, be it its leaves, flower, stem, its outer fibre or fruit. No wastage of any part. Usually after the harvest of Banana fruit bunch, we should remove that plant and should allow its baby plant to grow and fruit. Usually after the harvest, banana plant is chopped off, outer fibre is peeled off and it is dried under the sun and used as a thread in tying Jasmine flowers. Inner core or pith is divided into 3 parts. Top most part, which is very slender and less fibrous will be used in raw salads. Middle portion is little more fibrous and used in cooking and making Dosa’s. Bottom part, which is more fibrous, mature and hard to chew will be used in juices, soups or Rasam’s.

Plantain stem is one of the best, natural high fibre vegetable. It also maintains fluid balance in our body and acts as a coolant, especially in Summer season.

Moringa or Drumstick leaves are considered as a “Power food” for its nutritionally rich nature.

Here I have combined these two ingredients and made Rasam and trust me it is very tasty and can be used as an appetizer shot as well.

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Ingredients:

Plantain stem – 6- 8 inches long

Drumstick leaves – 1 cup

Tomatoes – 2

Tamarind – ½ tsp

Garlic – 8 cloves

Cumin – 1 tsp

Green chillies – 2 to 3

Salt

Jaggery – 1tsp

Coriander leaves – 1 table sp.

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 2 tsp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Cumin – ½ tsp

Hing – one pinch

Red chilli-1

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

–  Slice plantain stem into discs, remove thread like fibre while slicing.

–  Chop the roundels into thin slices.

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–  Wash drumstick leaves, here you can use as it is, with its sticks intact. No need to remove intact stalks of these tiny leaves.

–  Cook plantain stem pieces, drumstick leaves, chopped tomatoes, green chilli, tamarind in a pressure cooker for one whistle. Cool this mixture, grind and sieve. Discard the fibrous part.

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–  Dry grind garlic and cumin. Add this to collected solution, add salt, jaggery and boil for a while.

–  Garnish with coriander leaves and do the seasoning.

–  Heat coconut oil, add mustard, when it starts to splutter, add broken red chilli, cumin and curry leaves.

–  Serve this as an appetizer shot before food or as a Rasam with hot rice.

 

 

Homemade Maaza / Mango Juice:

April 4, 2017

Hi all. Today I bring to you Homemade Maaza !

Everyone knows what maaza is, but now you can also make it at home without any artificial flavors or preservatives and it tastes exactly the same!

My kids love this very refreshing bottled drink.So, I tried it at home and I make it a point to prepare it every year in Mango season 🙂

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Ingredients:

Ripe mangoes –    5

Raw (thothapuri) mango – 1 ½

Sugar – almost 2 ½ cup (according to taste)

Salt – ½ tsp.

Method : –

-Wash Ripe mangos and raw mangoes remove outer skin and chop it. Quantity should be 2:1 (ripe mango will be more and raw mango will be less).

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-Now take these chopped Mango pieces in the cooker, add around 2 cups of sugar, little water (up to mango pieces)

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-Cook this for two whistles, switch off the gas, when pressure releases, open the lid and cool the mixture.

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-When it becomes a little cool, blend this mixture by using hand blender or mixer grinder.

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-Now add required amount of water (check thickness while adding ) till you get required amount of thickness like store bought maaza .

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  • After achieving required thickness, add salt, check for sweetness, if u feel u need some more sugar, add and mix nicely.
  • After all the adjustment ,take one vessel and sieve this mixture and discard the fiber part.

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  • Collect this smooth juice in a clean bottle and keep this for cooling in a fridge. Serve and enjoy this juice after cooling.

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  • I got 3 liters of juice with the quantities I specified.

Carrot and Almond Milkshake:

March 3, 2017

I usually store this puree in my fridge in summer season. Whenever my kids asks for a milkshake this is such a handy option. So this option acts as a win- win situation for both. Mummy will be happy that, kids are having healthy milkshake and kids will be happy to have a really creamy, fragrant milkshake 😉

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Ingredients:

Carrot – ½ kg (I have used Delhi Red carrots)

Almonds -15

Method:

  • Wash ,peel and chop the carrots
  • Put these pieces as well as almond in a pressure cooker with sufficient water.
  • Cook for 2 whistles, cool and make puree by using mixer grinder.

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  • This is your basic “Milk shake Puree” to prepare milkshake whenever you want.
  • You can store this “Puree” for 10 days under refrigeration.

For preparing Milkshake:

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  • Take one or two tablespoon of this “Puree”, required amount of sugar and chilled milk and Enjoy.

Butterfly pea flower and Lemon grass tea:

December 3, 2016

Two months back, when I was going through some articles, This article about Butterfly pea flower tea and its benefits attracted my attention and I tried my hand  it by preparing and experimenting, and my family loved this tea very much and now I want to share this recipe  with my readers too.

Butterfly pea flower, name itself is so exotic isn’t it? It is nothing but our wildly grown “Shankha Pushpa” flower. In Kannada Shankha means Conch and Pushpa means flower. This flower is widely used in making exotic teas, edible colour in Thai cuisine. Normally we find two colours in this, white and ink blue.

If you use blue flower for brewing, tea becomes pink after adding lemon juice.

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Here I have used white flowers and some fresh lemon grass from my garden. When we use white flower and lemon grass, the tea becomes golden yellow. If you add lemon juice for additional flavour, it changes its colour to transparent, like normal water.

This tea is fragrant, at the same time it is filled with so many good anti-oxidants. Over all it is one Exotic drink.

Now we will see, how I prepared it,

Ingredients:

For one big glass:

Water – 1 big glass

Butterfly pea flowers – 7 to 8

Lemon grass – 4 stalks

Sugar – 1 tsp

Lemon – ¼

Method:

-Collect fresh flowers, wash; chop lemon grass into 1 or 2” size pieces.

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– Put water, lemon grass and flowers together and boil, until lemon grass changes its colour.

-Strain and add sugar or honey, whatever you prefer. You can use artificial sweetener as well.

-Your Exotic tea is ready to have, Pour into a serving glass.

-If you would like to add a little sourness, add lemon juice and see the magic. Golden tea will become transparent and glossy.

-Have your dose of antioxidant in this chilled weather and enjoy.