Popular Indian Drinks Recipes
Tomato Rasam Cooking Recipe
An authentic, thin tomato soup of Southern India, delicious as an appetizer.
INGREDIENTS
Serves 6-8
- 1 kg tomatoes – cut into 4 pieces,
- 3 cups water
- 1 tbsp oil,
- 2-3 whole,
- dry, red chillies or ½ tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera),
- 1 tsp mustard seeds (rai),
- ¼ tsp asafoetida (hing)
- a few curry leaves,
- ¼ tsp ground turmeric (haldi)
- 1½ tsp salt, or to taste,
- 1½ tsp peppercorns (saboot kali mirch)
- 1 small pod garlic, whole
PREPARATION METHOD
1. Boil whole tomatoes with 3 cups water. Keep on low heat for about 10 minutes, till tomatoes turn soft. Remove from heat and cool. Blend to a puree.
2. Heat 1 tbsp oil. Reduce heat and fry the red chillies till they turn a shade darker. Add together — cumin seeds, mustard seeds and asafoetida. When cumin turns golden, add curry leaves.
3. Add the pureed tomatoes. Add salt and turmeric powder. Separate the flakes of garlic from the pod and crush them roughly without peeling the flakes. Separately, crush or pound the peppercorns too. Add the crushed garlic and peppercorns to the tomatoes. Boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Strain. Discard the ingredients in the strainer. Serve soup garnished with coriander leaves.
Thandai
A festive drink prepared from nuts and flavourful spices blended in milk.
INGREDIENTS
Serves 10-12
- 6 cups of milk,
- ½ cup almonds,
- 2 tbsp cashews – broken into bits
- 1/3 cup seeds of watermelon (magaz),
- 8 tbsp poppy seeds (khus khus)
- 15-20 peppercorns (saboot kali mirch),
- 10-12 green cardamoms (chhoti illaichi)
- 1 tbsp dried rose petals,
- 2 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
- 10-12 tbsp sugar,
- a few strands of saffron (kesar) – soaked in 1 tsp water for garnishing
PREPARATION METHOD
- Soak almonds separately in water for 3-4 hours. Peel almonds. Soak together — watermelon seeds, poppy seeds, cashews, peppercorns, cardamoms, rose petals and fennel seeds for 3-4 hours. Strain.
- Add the peeled almonds to the strained ingredients. Put all the soaked ingredients in a mixer grinder and grind to a paste by adding a little water or milk. The grinding of the ingredients should be done very well. Grind well to a smooth paste.
- Add the ground ingredients to the cold milk. Add sugar and mix well. Strain the milk through a cheese cloth and discard the residue.
- Chill the drink by adding ice. Serve garnished with soaked saffron strands and fresh rose petals.
Jeera Pani
This is predominantly a summer drink which aids digestion. A savoury tamarind and mint (pudina) cooler which is flavoured with roasted cumin seeds (jeera) and black salt. This tangy cooler can be made as peppery as you like.
INGREDIENTS
Serves 4
- 4 cups water
- 4 tbsp seedless tamarind (imli),
- 4 tsp fresh lime juice
- 3 tbsp sugar,
- 1” ginger – crushed roughly
- ¼ cup fresh mint leaves (pudina) – minced
- 1½ tsp ground, roasted cumin (bhuna jeera),
- ½ tsp black salt (kala namak)
- salt to taste,
- ½ tsp red chilli powder, or to taste, optional
PREPARATION METHOD
1. Soak seedless tamarind in 1 cup hot water for 1 hour. Mash well. Add the remaining 3 cups water. Mash once again and strain to get tamarind water. If you are using tamarind pulp, add 4 cups of water to the pulp. If the pulp is salted, no salt is required in the jeera pani.
2. To the tamarind water, add all other ingredients — lime juice, crushed ginger, mint, black salt, ground roasted cumin, red chilli powder, sugar and salt to taste.
3. Mix well. Keep for 2 hours in the fridge to chill and for the flavours to penetrate. At serving time, strain through a fine sieve. Adjust seasonings. Serve garnished with a lemon slice and mint.
Pudina Lassi
This yogurt smoothie is a very popular drink in the Northern part of India, specially Punjab. There are sweet and salty versions of this Indian drink. The savoury one given here is seasoned with roasted cumin and mint whereas the delicious sweet cooler is generally flavoured with rose water and cardamoms.
INGREDIENTS
Serves 4
- 4 tbsp finely chopped mint leaves (pudina)
- 1½ cups plain yogurt,
- ½ tsp rock salt (kala namak)
- ½ tsp roasted ground cumin seeds (jeera),
- ½ tsp salt, or to taste
- 3 cups water,
- 6-8 ice cubes
PREPARATION METHOD
- Wash and finely chop mint leaves. Put yogurt, mint, cumin seeds, rock salt and salt in a blender. Blend for a few seconds.
- Add chilled water and ice cubes. Blend till frothy. Serve sprinkled with a pinch of ground, roasted cumin seeds and garnished with finely chopped mint.
