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By Life Positive

May 2006

Text: Vijaya Venkat
Photos: Nikhil Idurkar

Delectable ideas to quench your thirst and keep you cool through the scorching summer.

In order to keep the body cool and regulated, salads, vegetables and fruits with high water-content, and sprouts are ideal. This is especially true in summer when, not surprisingly, there is a craving for these cool, light summer foods as thirst quenchers, to keep the body metabolism in balance. Also, ideally, our lunch service should provide these foods just as they are found in nature – naturally raw!

Most summer foods do not keep well due to the heat. Cutting, cooking or mixing with spices tends to make these foods ferment faster within the container. Even with a ‘minimum-cooking’ pattern, these summer foods should be eaten as freshly prepared as possible.

Fruits are natural thirst quenchers. Meals prepared using them are water-sufficient, meaning that the body is not leached dry of its own waters, nor is there a need to drink additional water. On the other hand, intake of processed foods, oily stuff and chemicalised ‘thirst quenchers’ such as soft drinks, only increases thirst; it is a signal from the body to liquefy the toxins, as it were! Therefore, make it a point to remain fit and healthy during the summer months by eating as much raw foods as possible, morning, noon or night.

Sourmint Delite
Ingredients:
4 sour limes
50 gms jaggery
kala namak to taste
jeera powder to taste
2 tsp ginger pudina paste
½ grated apple

Method: Dissolve jaggery in five glasses of water. Add lime juice. Add kala namak, jeera powder and ginger pudina paste. Add freshly grated apple. Chill and serve.

Soul Music
Ingredients:
1 coconut
10 kokam pods
¾ garlic flake
chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp salt and jeera powder to taste

Method: Grind coconut, garlic and kokum into a smooth paste. Strain and remove milk. Dilute with 5 to 6 glasses of water. Add salt, jeera powder and chopped coriander. Chill and serve.

Kokam Kpla
Ingredients:
5 to10 kokam pods
50 gms jaggery
kala namak to taste
jeera powder to taste

Method: Soak the kokam in five glasses of water for an hour. Grind to a smooth paste and strain. Add jaggery. Add kala namak and jeera powder. Serve chilled.

Farmer’s Punch
Ingredients:
½ coconut
1 raw mango
1 cucumber
½ tsp ginger paste
salt to taste.

Method: Remove milk out of the coconut by smoothly grinding into paste and then straining. Dilute to make 6 glasses of juice. Grate raw mango and cucumbers. Add to juice with salt and ginger paste. Garnish with coriander. Serve chilled.

Tropical Tornado
Ingredients:
250 gms cabbage, pumpkin, capsicum and cucumber (shredded lengthwise)
For dressing:
1 sour lime
30 gms jaggery
salt and pepper to taste
Cut all vegetables lengthwise. Mix dressing separately. Add to vegetables. Care should be taken that pumpkin shredded looks like raw mango.

Saucy Salad
Ingredients:
400 gms cabbage, tomato, potato, cucumber, carrot, French beans and capsicum;
vegetables like baby corn, red and yellow pepper and broccoli can be added.
For sauce:
100 gms roasted peanuts
roasted chili powder, jaggery and tamarind to taste
salt to taste

Method: Cube the vegetables – steam potato and French beans. Mix all the ingredients for sauce; add a little water and blend to a smooth paste. Mix the sauce well with the vegetables. You could also cut vegetables into sticks and serve with sauce.

Slimmer’s Delight
Ingredients:
6 tomatos (firm, red and medium size)
1 katori or 50 gms groundnut soaked in water for 4 hours
1 tsp green chilli paste
1 tsp jeera powder
1 tbsp jaggery syrup
coriander
1 tsp salt

Method: Cut tomatoes into half and scoop out flesh. Rub salt on the inner rim and set aside to drain. Crush soaked groundnuts and mix with remaining seasoning but do not add salt. Stuff tomatoes with groundnut masala. Serve on a bed of grated vegetables in which some groundnut masala is mixed. Substitute groundnuts with grated carrot or crushed corn.

Spice Surprise
Ingredients:
4 cups water
½ inch ginger
20 tulsi leaves
10 to 12 lemon grass
50 gms pudina
5 cloves
½ stick cinnamon
2 tbsp jaggery syrup
cardamom seeds for garnish.

Method: Heat the water to boiling point. Immerse all ingredients except jaggery syrup. Boil and cover, turn the gas off and leave the lid on for 10 minutes. Strain, add jaggery syrup and chill. Garnish with crushed cardamom seeds and mint.