drinks

Lychee is an tropical fruit from china which is one of our fav fruit now . This was the first time My H picked some lychee from grocery .  My h was so gud to pick them  and tell me to make some innovative dish. Then i thought omg he is so confident that i will surely make use of them in a yummy manner 😛 so to keep up his confidence level i made a delicious drink.

  The inside of a lychee is a clear, pinkish-white color. .. The outside of the fruit is a hard spiky shell. Its seed is brown or black some times in color and very hard. The seeds are poisonous and should not be eaten. The fruit is rare because dragon fruit climbs the bough on lychee plants, causing them to die. The lychee has a sweet taste, and may be frozen, made into sauces, jam, puree, or preserves. When frozen, the lychee tastes similar to sorbet. Today i made a chilled lemonade prefect for hot days isn’t  it .. Lets move on to this delicious drink recipe ..

Ingredients

Lychee – 12 nos
Sugar – 2 tbsp (adjust to your taste)
Water – 2 cups
Mint leaves – 1-2 nos (optional)
Lemon juice – Squeezed from one Medium  size Lemon 
Ice cubes – few

Method

• First remove the pink shell from the lychee and cut them to remove the inner seed in them.
• In a blender put the lychee flesh, lemon juice, water, sugar , mint leaves and blend them till the mixture lets well combined.
• Now strain the juice to remove the fibrous part and get a smooth drink in a glass.
• Serve them chilled with lots of ice cubes .

Today am here with another delicious and refreshing drink to beat the summer heat :). They are really an yummy combo and tastes super refreshing. This month my partner for Potluck party was +Nupur of UK-Rasoi  she made an delicious looking  Moroccan cous-cous salad which i had to make it this month . Unfortunately after a trying a lot to find  cous- cous near my place i gave up and made this refreshing drink from her blog 🙂 . Glad that i tried this unusual combo of juice from her blog as me and my h enjoyed it to the core . Thanks for sharing such delicious and healthy drink Nupur :). Now lets move on to the recipe .. Watermelon , carrot, orange, lemon, mint and at last the secret touch of chaat masala in this drink brings an awesome taste to the drink.. Lets quickly move to the recipe for preparing this delicious and yummy drink ..

Recipe source : UK Rasoi

Ingredients

1 cup  watermelon (chopped)
1/2 cup orange  juice
1 cup carrots (chopped)
1 lemon – juice squeezed out
1/2 tsp chaat masala – optional
1 tbsp crushed mint leaves – optional
1 tbsp Sugar (adjust to your taste )

Method :

• Puree watermelon, orange juice , mint leaves sugar and carrot together in a blender and strain it well. 
• Add lemon juice,chaat masala mix well in to the strained puree.
• Another way is to simply juice all the ingredients in a juicer together. 
• Now serve it chilled with lots of ice cubes  🙂

Sending to saju’s taste and simply tadka

A lassi is a refreshing, East Indian yogurt shake and are most favorite among punjabi’s. They are so refreshing in  hot summer days and an delicious thirst quencher .I made this lassi flavored with fruits in it makes it more delicious and yummy. Enjoy on its own at breakfast or as a cooling and delicious antidote to spicy dinner entrees.  I made this lassi with watermelon and strawberry 🙂 Both are my fav fruits and you can get the blend taste of both fruits in this yummmy lassi 🙂 To make this more healthier I made them with low fat greek yogurt.  Greek yogurt  is high in protein than in ordinary plain yogurt, which helps promote fullness .That makes it particularly appealing to vegetarians, who sometimes struggle to get enough of the proteins and other nutrients. An identical serving of regular yogurt, on the other hand, provides less nutrients, meaning you may feel hunger pangs sooner. Lets Move on to this low fat version of fruity lassi 🙂

Ingredients

1 cups Low Fat Greek yogurt
1 1/2 tbsp sugar (adjust to your taste)
1 cup watermelon chunks (deseeded)
1 cup fresh chopped strawberries (remove stalk)
1⁄2 cup  ice water ( if you like your lassi more thin you can add more water but its meant to be nice and thick )

Methods

• In a blender, combine all ingredients except mint, and process until mixture is frothy. 
• Serve over ice in a tall glass. 

Its too Hot over here and we all would love enjoy an refreshing drink for sure right !! How about making an healthy refreshing  lemonade .We are going make this refreshing and healthy lemonade using a leafy herb from the mint family with a clove flavor. Basil is usually green, though there are purple varieties, such as Opal Basil. Lemon basil, anise basil, clove basil and cinnamon basil all have flavors similar to their names. 

You can use any basil for this recipe and its going to taste yummy anyways . The basil we use in india which is called as tulsi can also be used as all will be knowing the purity of this ingredient we people even pray as tulsi is said to be the goddess of purity. Tulsi can also be called  as an holy basil.. Tulsi extracts are used in ayurvedic remedies for a variety of ailments. Traditionally, tulasi is taken in many forms: as herbal tea, dried powder, fresh leaf or mixed with ghee. Essential oil extracted from Karpoora tulasi is mostly used for medicinal purposes and in herbal cosmetics, and is widely used in skin preparations. So today am here with this very healthy and yummy refreshment to beat the summer heat. I used the packaged variety basil which we get here in the U.S but u can use any variety for this recipe.

Ingredients 

1 cup basil or Tulsi (any varity nicely washed)
2 tbsp sugar (adjust to taste)
1 1/2 cups water
1 medium sized lemon ( squeeze and take out the juice)

Method

• Grind the basil leaves and sugar first and add little by little water and grind the mixture till well blended.
• Now add lemon juice to this and strain the juice in serving glass.
• Add some ice cubes and serve chilled.

So this healthy drink goes for our Vegan Thursday today 🙂

Mangoes are my all time favorite and i relish mango in any form 🙂 may it be a dessert , juice or as is 🙂 .. Today am here with a delicious an a yummy way to make a simple pulpy mango juice .. This juice i made for +Divya Pramil ‘s Bday from her blog Click here and i enjoyed this thoroughly  🙂 Thanks for sharing this refreshing and delicious juice divya :)… Now Lets Move on to this delicious and a simple way of making a pulpy mango juice..

Ingredients

Ripe Mangoes – 2 no’s
Sugar – 6 tsp
Lemon – 1 no
Chilled water – 1 2/3 cup

Garnish


Some chopped mangoes
Mint leaves

Method

• Peel the skin from a mango and chop into smaller cubes. Discard the seed. 
• Then add sugar into a saucepan and pour water until the sugar gets immersed. Place on flame and stir well until it gets dissolved. Remove from flame, strain to remove dirt and set aside. 
• Now add the mango pieces into a blender or juicer and blend well until smooth. 
• Now pour the chilled water and sugar water and blend again. Squeeze in the lemon juice in mango pulp and mix well.
• Strain using a strainer if its too fibrous.
• Pour into serving glasses, garnish with chopped mango , mint leaves and serve!! 

  
Tips

• If your mango is sweet enough then reduce the amount of sugar. 
•  Add water little by little, never add all the water at once, sometimes the flavor will get lost and become watery, it depends on each mango variety. 

Sending to Guru’s cooking

Sending to Daily swad sugandh

Strawberries are perfect  and can combined with any other fruit to make a delicious and  a filling smoothie  :).Smoothies can be a filling breakfast and can be made easy in minutes . Strawberries and pomegranate are both delicious fruits which when combined make a delicious smoothie too . They both give nice pink colour to the drink . As you all may be knowing  +Divya Pramil  favorite colour is pink so made this delicious drink her b’day from her blog  click here 🙂  This tasted really delicious thanks for lovely recipe divya :). Here is the pink smoothie of the pink lover +Divya Pramil  🙂

Ingredients

Strawberry – 5-6 nos
Pomegranate kernels – From 1 fruit 
Chilled Milk – 1 cup
Sugar/honey – As per taste (optional)

 Method

• Remove the green stalk from strawberries wash well and chop strawberries into smaller pieces. 
• Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend well then strain using a strainer. 
• Serve chilled!! 

Note:

•  You can adjust the amount of milk added according to the consistency you want. 
• Use chilled milk or milk at room temperature as the strawberry will curdle the milk if hot. 
• I did add honey to this smoothie to make it more nutritional but just a drop or two as the smoothie by itself was sweet .