Tomato Lemonade

Lemon Juice also known as Lemonade is all time favourite for many. I tried blending this with other fruits and vegetables guess what !!! The results are remarkable. Tomato lemonade is easy to make and do not need any fancy ingredients.

Ingredients:

1. Ripe tomatoes - 2 large or cherry tomatoes.
2. Lemon
3. Mint leaves - 10 - 15
4. Sugar as needed
5. Chaat masala - as needed (optional)

Preparation:

1. Cut tomatoes and remove the seed portion, chop finally.
2. Extract juice from the lemon, use 1 lemon for 500 ml of juice.
3. In a blender add all ingredients and blend to make a coarse paste, then add water blend well.
4. Strain the juice using a sieve. Blend the left over with more water if needed.

Enjoy the drink with ice or you may refrigerate and serve chilled. 

Fresh Orange Green Juice (Cucumber)

Another combo I tried last week was Orange with cucumber. It was different and yet good to my taste buds. After all it's only orange and vegetable, not poison isn't? Ha ha ha :)

Simply add chopped cucumber and orange in a blender with water, sugar or honey. You might have to peel the skin off the cucumber and then chop.

What's better than some fresh home made juice.

Blueberry Apple Smoothie

I love blueberry and always ate it as fruit when I traveled. The other day when I went to my local grocery store found a pack, and marveled of-course it's expensive and imported.  I had to pay Rs.450 for merely 125 gm of packed blueberries.

It's summer here in Kerala and yes what's better than a good smoothie for breakfast. 125 gm would hardly make one large serving of smoothie. I combined it with some sweet apple, yogurt and viola - had a breakfast and another cup at midday.

You may use apply Fuji or golden as they are sweeter than other ones.

Simply wash and use the fruit. In a blender add the fruit, finely chopped apple, honey, milk, yogurt and ice cubes. Blend to get a creamy textured smoothie.

Enjoy this for breakfast or anytime during the day.

Kiwi Lettuce Juice with Green Grapes ! All Green

Kiwi is an expensive fruit in India as they are being imported. Best to have with fruit salads or juice. Ensure you use well ripe fruit while making juice. Most of my juices are made with fruit and vegetable combination or with more than one fruit as combo.

Here I have used 2 kiwi, couple of lettuce leaves, handful of green grapes to make around 750 ml of juice. It;s not concentrated but diluted with water.

Cut kiwi in small pieces. In a juicer or blender add everything with required water and sugar or honey. Blend well to form a frothy juice. You may dilute with more water if required. Strain and serve chill. I usually store in a bottle and refrigerate consume throughout the day.

Exquisite Summer Delight - Orange Pear Juice

Summer is on full swing in most of the countries all we crave for is water or juice or something cold. There is nothing better than some cold fresh fruit juice over sodas and coffee.

I have experimented this with Orange and Pears. Both are rich in water content and equally good. Orange I removed the seeds and pears with skin. Blend them together with little sugar and water. You would get a nice frothy juice.

Strain and serve as desired.

Fresh Juice - China Pear & Carrot Combo

Another colorful combo. This time with pears and carrots. You may you any pears that's available in the stores nearby you and combine it with carrots.

Pears you may use with skin. Carrots wash and peel off the outer skin, then slice it. Add these two in a blender with little sugar and water as required. Blend well, taste the juice and add sugar if needed.

Strain and serve chilled or with ice cubes.

Fresh Juice - Water Melon + Lettuce Combo

For Green lovers, here is another one. Yes, if you dislike green leafy vegetables but under compulsion simply blend with fruits to make a juice.

Here is another post with Lettuce with Grapes

Try to remove seeds from the water melon chunks. In a blender Add 2 lettuce leaves, water melon chunks, little sugar and water. Blend to form a frothy juice. Strain and serve chilled or with ice.

Fresh Juice - Green Fantasy ! Grapes Lettuce Combo

Liking for colorful fresh juice yet nutritious - here is the one for you.

Cucumber, green grapes and lettuce. Be generous on using grapes and cucumber, reduce lettuce if you like more of fruit flavor. If you add more than 2 leaves, your juice might turn dark green, just to avoid that scary look :)

Blend all ingredients with little water and sugar to a frothy liquid. Strain and server chilled.

Home made Juice - Grapes Lettuce Combo

This summer has been great so far as I got to try my hands on various juice combination mixing fruits with vegetables. My favorite pick from vegetables so far are Cucumber, Lemon, Lettuce and Carrot.

Use seedless grapes. I have used black grapes, green grapes and couple of lettuce leaves for 2 large servings. You may use the grapes as it pleases you. Sugar to taste.

Blend everything and strain before refrigerating. You may server chilled or add ice cubes too if you may like.

Mango Apple Smoothie - a healthy breakfast

In addition to my earlier posts on smoothies, I am happy to present another combination I tried.
It;s quiet interesting with apples and mangoes.

Simply slice mango pulp, cut apple without skin in small pieces. Crush some almonds for topping up although it's optional I like to make my smoothie rich.

Add the fruits along with little milk, ice cubes and sugar to taste in a blender. Run slow to high until you get a frothy creamy smoothie. Stir intermittently if needed when you find fruit chunks inside.

Refrigerate and server chilled.

Mango Almond / Mango Badam Smoothie

This is my second addition to the smoothie catalog following Banana Ice Cream Smoothie. Mango is abundantly found during summers in India, and it's already available in the shops. So many varieties. Sorry I forgot the name of the mango I got, it was huge pulpy with pale yellow color. One mango made two large servings of smoothie.

To make this dish more interesting I added 50 gms of Almonds to this. No yogurt and no Ice cream here. My blender wouldn;t blend the almonds completely but it remains as it is atleast some of them. I cannot just throw in a handful of almonds. I tried to sliced them same result, with few were broken down. If you like to bite while drinking this would be good.

I blended whole almonds in a small jar, it all became nice coarse powder. I simply added this while making smoothie. Yummy and thick.

Ingredients:

Mango slices of your choice
Almonds - 50 gms.
Sugar to taste
Ice cubes and milk as needed

Blend well and serve chilled. Makes an excellent breakfast and you can even take to office and toss in the refrigerator. You can snack on them for a coffee ;)

More to add to this catalog, and explore. See you soon with another recipe.

Carrot and mixed vegetable juice - Beat the heat!

Summer is extreme this year throughout the country. You sweat profusely until you are in AC and body asks for water. There would be many out there like me, who hardly drinks water but we all know how essential drinking plenty of water is. I like to drink liquid in the form of juice. Is store brought juice like Tropicana, Real juices 100% fresh and pure Big No, also expensive.

I started blending my own fruit or veg juices each morning and lemonade to sip throughout the day. I was inspired by my school mate Premisha to explore variety of juices. This one is from her with a little change. Here is a link to her Recipe.

For two large servings of juice below are the ingredients I took.
Carrots - 2 small sliced
Cucumber - 1 deseeded and cut to pieces
Lemon - 1
Ginger - 1/2 inch piece sliced
Tomato - 1 sliced
Sugar and water as required
Chat Masala - optional
Few mint leaves - optional

Add all these in a blender, run on slow for the initial 30 secs then increase the speed. Blend until no veg pieces are found. Strain and refrigerate to serve chilled. If you veggies are cold you can serve immediately with ice cubes.

Cucumber Lemonade for this summer

We all would love to have something different each day to quench the thirst during summer. A change from regular lemonade called Nimboo Pani. Say good bye to expensive juices from store and power such as Tang and Rasna.

This is simple, fresh and nutritious.

All you need is a couple of cucumbers, 1 lemon, honey and sugar.

Deseed the cucumber or you can keep it if you prefer. Cut to small pieces
In the blender  add 1 lime juice and cucumber
Pour couple of tb.spoon honey or as per taste, little sugar as required.
Add 200 ml of water.
Blend well check the taste and add anything that's required. Strain, refrigerate and serve chilled.

You may add cold water if you need to serve immediately.
You may also toss in few mint leaves as whole or crushed. I like them.

Capsicum Carrot Curd Rice

Make your curd rice interesting with different variations. Include veggies and fruits of your choice to enhance the color and flavor of this dish.

In this recipe I have used grated carrot and chopped capsicum (bell peppers) as the main veggies. I have used pomegranate for seasoning.

Preparation:

1. Chop / grate veggies of your choice. I have used tri colored bell peppers and carrots.
2. In a large bowl of creamy yogurt/curd add rice, veggies, fruits, salt mix well 
3. Make tempering/tadka with little oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves, dried red chili and pour on top of the rice mixture. Mix well 
4. Refrigerate and serve chilled or pack in your lunch boxes and enjoy.

You may add grapes / chopped pine apple for sweetness. Fry some peanuts / cashews and add to it, if you like nuts.

Sweet Salad in Creamy Yogurt Sauce

Summer call with little rain here and there. Bell peppers are my favorite with their endless health benefits needless to say about other vegetables though, Bell peppers still top my chart during this weather.

This is another quick easy salads of mine with yogurt after the cucumber salad. You can make your own twist to this and make the salad interesting.

I have used apple and grapes in the salad, with some sweetness in the yogurt sauce.

For Salad : Use vegetables and fruits of your choice.

For Sauce :
1 - cup yogurt/curd
Chopped mint leaves
Crushed cumin - to taste
Crushed pepper - to taste
Lemon Juice - 1/2 t.spn
Orange Juice - 3-4 tb.spn
Sugar - to taste
Salt - 1 pinch
Sesame Oil - 1 tb.spn (Optional)
Chat Masala - 1 t.spn (optional)

Preparation:

1. Take yogurt, if thick add water bring to a creamy pouring consistency using a whisker.
2. Add all other ingredients, mix well. Check seasoning.
3. Refrigerate the Sauce. 

Just before serving, in a mixing bowl add the vegetables, pour the sauce over it, toss well. 

This tastes best when chilled. Do not mix it and store. If you are to carry for lunch or snack pack these to separate and mix just before having.

Banana Ice Cream Smoothie - Perfect breakfast for Indian Summer

Now who does not love smoothie ;) I am up for it anytime. This smoothie is full of nutrients filled with dates, yogurt, almonds, banana and milk. Doesn't sound like a real good breakfast over cereals.

It's all upto you on how you mix and match the ingredients to enhance the flavour. Ice cream is optional tough ;)

I prefer the smoothie to be thick, if you like like watery you can add more milk.

Ingredients:

1. Chilled banana of your choice - 2 to 4 sliced
2. Boiled cold Milk 
3. Ice cubes or crushed
4. Finely chopped Almonds
5. De-seeded and chopped dates
6. Yogurt (Curd)
7. Ice cream (optional) any flavour
8. Sugar to taste (optional)

Preparation:

1. In a blender (Juicer) add all ingredients blend it to form a smooth paste. 
2. You can add more milk if needed and run it once
3. Transfer to a jar and refrigerate or serve on chilled glass, top with a scoop of ice cream
4. You can add some coffee , if you prefer coffee flavor.

Now tell me if you dislike what you prepared !

Summer Delight - Quick Salad with creamy yogurt, mint dressing

Summer ...here I come ! First vegetable that comes to our mind and available in market during Indian Summer is Cucumber. It's also consumed during other seasons, but we see vendors selling all over the country during this time.

If you are tried of having the regular plain cucumber for salad we have a yummy, yet easy to prepare salad, filled with the richness of yogurt and the sweetness of mint.

Here is what you need:

• Diced cucumber as shown in picture. 
• Whisked yogurt - ensure you add little water whisk and bring to a creamy pour-able consistency
• Chopped mint leaves
• Crushed cumin - 1/2 t.spn
• Crushed pepper - 1/2 t.spn
• Chat masala - 1/2 t.spn (optional)
• Lemon juice - 1 t.spn
• Sugar - 1 - 2 tb.spn
• A pinch of Salt

In a bowl add all ingredients except cucumber, whisk well and taste for seasoning. Add anything if required. Finally add the dressing to cucumber and toss well. Refrigerate and serve. It's very refreshing and filling.

You may add little olive oil or add in olives or other seasoning as per your taste.

Let me know how you liked this, and suggest other alternate for this.

You may also try this summer delight recipe, with rice / curd / cucumber / carrot.

Quick Salad with Unripe Watermelon

We bought plenty of small sized watermelons during summer as its seasonal here in India. Unfortunately one was white hardly we could see any red color in it. Left in fridge for couple of days to decide to make something with it than throwing it away. Thought of blending and making some kind of juice but then made my mind to make a refreshing salad as its summer. It tasted a bit like cucumber though not sweet. I cut them into small pieces and removed the seeds before preparing the salad. You can top it up with any green vegetables you have such as bell peppers, mint or basil, lettuce etc. I only had tomato and some fresh coriander leaves so used that.

Ingredients:

1. Watermelon - 1 bowl - cut and seedless
2. Tomato - Large 1 - Cut in halves and remove the pulp , then slice or chop.
3. Coriander leaves - a bunch finely chopped
4. Salt - as per taste
5. Chaat masala - 1 tb spn
6. Cumin seeds - crushed 1/4 tb spn
7. Honey - 1/2 tb spn (optional)
8. Lime juice - 1/2 tb (optional)

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, put the cut watermelon, tomato and coriander leaves along with any other vegetables chosen.
2. Sprinkle all other ingredients mix and toss nicely. Taste for seasoning and add if required.
3. Refrigerate for 15 - 30 minutes and serve chilled.

Ice Tea with ginger and Lime

I am not a great fan of ice tea and never had one, but experimented this at home and enjoyed every sip of it; on a hot summer day or when you have mild headache ginger and lime with tea helps to ease the pain.

Ingredients:

1. Water to brew tea
2. Tea powder or 1 tea bag that’s available at home
3. Few ice cubes
4. Ginger julienne
5. Thinly Sliced lime – 2
6. Honey – 2 tbl spn or as needed
7. Tulsi/basil or mint leaves (optional)

How to prepare:

1. Warm water in a pan, and add the tea powder. Let it brew in low heat for 5 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and allow to bring it to room temperature
3. In a glass place the lime slices at the bottom, top it with few ginger julienne followed by ice cubes.
4. Pour honey followed by the brewed tea
5. Stir lightly to mix the honey with tea and ice
6. Decorate with mint/Tulsi leaves, left over ginger julienne and lime
7. Sit back and enjoy the mixture of flavors along with tea.

Note:

• The same steps can be followed if you prefer hot lime tea or ginger tea. Omit the ice cubes. A easy method.
• You may also add the ginger julienne while brewing the tea if you prefer strong tea.

Summer Delight - Chilled Cucumber Curd Rice

This dish suits well for summer, and kids would love it. Healthy and digest easily. you can also make this dish with left over rice.

Ingredients
1 cup cooked rice
1 cup fresh curd
2 tbsp milk ( Optional )
1/2 cup grated cucumber without seeds
1/2 cup grated carrots
some coriander leaves finely chopped (optional)
Salt to taste

For the tempering
2 tbsp oil, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 2 - 3 whole red chillies broken into pieces, little asafoetida (hing)

Preparation

1. Put the rice in a large bowl and mash well with hand or a potato masher till smooth
2. Add curd, milk, cucumber, carrot, coriander and salt and mix well. Keep aside.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and let it crackle
4. Add red chillies , asafoetida and saute for a few seconds.
5. pour this tempering over the curd rice mixture and mix well. Refrigerate for atleast 1 hour.
6. Serve chilled.

Simple and easy one isn't ? :) Have fun.