Mindful eating and developing a sustainable lifestyle that everyone can follow independently is the secret to a balanced, health and fitness-oriented approach to life, working with the foods you know and eat every day, making it no longer needed to make drastic changes to the way they eat or live to make them happier, as well as healthier and stronger. Instead, we decided to look in the pantry and whip up a tropical spicy summer drink, Kokum Cooler, made from the spices and ingredients that are easy to find in our kitchens.
A refreshing summer drink made from coarsely crushed red peppers and cane sugar? We are already drooling! Check out Kokum Cooler’s recipe below to beat the summer heat and thank us later:
Ingredients:
12-15 pieces of kokum
Salt to taste
Pinch of black salt
1/2 tsp coarsely crushed red peppers
1-1 1/2 teaspoon roasted cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp ginger powder (optional)
1/2 cup cane sugar
Method:
Soak the kokum in warm water overnight. Remove the kokum pieces and put the liquid in a saucepan. Add the salt, black salt, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, ginger powder and jaggery and cook everything together.
When the cane sugar melts, cook for a few minutes and then remove from heat. Let cool. Then store in a bottle. Add about 120 ml to a glass, add ice cubes and pour soda or water, stir once twice. Note: can adjust spices such as sweet, sour and peppers to taste.
(Recipe: Deep Health Coach and Nutritionist Simrun Chopra)
Benefits:
Kokum is a tropical fruit popular for its cooling properties and is also used as a medicine for burns and rashes, in addition to being a great companion in pickles and chutneys. The juice helps fight allergies and acidity, and kokum can also aid weight loss, elevate mood, and improve digestion.
Flu season, step aside if cane sugar (or gud as it is popularly known in India) is here to the rescue! Jaggery in tea helps to overcome a cold and cough and is an easy ingredient found in Indian cuisines. It is rich in many vital vitamins and minerals, boosts immunity, keeps the body warm, helps treat colds and coughs, and regulates body temperature.
The molasses content in cane sugar makes it more nutritious, as this nutritious byproduct of the sugar-making process is removed during the making of refined sugar. Jaggery is rich in vitamins and minerals, provides a great immunity booster, builds a shield against health problems such as coughs and colds and leads to better digestion, anemia prevention, liver detoxification and improved immune function.
