Mango Limeade

Make the most of the mango season. Freshly squeezed lime with the sweetness of seasonal mangoes is a great combination of beverage for this hot summer. Adding a few soaked sabja seeds is an extra touch to cool your senses.

Homemade mango limeade is a perfect drink with tartness of lime and sweetness of mangoes.

Ingredients

4 cups water
1 large mango, peeled and chopped (I used alphonso)
2 limes
honey to taste
½ tsp black salt
½ tbsp sabja/basil seeds (optional)
ice cubes

Method

• Soak sabja/basil seeds in ½ cup water.
• Blend chopped mangoes, lime juice until smooth and transfer to a pitcher/bowl.
• Add water, black salt, soaked sabja seeds and honey to taste.
• Stir well and serve over ice.             

Oats Coconut Laddu

Oat is a cereal commonly consumed in the form of oatmeal or rolled oats. The popularity of oats has been increasing by days because of its health benefits. Oats for breakfast is a delicious way to add fibre and nutrients to our body first thing in the morning. Great way to start a day is with a warm bowl of oatmeal, which can lower blood cholesterol because of its soluble fibre content.

Mango Kulfi

When the temperatures soar, you can have a sweet treat to beat the escalating summer heat with something called Kulfi. Since mangoes are everywhere now, what better way than to blend them with kulfi.

Kulfi is a frozen milk based desert, and is traditionally made by freezing reduced milk (rabri). This is a tedious process of babysitting the milk till it is reduced (as there is a risk of milk sticking to the bottom of the pan if it is not stirred continuously). Short cut to make kulfi is to add any thickening agent.

Chinta Chiguru Pappu - Lentils Cooked with Tender Tamarind Leaves

Another delicacy from Andhra. ‘Chinta chiguru’ is a telugu word which means tender tamarind leaves. These leaves can be so versatile that they turn out so good when cooked either with vegetables or meat.

These tender leaves, when combined with dal, give a delicate tartness to the dish.

Mango Lassi

Nothing like a big glass of lassi on a hot summer afternoon. 'Lassi', as most of us know is a punjabi beverage which all the Indians love. I usually make sweet lassi, gulkand lassi, jeera buttermilk (yogurt drinks) to beat the summers in India. Months of April and May are hottest in India and this is the season for mangoes as well. Now that the temperatures are exceeding 40C, we definitely need  lot of coolants for our body. Curd/yogurt has the cooling properties our body require. Why not combine both mangoes and curd to make a perfect summer drink. I bet this can be a safe, healthy and tasty drink for this summer.

Basic Plain Dosa

Dosa is a thin, savoury pancake usually served with chutney and/or sambar in most of the south Indian houses. Dosas are hugely popular in rest of the country too. There are lot of additions to this basic dosa to make them even more delicious like masala dosa, onion dosa, mysore dosa, egg dosa.... 

Healthy Idly

Idly is a very common breakfast in South India. These are steamed rice-lentil cakes served with chutney and sambar. Idlis usually are made of fermented batter of black lentils (de-husked) and rice or idly rawa. I have grown up seeing white idlis and this was a regular breakfast at our home.