3 Ingredients, 12 Recipes: Beat the Summer Heat With These Easy Cooling Drinks

Summer time is when our need for hydration goes up and along with that go up our calories, sugar, and salt consumption too.

But hydration and electrolytes both are essential. So how can one ensure that we meet both these needs while staying true to our health goal? Is it even possible? Absolutely.

Just add these three super cooling ingredients (gond, rice water, and sattu) and these 12 super easy, super healthy, and cooling drinks to your summer drinks arsenal and you’ll be set to take the rising mercury is style.

Also known as tragacanth (almond) gum, this tasteless and odourless gum, also known as gond katira has traditionally been used to cool the body from inside, help prevent heat strokes, and provide hydration and instant energy.

How to make: Soak some gond katira for 3-4 hours (or overnight). They will swell up and look like ice.

Try out these recipes for cooling drinks using gond katira.

• Gond Shikanji: Add 2 tsp of swelled up gond katira in a glass, add 1 tbsp lemon juice, shikanji or jaljeera powder, a few mint leaves, a little bit of jaggery powder, a pinch of black salt, and cold water. Add some sabji seeds on top and mix.

• Watermelon Gond Cooler: Blend 1 cup watermelon, mint leaves, a pinch of pepper, and the juice of half a lemon. Add 2 tsp of of swelled up gond katira. Mix.

• Milk Gond Delight: Add 2 tsp of swelled up gond katira in a glass. Add a glass of cold milk, some vanilla extract, some overnight soaked saffron, and some mishri. Mix.

• Mango Gond Chiller: Blend 2 tsp of swelled up gond katira in a glass, 1 ripe mango flesh, ice cubes, and some water. Have chilled.

Also known as kanji, munji, or maand, this is the perfect addition to our summer diet to keep heat-related issues like dehydration, skin troubles, and gut mess ups away.

How to make: Cook rice (1 part and water 14 parts) open without any lid or pressure. Strain the water to get rice water.

• Quick Rice Water: To a glass of rice water, add a pinch of dry ginger and rock salt. Add tempering of 1/2 tsp ghee and cumin seeds. Sip the drink warm or at room temperature.

• Oriya Kanji: Take rice water and add 2 tbsp of cooked rice to it. Leave it to ferment overnight. The next morning, add 2 tbsp curd, 1 green chilly, fresh coriander, and churn it. Add 2-3 glasses of water. Add lemon juice and a bit of salt. Have chilled.

• Mexican Horchata: This Mexican drink is delicious and super cooling. Blend 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence, 1 tbsp rice flour, and one inch cinnamon stick in a blender. Strain the mixture and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. It’ll thicken. Let it cool. To 1 litre of cold water, add some sugar to taste, and the boiled cooled mix. Stir well. Cool and sip.

• Nigerian Rice Water: Place 1 tbsp rice into a pan with 1 cup milk and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for 30 minutes. Strain through a cheesecloth or fine mesh sieve. Add 1 tsp sugar, 1 pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg each, and a pinch of grated lemon zest. Chill and have.

Sattu provides instant energy, and is a brilliant source of vegetarian good quality protein. Plus it has a low glycemic index, so it is good for diabetics, and is low in sodium too. In addition, it is extremely cooling, so it is perfect to beat the heat during summers.

How to make: Wash black chickpeas thoroughly and soak them in water overnight. In the morning, drain the water from the soaked chickpeas. Spread the soaked chickpeas evenly on a clean cloth and allow them to sun dry for 2-3 hours.

Allow the roasted chickpeas to cool down to room temperature. Transfer the cooled roasted chickpeas to a blender or grinder and grind them into a fine powder. Store the freshly ground sattu powder in an airtight container.

Try these four sattu drinks.

• Like it sweet? Just mix 1 tbsp jaggery powder and 2 tbsp sattu together, and then blend with some water to form a smooth paste. Add chilled water, some lemon juice, and mint leaves.

• Want it savory? To 2 tbsp of sattu powder, add a pinch of black salt, chaat masala, and chilled water. Your instant energy drink is ready.

• Sattu masala cha-cha: Blend 2 tbsp sattu powder, 3-4 tbsp of curd, some coriander leaves, 1 tbsp of roasted peanuts, 1 green chilli, and some ice cubes. Add some water. Add a tempering of 1/4th tsp coconut oil, a pinch of rai, and a few curry leaves. Add salt to taste.

• Electrolyte loaded: Just blend 2 tbsp of sattu in 1 cup of coconut water and some ice. Chill and sip.

(Kavita Devgan is a nutritionist, weight management consultant, and health writer based in Delhi. She is the author of The Don't Diet Plan: A no-nonsense guide to weight loss, Fix it with Food, Ultimate Grandmother Hacks, and The Immunity Diet and 500 Recipes: Simple Tricks for Stress Free Cooking.)

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