Cantaloupe Juice, a delicious and refreshing juice made from the fresh cantaloupe/kirni pazham. It's one of my favourite juices to make when cantaloupe/kirni pazham is in season. 

To be honest, i wouldn't call this a recipe because there is no recipe to learn here :-) All you need to do is put the cantaloupe in the mixer and along with some water and sweetener, your juice would be ready. 

Cantaloupe 

Make sure to use the well-ripen cantaloupe for this season. The flavor and the sweetness are high in the well-ripen cantaloupe so it automatically makes the juice more flavorful and also it reduces the amount of additional sweetness.

Honey 

I like to use honey in this juice especially because cantaloupe and honey goes really well. But you can use sugar, maple syrup or any sweetener you like.

Tips for beginners 

• I personally avoid ice cubes in the juice so i have used the chilled cantaloupe and water for this juice. But if you like  ice cubes in the juice, make sure to add extra sweetness in the juice while making because ice cubes would dilute the juice and reduce the sweetness.
• For more flavor, you can add an inch of ginger and 1/2 tsp of lemon juice while making the juice. 

Now let's see how to make this refreshing cantaloupe juice.

Cantaloupe Juice | Kirni Pazham Juice

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Juice | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Cantaloupe Juice, Kirni Juice Cantaloupe Juice, a delicious and refreshing juice made from the fresh cantaloupe.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Chilled Cantaloupe - 1 cup(cut pieces)

Honey - 2 tsp(as needed)

Cold Water - 1/2 cup(as needed)

Procedure

Cut the cantaloupe into half, remove the seeds and skin. Cut the cantaloupe into small pieces and refrigerate it for 2-3 hrs or until it's cold. Put the chilled cantaloupe into a mixer jar along with water.

Finally add the honey and blend it smooth. 

That's it. Delicious and refreshing Cantaloupe Juice is ready. 

Related: How to make Cucumber Juice

Notes:

• Depends on the sweetness of the cantaloupe, add more or less of honey as per your preference.
  
• Added a few mint leaves on top for garnishing.
• Strain the juice if you want the clear juice. 
  
  
  
  

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Strawberry BlackBerry Smoothie | Smoothie Recipe

Strawberry Blackberry Smoothie, a quick and easy to make delicious smoothie with berries, yogurt and any sweetener. It's one of my favorite smoothie and used to have it in the morning as breakfast when i'm planning for earlier lunch or as mid morning/evening drink.Here in today's recipe, i have used fresh strawberries and blackberries but frozen also works fine for this smoothie. When the berries are in season, i would like to make them often because of the beautiful purple color smoothie.  Gorgeous, isn't?? Now let's see how to make this yummy and fulfilling smoothie.

Strawberry BlackBerry Smoothie

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Smoothie | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
strawberry smoothie,black berry smoothie, Strawberry BlackBerry Smoothie,Yogurt Smoothie, Mix Berry Smoothie, Healthy Smoothie, Breakfast Smoothie Strawberry Blackberry Smoothie, a quick and easy to make delicious smoothie with berries, yogurt and any sweetener.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Strawberry - 1 cup
Blackberry - 1 cup
Curd/Yogurt - 1 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Maple Syrup/Honey - as needed 

Procedure

Put all the ingredients in a blender and grind into smooth.It's that simple !!! Your delicious Strawberry Blackberry smoothie is ready. 

For more smoothie and juice recipe, check out here.
Notes:

• Add more or less of water as per the consistency you prefer.
• Use fresh & chilled yogurt for great taste.

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Pomegranate Milkshake | Pomegranate Juice

Pomegranate Milkshake, delicious drink made from pomegranate seeds and milk.In general, i like to eat fruits as it is, making juices/smoothies/milkshakes with fruits excepts citric fruits are very rare at my home. Only make them when there are in bulk or need something to drink along with my morning sandwiches. I would like to document such a rare thing here  for future reference. Nothing special in the recipe, regular milkshake with fruits, milk and sweetener. 
In my opinion, all kinds of edible fruits are good to our health in one way or another unless we're prone to anything in particular, so adding lot of sugar in fruit juice seems as crime to me for making the healthy food as unhealthy. No offense !!! just my thoughts, therefore i'm always using natural sugar like honey or maple syrup in moderation for my drinks. Those who knew me personally could laugh by the lines i had said before, because i have such a strong sweet tooth, but somehow i can't withstand the idea of drinking juices/smoothies with lot of sugar. Ok, now let's see how i have made this pomegranate milkshake.

Pomegranate Milkshake

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 1 
Recipe Category: Milkshake | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Pomegranate Juice,Pomegranate Milkshake,Pomegranate Smoothie,Summer drinls, Pomegranate Milkshake, delicious drink made from pomegranate seeds and milk.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Pomegranate - 1 small
Milk - 1 cup
Honey/Maple Syrup - as needed

Procedure

Put everything in a blender and grind them into smooth. Drain the juice to remove the seeds.That's it, Pomegranate Milkshake is ready.

Notes:

• Depends on the sourness of the pomegranate, add more or less of sweetener
• Use chilled milk for great taste.
  

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Panakaram | Panakam | Traditional Drink | Summer Drink

Panakaram /Panakam, a delicious cooling drink prepared from lemon. For many temple festival in south tamilnadu, this panakaram(that's how we mention  "Panakam" in south tamilnadu) and neer moor are the most distributed drink to the people. 

In my school days, i had fond memories of having them druing ther thiruvizha(temple car festival) in my home town, Tirunelveli. During that time, people used to make panthal(small temporary store) on the road side and bring the panakaram and neer moor(Both are real thirst quencher and keep you cool in hot sun) in a large vessel to give to all the people who pay visit to the car festival. 

Amma says that in those days, the panakaram was mainly made with tamarind, instead of lemon. For tamarind panakaram, soak the tamarind in water, extract the pulp and add water as needed and add the remaining ingredients as such in the ingredients list. 

Even now, in certain temples, they do the same. When talking to Amma over phone last week, she mentioned that she prepared this panakam for around 100 people to distribute to the nearby Amman temple on Aadi Velli(Friday of Aadi(Tamil) month), since then i was craving for this delicious drink and made this few days back 😊 .

 Now let's check out how i have prepared this delicious panakaram with lemon.

Panakaram | Panakam | Traditional Drink

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Panakam, Traditional Summer Drink, Panakaram Panakaram /Panakam, a delicious & traditional South Indian drink prepared from lemon.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Lemon - 1/2
Jaggery - 3 tbsp
Water - 1 & 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Procedure

First measure and take the jaggery in a bowl, add water, let it sit for couple of mins or until the jaggery dissolves completely.

Strain the jaggery water to remove the impurities, then add the lemon juice squeezed from the 1/2 of the lemon.

Next add the salt and cardamon powder. Mix it all well together and the panakaram is ready.

Delicious Panakaram is ready to serve.

Related:How to make Neer Moor

Notes:

• Ground the jaggery into fine powder using hand motor and pestle or mixie to dissolve it easily.
• Salt really enhance the taste, so highly recommend to add.
• You can use ice water for chilled drink.
• In addition to cardamom, you can add pinch of dry ginger/sukku powder too.
• If you have tulsi, add few leaves. I can't source it here, so skipped it.
  

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Cucumber Juice | Cucumber Lemon Juice | Summer Drinks

Cucumber lemon juice, a perfect thirst quencher on summer days. It's one of my recent favorite juices to have on hot summer days. 

Cucumber has more than 95% water hence it's perfect to include in your diet on summer days to keep you hydrated. Mostly we like to have them sliced or used in raita as a side dish. 

But when i browsed through pinterest a while ago, i came across this cucumber juice and really like the idea of making  juice with cucumber, so later whenever i have bulk cucumbers in hand, without second thought, i made this juice. 

Here in the juice, i have used salt to season it, but instead of salt, you can add sugar/honey too. It's really up to your preference whether you want salty or sweet juice.

Cucumber Juice | Cucumber Lemon Juice

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 1 
Recipe Category: Juice | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Cucumber - 1 
Lemon - 1/2
Salt - 2 pinch
Pepper - to taste
Water - as needed

Procedure

First peel the cucumber and slice them roughly, put the cucumber slices into the blender.

Add enough water and grind them into smooth puree. Strain the cucumber puree.

Squeeze the lemon juice and add salt and pepper as per your taste. 

Stir well and it's ready to serve. Tasty and cool Cucumber Juice is ready.

Related:How to make pineapple raita

Notes:

• You can have this juice as it is without any straining too.
• If you like mint flavor, add few mint leaves while grinding the cucumber.
• Serve fresh for better taste.  
  

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Strawberry Smoothie | Summer Drink | Smoothie Recipe

Strawberry Smoothie, a quick to make delicious smoothie with only 3 ingredients. This is my go to recipe for strawberry smoothie. Since strawberries are in season for a while, though i love to have them as it is, sometimes prefer to make this smoothie or this strawberry lemonade. Both are my absolute favorite and it's bring out the strawberry flavor well. As i like strawberry flavor so much, while make any drink with these fruit, i'm always so subtle on adding other flavors or mostly prefer to skip adding any additional flavor, that's when you get the full flavor of strawberries in your drink. If you're like me, then definitely you will love this simple yet so delicious strawberry smoothie, now let's check out the recipe, honestly there is no such thing as recipe for this smoothie, you have to put together everything in the blender, blend and your smoothie is ready. Since it's my favorite, it has gotten a place here :-)

Strawberry Smoothie

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 1 or 2 
Recipe Category: Smoothie | Recipe Cuisine: International

Ingredients
Strawberry - 1/2 lb
Milk - 1/2 to 3/4 cup
Honey - as needed

Procedure

Wash and cut the strawberries into small cubes, put it in blender along with milk.Add the required honey/any sweetener as per your liking and blend into smooth puree.Tada, Quick to make strawberry smoothie is ready.

Notes:

• If you like thick smoothie, put the strawberries in freezer for one hour and then blend.
• Add more or less honey based on the sweetness of the strawberries and your preference.
  

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Paneer Soda | Rose Soda | Summer Drinks

Paneer Soda, a refreshing aerated drink with rose flavor. "Paneer" in tamil means rose flavored water, i guess the word "paneer" comes from the rose name(paneer rose) and the water made from that paneer rose(we call it as simply "Paneer") is used extensively for abishekam in the temples and also in marriages and other ceremonies where it is sprinkled on people's head to welcome them.

Nowadays, you can see the small fan in the entrance of many marriage hall, that sprinkle paneer over the people while entering the marriage hall. Yeah, it's totally different from the paneer, the Indian cottage cheese and no way related to that.

While grew up, i had this belief in my mind that the paneer flavor(aka rose flavor) is only for abhisekam and welcoming people and it's not edible. I don't know how i got this idea, may be because elders in our family warned many times "don't put it in your mouth" when they asked us to buy paneer for abhisekam or any temple festival.

Related: How to make Nannari Lemon Sarbath

They may warned us because it's artificially flavored and has lot of chemicals in it, but in my mind, it was craved like "rose flavor is not edible", how weird is that?? So for very long time, i had hard time to enjoy anything with rose flavor, still i do some times. Even today i prefer cardamon flavored gulab jamun over the rose flavored ones. 

Ok, enough with my stories, let's move on to today's recipe. This paneer soda is the most popular aerated drink that you can see in many road side shops in South Tamilnadu. Now it's available in ready to use bottle also, last time, during my india visit, i had one such bottle near Tiruchendur Murugan temple, don't know whether it's available all over Tamilnadu or not. 

But, If you like rose flavor, then i'm sure that you would go crazy for this drink, one time, i made this drink for one of my friends who loves rose flavor like anything and she keep on praising me for introducing this drink to her till today

Related: How to make Rose Milk

Before check out the recipe,if you want to know what i have prepared for past 5 days under "Street food" theme, here they are
Day 1 - Dahi Papdi Chaat
Day 2 - Bhel Puri
Day 3 - Jalebi
Day 4 - Nannari Paal Sharbath
Day 5 - Spinach Masala Dosa

Paneer Soda

Preparation Time : 2 mins | Cooking Time : 5 mins | Serves : 4  
Recipe Category: Summer Drinks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Paneer soda, Rose flavored soda, summer drink,tamilnadu special Paneer Soda, a refreshing aerated drink with rose flavor.Perfect as summer drink

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Rose essence - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Soda - as needed
Ice cubes - few

Procedure

First let's make sugar syrup, take the sugar in a sauce water and add the water into it. Turn the heat on and bring to boil.Once the sugar dissolves completely, switch off the flame and let it cool completely.

Then add the rose essence into the sugar syrup and stir it well. Tada, your rose syrup is ready. Take a serving glass, pour 1/4 of the glass with rose syrup.

For the remaining, fill it up with soda and finally add few ice cubes. Simple & aromatic Paneer soda is ready. Serve it immediately.For more summer drink and popsicle recipe, check out here

Related: How to make Panagam

Notes:

• Pour the soda just before serving. Otherwise the soda would be flat.
• Depends on how flavorful you want the soda, you can add more or less of rose essence in the sugar syrup.
• Sugar syrup is enough for making 4 small servings.
  

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Nannari Paal Sarbath | Milk Sarbath | Sarbath recipe

Nannari Paal Sarbath is a milk based sarbath flavored with nannari syrup. Nannari syrup is prepared from Nannari roots(Indian Sarsaparilla) and the natural coolant properties in it helps to cool the body during summer season.

In India during summer vacation, there are a lot of small sarbath stands or sugar cane juice stands pop up around almost every corner of the street and I love the nannari sarbath from those stalls. It's so refreshing and really a thirst quencher on those hot days. 

Related: How to make Nannari Lemon Sarbath

Now coming to today's recipe, I haven't tasted this Nannari Paal Sarbath until I tried on my own. This Paal Sarbath is quite a popular summer drink in Ramnad district and i came to know about this recipe through blogosphere. 

Ever since I knew about this recipe, I have been preparing this sarbath a lot, it's so delicious and we both loved it so much.  Here in the recipe i have prepared the basic version of this paal sarbath but you can top it on with either fruits & nuts or  a scoop of your favorite ice cream. 

Before check out the recipe,if you want to know what i have prepared for past 3 days under "Street food" theme, here they are

Day 1 - Dahi Papdi Chaat
Day 2 - Bhel Puri
Day 3 - Jalebi

Nannari Paal Sarbath

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 1 
Recipe Category: Summer Drinks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Nannari Sarbath,Nannari Paal Sarbath,Milk Sarbat,Summer drink,Ramnad Special,Tamilnadu Special Nannari Paal Sarbath is a milk based sarbath flavored with nannari syrup.Nannari syrup is prepared from Nannari roots(Indian Sarsaparilla) and the natural coolant properties in it helps to cool the body during summer season.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Nannari Syrup - 2 tbsp
Milk - 1 cup(boiled and cooled)
Sabja seed - 1 tsp
Ice cubes - few

Procedure

First take the sabja seed in a bowl and add the enough water to immerse it, let it soak for 30 mins.

Now take all the ingredients, in a glass add the nannari syrup and the sabja seed.

Then add the milk, mix it well together until all combined. Top it with few ice cubes and it's ready to serve.

Simple yet delicious Nannari Paal Sarbath is ready. For more summer drink and popsicle recipe, check out here

Related: How to make Rose Milk

Notes:

• Here i have used whole milk, but you can use reduced fat milk also.
• No need to add extra sugar, the sweetness from the nannari syrup is enough.
• Instead of sabja seed, you can use badam pisin too.
• The sweetness from the nannari syrup varies from brand to brand, so add more or less as required.
  

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