Receta Herb Mocktail Recipe
This Herb Mocktail has all the goodness of the locally available herbs around your home and is perfect for the Monsoon or rainy season. This drink will take care of any digestive problems that you may have and also any feeling of flatulence that you may feel after a heavy meal. It acts as a natural body cleanser and nourishes your body from within. So it is also better to have it at least once a week.
As, one of the sponsors for the IFB Meet, Urban Dazzle are hosting a contest for cocktails and mocktails and I’m sending this as a second entry for the same. I would love to serve this mocktail in this Kombo hole highball tumbler as it will look prettier while giving this to kids especially.
I have used all edible leaves that we normally eat to treat cold at home. The betel nut leaf that is known as Pan leaf in North India and as Vetrillai in South India, Oregano that is also called as “Karpooravalli” and the Indian holy basil leaves aka Tulsi. All these leaves are natural mouth fresheners and can be easily grown in your own backyard.
Usually during my childhood as we had a terrace garden at home, mom used to make a kashayam featuring all these leaves i have mentioned above and I really hated it so much to drink that as it was very much pungent and bitter. This mocktail is just an adaptation of the kashayam, to make it more fun for the kids to drink as well.
Herb Mocktail Recipe
Prep time: 2 mins | Cook time: 5 mins | Serves: 2
Recipe Cuisine: Indian | Recipe Category: Drinks/Beverages
Ingredients:
Betelnut leaf (Pan leaf or Vetrilai) – 1
- Oregano leaves – 2
- Indian Holy Basil leaves (Tulsi) – 10 to 15 leaves
- Powdered Sugar – 2 tsp (optional)
- Lemon juice – 1/2 tsp
- Black pepper corn – 2 to 3
- Cumin seeds – 1/8 tsp
- Dry ginger powder / Ground Ginger – 2 pinch
- Honey – 2 tsp
- Black salt – 2 pinch
- Water – 1/4 cup
- Club soda – 3/4 cup
Ice cubes – to serve
Instructions:
Wash and tear all the leaves roughly. Place them in a pressure cooker along with 1/4 cup water and black pepper corn and cumin seeds.
Pressure cook for 1 whistle and switch off stove. You can also microwave it. I let it steep in the cooker itself for 1/2 hour before opening the lid. Steeping the leaves is of course optional.
Transfer the leaves along with water to a mixie jar, add powdered sugar and grind to a smooth paste.
Transfer the contents into a strainer and squeeze well to extract all the juice. Discard the solid particles in the strainer.
Wet the serving glass rim in water and dip into salt to coat the rim. Add the extracted herb juice to the glass, lemon juice, honey, dry ginger powder, black salt and fill half the glass with ice cubes.
Top with club soda and serve immediately.
Notes:
You can leave out any leaf according to availability.
You can also add chaat masala powder before serving.