Summer Refresher

During my last trip to Dubai I met the very lovely Alma Begic, the founder of Handy Trendy who gave me a glimpse into the wonderful food and cultures of Bosnia. 

While we sat and chatted about life, living and creativity, she served me a tall glass of water with the goodness of lime and mint leaves infused in them.

I found it so refreshing that to battle the gradual arrival of summer, I decided to try it at home.

There are tonnes of similar recipes of the ‘Mint, Cucumber & Lemon’ water drink floating all over the Internet, but I like to try out things on my own.

The best part about this recipe is that there are no fancy ingredients required, yes of course you can opt for all organic or home grown cucumbers, lime and mint leaves provided you get it in your locality, else locally produced ones are just as good.

However I did look up the benefits of this summer cooler so that I could convince people at home as to why we should drink this every day at least during the hot summers and the good news is that this drink helps the body detox, helps you to stay hydrated, helps in digestion, boosts immunity, calms skin rashes, it’s loaded with vitamins, helps in weight loss – and lots more.

Go ahead read on if you like and you’ll know how good this drink is.

Most importantly why I liked this drink more is because it requires no sugar or sweetner.

Sugars are important for the body but within permissable limits of course. So while the ‘nimbu pani’, the fresh lime soda, jal jeera are some of the favourite cooling drink in our country, this one I thought is a no fuss (and less calorie) drink.

What I do is, I soak the cucumber, mint and lemon in a bowl of water with Good Home’s Fruit & Vegetable Wash for a few minutes and then rinse them thoroughly with water to rid of dirt, germs and soil. I do this because I don’t peel the cucumber, I add it with the skin on to make the drink more nutritive.

I made the concoction in this beautiful glass jug which is my parents’ wedding gift they received in 1968! 🙂

So now this beautiful glass jug sits pretty on the dining table with a mocktail stirrer and glasses.

We keep drinking the water through out the day, as and when the water gets over, we tank it up with more drinking water and keep sipping on it the entire day until we go to bed.

This is definately a very refreshing drink, try it out and you will know the difference.

Ingredients:

• Drinking water
• lemon – 1
• Cucumber – 1
• Mint leaves – 2 -3 sprigs

Method

1. Wash the cucumber, lemon and mint leaves thoroughly. Soak them in Good Home’s Fruit & Vegetable Wash for better results.
2. Then slice up the lemon and cucumber with the skin on.
3. Fill a tall glass jug with drinking water and add the sliced lemon and cucumber.
4. Tear the mint leaves and add.
5. Fill the jar with water and keep it. After about half an hour, you’re ready to sip on it on the go.
6. Keep refilling the jug with water until the end of the day.
7. Make a fresh concoction the next morning.

What’s your summer drink? 

Do you have a summer drink that you make at home? Please share it with us with a quick recipe and a nice photo to go with it at tanya@tanyamunshi.com

In case you’ve got the recipe from a cookery show or book, kindly mention the source for copyright issues.