Six super scrumptious summer snack recipes to spur your salivary glands

Summer is here! The sun is out, the temperature is soaring. Bright and sunny days have well and truly arrived! But it’s also boiling and the humidity is energy-sapping. It’s time to drink something cool, eat something light to lift the deflated and dehydrated mood! Let’s see what recipes for summer can help us feel as happy and cheerful on the inside as the weather is outside!

So, let’s dive into these interesting and mood-uplifting summer food recipes.

Refreshing summer recipes

Let’s start with a drink to refresh and revitalize ourselves, shall we? In the summer, the cooling recipes, especially the drinks, are the most popular. They help you feel cool from the inside and also serve as light food that will prevent you from feeling full and heavy.

1.  Mint Cooler

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 250 g bottle gourd
• 2-3 tbsp. mint Leaves
• 4-5 tbsp. rock sugar (according to taste preferences)
• 1/2  tsp black salt
• 1 tsp roasted cumin seeds

How to prepare

1. Peel and cut bottle gourd into big pieces.
2. Steam bottle gourd pieces for 10 minutes.
3. Grind bottle gourd pieces, mint leaves, rock sugar, and black salt, with roasted cumin seeds powder.
4. Add this pulp into water, mix and serve.

Relish the fresh and cool taste of summer in your mouth. This recipe will help energize you, knocking off the lethargy of the hot summer months!

2. Amla Sherbet

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 20 mins

Servings: 2-3

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. amla (gooseberry) juice
• 2 glasses water
• 2 tbsp. jaggery/rock sugar
• 3 tbsp. mint leaves
• 1 tsp black salt
• 1 tsp cumin powder

How to prepare

1. Cut 3-4 amlas (gooseberries) into pieces, remove the seeds and make a juice with them.
2. Grind mint leaves and amla juice into a fine paste in a mixer or grinder.
3. Take 2 glasses of water in a vessel, and add jaggery, black salt, and cumin powder and mix them along with the mint puree.
4. Serve in a tall glass.

Your sherbet is ready to drink! We bet you will feel like you are drinking nature in a glass! 

If you would like something more filling that can serve as a mid-morning snack or have had a heavy breakfast and want a good substitute for a light lunch, try a smoothie.

3. Falooda

Prep Time: 10 mins 

Cooking Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 20 mins

Servings: 4 

Ingredients

• 2 cups milk
• 2 tsp rock sugar
• 1 tbsp. subja seeds (basil seeds)
• 2 tbsp. rose water
• 1 tsp beetroot juice
• 1 tbsp. gulkand (sweet preserve made of rose petals and sugar)
• Few rose petals

How to prepare

1. Soak subja seeds in water for 1 ½ hours.
2. Mix rose water, gulkand and rock sugar.
3. Add beetroot juice and gulkand decoction to milk and mix well.
4. Serve in a glass with rose petals as a garnish.

Note: Sabja seeds are also known as falooda seeds or basil seeds. 

Serve it in a tall glass and garnish with rose petals! I bet your salivary glands are on overdrive just thinking about this desert beverage! You just can’t help loving summer with these drink recipes!

Now, how about a summer snack to make you feel like you’re on a vacation?

4. Chana Chatpata

Prep Time: 20 minutes 

Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Servings: 4 

Ingredients

• 1 cup chana dal (Bengal gram)
• 1 tsp dry mango powder
• ½ tsp black salt
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• A pinch of asafetida
• ½ tsp rock salt (as per taste)
• 2 tsp oil

How to prepare

1. Soak Chana dal for 5-6 hours in water.
2. Remove water and dry the dal on a cloth for about an hour.
3. Dry roast the dal in a thick iron pan for 10 minutes, continuously stirring it.
4. Add a little oil and fry the dal for another 5-8 minutes till it turns light brown.
5. Add a little asafetida, black pepper, dry mango powder, black salt, and rock salt.
6. Stir for 2-3 minutes and turn off the gas.

Enjoy crunchy Chatpata Chana! Something to munch on along with your evening beverage.

Are you looking for something slightly more wholesome and filling? Try the summer special jowar dosa.

5. Jowar Dosa

Prep Time: 45 minutes 

Cooking Time: 3 minutes per dosa

Total Time: 48 minutes

Servings: 5-6 people

Ingredients

• 250 g whole jowar (sorghum)
• 125 g urad dal (black gram)
• 75 g moong dal (green gram)
• Salt as per taste

How to prepare

1. Soak jowar for 8 hours and dals for 4-5 hours in separate containers.
2. Grind each one separately into a fine paste. 
3. Mix the jowar batter with the dal batters.
4. Add salt and ferment it for 8 hours.
5. Take some batter in a rounded spoon and make dosa on a pan.
6. Enjoy with chutney!

Jowar is high in fiber and is therefore very filling. As a result this is a good item to include in your diet for weight loss as it makes you feel full soon. It is also free from gluten and so can be consumed by those who are allergic to it. This is a nourishing food for summer.

Now, how about some good ol’ curd rice to help cleanse the digestive system?

6. Curd rice with pomegranate 

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 35 mins

Total Time: 45 mins

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• I cup rice
• 3 cups water
• Salt to taste
• 3-4 tbsp fresh curd
• 1 tsp oil
• ½  tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• ½ tsp chana dal (Bengal gram)
• ½ tsp urad dal (Black gram)
• 2 chopped green chilies
• 2 dried and whole red chilies
• 5-6 curry leaves
• 2 tsp pomegranates
• Pinch of coriander leaves

How to prepare

1. Pressure cook the rice with water.
2. Mash the cooked rice until it is mushy.
3. Add salt and mix well.
4. Add fresh thick curd and mix well. Keep aside.
5. Add oil in a pan and heat it.
6. Add cumin seeds, mustard, chana dal, urad dal, chilies and curry leaves one by one and let them crackle. Now, turn off the stove. 
7. Add the mixed rice to the seasoned spices and mix well.
8. Add the pomegranates to the mix.
9. Garnish with coriander leaves.

This mixed curd rice will leave a fresh and clean feel and taste inside your mouth. It is just the right addition to round up the summer special recipes!

When you are satisfied on the inside, you will manifest it on the outside! So, hydrate yourself well with these summer foods. Your skin will glow, your hair will shine and, most importantly, you will feel fresh and energetic. 

If you would like to try out more summer drinks to stay hydrated during the burning summer months, here are some refreshing recipes.

Written with inputs from Kaushani Desai, Ayurvedic cooking teacher, The Art of Living

Compiled by: Anusha Chellappa

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