Strawberry panna is a sweet, tangy, salty, spiced drink made using fresh strawberries, lemon, jaggery, cardamom, rock salt, and black pepper. Make the concentrate using fresh strawberries and refrigerate it. Use as necessary by diluting it with water.
I love Aam Ka Panna – a sweet, tangy, salty, spiced beverage made from raw mangoes! Had a batch of strawberries at home that weren’t getting finished up as quickly as I would have liked to see them go and was worried they may go bad. That’s when “Strawberry Panna” happened.
We are experiencing some warm afternoon weather this week and the kids are always thirsty when they are back from school. I was pleasantly surprised when they relished this robustly flavored drink!
Ingredients (makes 8 oz of concentrate):
- Fresh strawberries (2 cups)
- Jaggery (1 cup or as needed, depending on your taste preference and the sweetness of the fruit)
- Lemon juice (6 tbsp)
- Rock salt (per taste)
- Cardamom pod (1)
- Black pepper seeds (5-6 or as per taste)
Method:
- Wash and hull the strawberries. Cut them into quarters or halves.
- Cook the strawberries with 2 tbsp of water, until soft and mushy.
- Puree the cooked strawberries, when cooled slightly.
- Dry roast cardamom, black pepper and powder using a mortar and pestle along with rock salt. Add this powder to the pureed strawberries.
- Here is how much jaggery I used in proportion to the puree. I may reduce the quantity slightly next time.
- Melt jaggery in a pan with 2 tbsp of water.
- When the jaggery has melted, add the puree.
- Mix well and turn off the flame.
- Your strawberry panna concentrate is almost ready. This is what mine looked like.
- When this cools down, add lemon juice. Adjust tastes (salt, lemon juice, jaggery and black pepper powder) as necessary at this time. Store it in a clean glass container.
- For 1 part of concentrate, you can use 4 or 5 parts of water, depending on your taste preference and also on the strength of the concentrate. Play with this and see what works best. The concentrate will store well under refrigeration for up to 2 weeks.
Tastes (Rasa):
Sweet (strawberry, jaggery), sour (lemon), salty (rock salt), bitter (none), pungent (black pepper), astringent (none).
Doshic Influence:
This all natural spiced drink balances the sweet taste that is usually prevalent in most beverages with a robust pungent, salty and sour taste derived from the digestive spices incorporated in it. This is a fairly tridoshic recipe.
Effects on the Mind (Gunas):
This is a sattvic drink that is sweet, nourishing, refreshing and all-natural.