Healthy Morning Drink

KICKstart your summer mornings with this fresh, healthy and invigorating drink filled with the goodness of vegetables, a hint of mint, lime, honey and ginger. The kids, who otherwise eat veggies not because they love to but because they have to [no choice with mean old mom around:)], surprisingly, look forward to a glass of this mixed veggie juice everyday. That, for me, is the barometer of a recipe's success at home.

Ditch your morning cuppa during this summer and sip on this instead while taking in the day's dreary headlines.

What you need:
1 beetroot
1 carrot
1 big tomato
1 cucumber
5 mint leaves
Juice of a quarter
of a lime
1/4" piece of ginger
1 cup water
1 tablespoon honey

Peel beetroot, carrot and cucumber and roughly chop them and the tomato. Puree in a blender along with all the other ingredients, except the honey. Strain juice. Sweeten with the honey.

Orange Melody

SUMMER is here with a bang and it's time to go on a liquid diet to quench your thirst and keep your cool! So go ahead and beat the summer heat with this refreshing cooler made with orange juice, a hint of ginger, lime, ice and some fizz.

What you need:

2 cups orange juice
1 cup ginger-lime cordial
Ice cubes
500 ml soda, chilled
Sprigs of mint

Combine orange juice and ginger-lime cordial and keep chilled. To serve, fill half a glass with the prepared mix. Add 3 - 4 cubes of ice and top up with soda. Garnish with a sprig of mint.

Makes about 6 glasses.

PS: If you don't fancy the fizz, simply substitute the soda with cold water. You can even convert it into a delightful cocktail ....laced with vodka - 30 ml, 45 ml, 60 ml?? If after a few you're still sober, three cheers to you! If not, you'll still be forgiven if you've misspelled Orange Melody as Orange Malady!! Cheers!!!

Whey & Celery Refresher

I'VE never had any use for whey, except as a home remedy for an upset tummy, and so, down the drain it went whenever I made "hung curd" for dips or a cheesecake. Litres of it have since gone down the drain but that was before I attended the Upper Crust Food & Wine Show at the Lalit Ashok recently.

In his demo, Chef Mani Pathak elevated this same whey, that I thought was waste, to a sophisticated drink by using just a couple of simple transforming ingredients.

I tried it out for the first time today and yay (!) does it feel great to have moved from "away with whey" to "a way with whey"!

What you need:

400 ml whey
100 gm cucumber, peeled & deseeded
100 gm celery sticks
Salt to taste
A few drops of Tabasco



Keep the whey chilled. Chop the cucumber and the celery sticks. Blend both together and strain to obtain the juice. Mix with the chilled whey. Add salt to taste and a dash of Tabasco. Serve in shooter glasses.