Spice up your regular homemade lemonade recipe or your normal Kulukki sarbath with Orange flavour for that extra sweet twist!
This recipe is easy to make and packed with vitamin c and doesn’t require many ingredients. So take a sip and enjoy summer, with this super refreshing summer drink.
what is Kulukki sarbath?
Meaning of ‘sarbath/ sharbat/ sharbath’ refers to ‘juice’ and ‘Kulukki’ in Tamil or Malayalam refers to ‘vigorous shake’ and that is the key to this famous spiced lemonade recipe that hails from south of India.
During our summer vacations in hometown, I happened to see a lot of tela (small roadside shops) selling kulukki sarbath, almost everywhere across the roadside. Out of curiosity, I asked my mom about the sudden spike in the name boards of tela shops all spelling ‘kulukki sarbath’.
We stopped the car and had a cup at one of the roadside stalls. We were sipping some spicy, refreshing drink and a food chat over kulukki sarbath.
My mom shared with me a snippet she read over a newspaper weeks back about this trending Indian drink recipe. This Indian style spiced lemonade is made first by a street vendor in Kerala. His method got famous and its trending now all over south India.
Some vendors have gone one step further to create a shaking style that gets them famous. Might Even you have watched some ice cream sellers creating moves while making ice creams to attract customers? Or that coffee seller who dances and flips cups making moves, exciting right?
Kulukki sarbath benefits
Rather than being a trend, do you know this recipe has got you all covered with ingredients that boost your immune system?
Orange + Lemon: One of the most well-known facts of citrus foods is that they are rich in vitamin c, and helps to fight a cold.
But did you know they are also rich in folate? Oh, yes, I remember exploring this fact when I was pregnant with my naughty little pie. Also, not to deny the truth, citric acid in them helps in absorbing iron.
Basil seeds: They don’t have a distinct taste, but they are gelatinous when soaked. Basil is native to India, and as a Holy plant, its benefits are echoed almost around every household.
My mom used to say, they have a cooling property and didn’t fail to be a part of our lemonades and milkshakes during iftars in Ramadan or that normal ‘nimbu paani’ with floating sabja’s in scorching summer.
Ginger: My days don’t start fresh without a cup of ginger tea. Oh! That morning sickness during pregnancy. Well, I had a whole seven months of morning sickness, and ginger was my biggest saviour.
Another great use of ginger they highly helps in indigestion caused by oily foods, or maybe literally, they speed up digestion, and my FIL believes it, and so is my husband.
So, its almost like we love ginger in anything, but we have reduced the intake of ginger during the extreme summers as they are said to bring in the heat. If you are probably wondering about the usage of ginger in this drink? Then, I would say feel free to adjust the quantity.
Also, just a few inches of ginger a day doesn’t make a big difference in bringing in the heat that too when combining with basil seeds!
Overall, the ingredient helps with your immunity as the significant three components have benefits with building resistance.
Orange flavoured spiced lemonade shakeups| kulukki sarbath
Originally, kulukki sarbath is made with lemon juice, sugar, most likely a lemonade, and it is cloudy in colour. The addition of basil seeds, ginger and chilly gives it a great twist.
My variation of recipe includes the addition of orange juice along with lemon that gives it a hint of tangy, sweet, spicy, and it is orangish-yellow in colour.
- Other trending possible types of kulukki sarbath include,
- Mango flavoured– substitute mango extract instead of orange, it is extra tangy because of its rawness
- Pineapple– Just substitute pineapple juice instead of lemon juice
- Normal or Authentic – you don’t need to add orange juice to the same recipe I have mentioned below.
Chia or basil seeds
The authentic method for making kulukki sarbath includes basil seeds (sabja). If you did not find basil seeds in your pantry or if that’s hard to get around your location. You can freely swap it back with chia seeds.
But, remember basil seeds doesn’t require much of soaking time and hardly takes up to 15 minutes to absorb water whereas chia seeds need some soaking time between twenty minutes to two hours.
Yes, If you would like to speed up the time to enjoy this refreshing drink that is too using chia; you need to probably add your chia seeds to warm water to reduce your soaking time from half an hour to twenty minutes.
where to find sabja: Mostly sourced in Indian shops. You can also purchase them online.
Lemonade for kids – Less spicy version
Though the amount of spiciness in this Orange lemonade shakeups are negligible, sometimes, might not prefer feeding your kid anything spicy or you not fond of spices.
Sounds like you? Then I must say, this recipe is easily adaptable. Either you could avoid adding split chillies to the recipe, or you can reduce both ginger and chilly.
Kulukki sherbat Maker- You don’t need a special equipment
If you are wondering, is there any equipment specially Involved with making this recipe? Then my answer is no.
It doesn’t even needs a blender.
Have a bottle handy. And that’s it! You’re good to go with a recipe that requires less than 2 minutes for preparation.
So, just go shake, shake, shake, shake it off! 😉
How to make spiced lemonade shakeups? – an easy to follow step by step instructions
- At first, wash and peel the ginger, and finely chop them into pieces
- Then, wash, slit and cut a chilly into half.
- After that, remove specks of dust or impurities from sabja or basil seeds if any.
- Then take the required amount of water in a bowl and add basil seeds (sabja). If using chia seeds, skip this step as you could have already soaked them in the required amount of water.
- now, Extract lemon and orange juices.
- Then, remove the seeds from the extracted juice.
- I used nannari sarbath as sugar syrup, you can use any store-bought syrup for this purpose, or you can simply skip this step or make one on your own.
- Mix all the ingredients in a bottle.
- now, give it a vigorous shake.
- That’s it! your refreshing summer drink is ready with a hint of fizz.
- Serve them in tall glasses by adding ice cubes or crushed ice and adding a slice of lemon. Again, this is too optional.
Tips & substitutes
- you can also substitute chopped ginger pieces with dry ginger powder. But, be careful while adjusting the amount by testing and tasting. because you don’t want to end up in fiery throat right?
- Adjust adding chilly and ginger based on your spice preference.
- you can totally avoid sugar syrup or compensate with the addition of sugar.
- you can source nannari syrup in any Indian organic stores or you can purchase online or you can skip this ingredient and adjust your sugar based on your preference.
Kulukki sarbath | Orange Spiced lemonade shakeups
Equipment
- a bottle for shaking
Ingredients
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- ½ cup Orange juice
- 1½ tbsp Sugar
- ¼ cup Sugar syrup (optional)
- 1 tsp Basil seeds
- 1 inch Ginger
- 1 Chilly split and halved
- 2 cup water
- 4-5 Ice cubes or crushed ice optional
Instructions
- Etract lemon juice from lemon and seperate 2 tsp from it and keep it aside
- Extract half cup of orange juice from oranges.
- Wash,Peel 1 inch sized ginger and finely chop it.
- wash, split and half a chilly.
- look for and remove dust from basil seeds
- Add all the ingredients together in a bottle and shake it up vigorously for a minute ot two.
- your slightly fizzy refreshing orange spiced lemonade drink is ready to serve.
