Pomegranate Lemonade .... Power packed health drink

I have never seen my parents or even my grandparents buy packaged drinks in my growing up years. Not even now. The concept packaged food is not well accepted in my family. Although I sometimes venture out in trying the so called modern food for my own convenience. My family believed in DIY, even more when it comes to food. Eating seasonal fruits and vegetables was the norm. Grandma, would get bag full of fresh fruits on her way back from work and prepare jams and juices. Those would be stored in sterilized and sun dried bottles and jars. I never fancied those in my growing up years. Those looked bland and colorless to me. Lectures on the food value of freshly prepared food hardly made sense to me. I rather preferred the colorful drinks and squashes that the aunty next door would serve on occasions when there was a play date at their place. The "I love you Rasna" advertisement which was quite popular those days was one of the favorites. However, nothing could convince my parents to bring home a pack. So I had to wait for play dates at the neighbors place.

It was also customary at our place to serve "Nimbu Sharbat" at the first place when someone visited during the hot summer days. Maa would quickly rush to the kitchen and pull out one of those special goblets reserved for guests. She would add generous amount of sugar and squeeze fresh lemon juice and stir it with a steel spoon till all the sugar vanished and serve it with few pieces of ice. Sometimes I would also get a small portion. Anything that tasted sweet was good enough for me. 

That was the only lemonade that I drank in my growing up years. And I have to admit that nothing quenches my thirst better than that. However, I love experimenting, especially when it comes to food. Last week when I went shopping for grocery, I spotted some really good pomegranates and was tempted to get a bag full. I have been eating them almost everyday mostly in my salads or even just by itself. I am quite fascinated by the jewel fruit .... especially the color. And more because of the immense food value. No wonder its called the "super fruit" by some.
I prepared a lemonade with it and it was quite good. A welcome change from the regular ones. It is quite simple and easy and needs to be consumed fresh.

 

Health Benefits of Pomegranates

• Most powerful anti-oxidant of all fruits
• Potent anti-cancer and immune supporting effects
• Inhibits abnormal platelet aggregation that could cause heart attacks, strokes and embolic disease
• Lowers cholesterol and other cardiac risk factors
• Lowers blood pressure
• Shown to promote reversal of atherosclerotic plaque in human studies
• May have benefits to relieve or protect against depression and osteoporosis

Serves -2

Preparation Time - 15 minutes

Ingredients 

Pomegranate Seeds - 1 cup

Fresh Lemon Juice - 2 teaspoons

Sugar - 1.5 tsp (optional)

Black Salt - 1/4 tsp

Water - 1.5 cup

Ice Cubes (optional)

Method of Preparation

Grind pomegranate seeds with 1/2 cup water in a mixer for 5 seconds.

Take small size bowl, strain pulp through sieve and extract juice. Press pulp using spoon to extract more juice and effectively get more vitamins, antioxidants and other nutritional elements.

Add 1 cup water, sugar, black salt and fresh lemon juice. Stir well until sugar dissolves completely.

Serve Chilled with ice cubes.