Aam Panna with Pudina: Minty Green Mango Drink

A roasted raw mango drink with mint and spices, aam panna (green mango panna) is a classic Indian summer cooler.

It’s packed with nutrition and is said to tackle the adverse effects of loo.

Making aam panna can be time-consuming but it’s worth every bit of the effort. You can get ready-made aam panna too, but if you ask me, it doesn’t taste nearly as good as the homemade stuff.

So here’s how to prepare this drink in your own kitchen.

Note: This aam panna recipe incorporates a generous amount of pudina (mint) – adding mint to the mix enhances its cooling and digestive properties.

Ingredients:

[For 4-5 glasses]

• Green Mango – 1 large: I use totapuri mango. Have tried others too but this one seems to work best for panna.
• Mint leaves – a handful, plucked from the stems
• Roasted cumin powder (bhuna jeera) – 1/2 teaspoon (steps for making roasted cumin powder)
• Black salt (kala namak) – 1/2 teaspoon
• Pepper – freshly ground, 1/4 teaspoon
• Sugar – 2 tablespoons, or to taste

How To Make Green Mango Panna with Mint:

1. Prepare the non-mango ingredients

Wash and chop fresh mint leaves.

Make bhuna jeera if you don’t have it on hand already.

2. Roast the mango

Roast the mango, unpeeled, on the fire on medium-low heat. I put the mango on the gas burner over a stand. Keep turning it every few minutes. By the end of it, the mango’s skin should blacken all over but not turn to ash. I usually tie in the roasting while I’m doing something else nearby, as the mango needs a watchful eye but you don’t need to stand over it every moment.

Take the roasted mango off the fire and let it cool. [Avoid looking at the dirty burner with dismay, it gets cleaned up in no time.] When cool, break off the skin taking care not to let its particles stick to the mango. The skin will crumble away very easily.

Squeeze out all the roasted mango pulp into the blender.

Variation: Boil instead of roast

Boiling the mango is quicker and cleaner than roasting, though I prefer the roasted taste. If you do want to go the boiled mango way: pressure-cook the mango on high heat until you hear a whistle. Turn off the heat, and let the cooker release its pressure naturally (the lid should come off with ease). Unlock the lid, pick out the boiled mango carefully, let cool, peel.

Squeeze out all the boiled mango pulp into the blender.

3. Blend

Along with the cooked mango pulp, put in all the other ingredients – sugar, pepper, roasted cumin powder, black salt, chopped mint leaves – into the blender. Add a glass of water and blend all the ingredients into a smooth puree.

This recipe gives you a concentrate that makes 4-5 glasses. You can bottle and store green mango panna concentrate in the fridge for about two days; longer if you use dried mint instead of fresh.

To Serve:

Add ice cubes to a tall glass. Pour in green mango panna concentrate and water in a 1:1 ratio. Stir. Garnish with fresh mint leaves.

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