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Nimbu Pani

South Asian · 5 min · Easy · 4 glasses

Nimbu Pani

Indian lemonade, made savory with black salt and roasted cumin. Sweet, sour, salty and faintly smoky — the fastest cure there is for a hot afternoon.

~60 cal per serving — Calories are approximate, per serving — a guide only.

gluten-freenut-freesoy-freeoil-freegrain-freelow-calorie
Plan it:

Method

  1. 1

    Dissolve the base

    Stir the lemon juice, the sugar, the black salt and the roasted cumin together in a jug with a splash of water until the sugar and salt have completely dissolved. Do this first — nothing dissolves properly once the drink is cold.

  2. 2

    Dilute and serve

    Top up with the cold water, taste, and adjust: more lemon if it is flabby, more black salt if it tastes merely sweet. Serve over ice with mint leaves clapped between your palms and dropped in.

Notes

Black salt is what makes this nimbu pani rather than lemonade — it is sulfurous and savory and there is no substitute. Roasting the cumin in a dry pan for thirty seconds before grinding makes an obvious difference. The balance should be aggressive on every axis at once.

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