Aam Panna - Indian Green Mango Cooler
Aam Panna is a refreshing indian summer drink made with raw mangoes, sugar, and spices.Beat the heat with this delicious cooling drink packed with tang & flavor!
Ingredients
- 450 g green mangoes after mashing yielded about 350g of mango pulp
- 1.5 cup water for pressure cooking
- 300 g sugar or adjust to taste
- 2 green cardamom pods seeds only
- 1 teaspoon roasted cumin powder
- ¼ teaspoon roasted fennel seeds powder
- 2 teaspoon kala namak indian rock salt
- ½ teaspoon tables salt adjust to taste
- 5-6 mint leaves
For a Single Serving of Aam Panna
- 3-4 tablespoon aam panna concentrate adjust as needed
- 8-10 oz water
- ice cubes, mint leaves to serve
Instructions
Cook The Green Mangoes
- Wash the mangoes and remove their tops. Peel the mango skis using a vegetable peeler or knife.
- Place in a pressure cooker or steel insert of you instant pot along 1.5 cup of water. Close the lid and boil for 6-8 whistles or until soft. You could also cook the mangoes in a cooking pot for 20-30 minutes or as needed until they are soft and squishy. Let cool down till okay to touch. Don't discard the liquid from boiling, we are going to use it.
- Using your hands, squish the boiled mangoes and remove all their pulp. Depending on how unripe your mango is, you will have a tiny seed or a hard seed in the middle. Take off all the flesh from the seed. Discard the seed.See recipe notes for more methods to mash mangoes.
Prep the spices (while the mangoes are cooking)
- I prefer freshly dry roasting the cumin & fennel seeds. Add the spices to a small and dry roast on low flame keeping an eye until toasty and slightly smoky. Let cook a little and then crush them using a mortar pestle.
- Use a separate mortar pestle and crush the green cardamom seeds to preserve their delicate scent. Or you could use ready to use green cardamom powder.
- Finely chop few leaves(5-6) of fresh mint. You could use dried mint as well.
Make The Aam Panna Concentrate
- Add the spices, sugar, salt, kala namak (or rock salt) and mint to the mashed mango pulp. Mix well using a spoon until the sugar is dissolved. Your concentrate is ready. Store it for 2-3 weeks in the fridge and use as you like. Always use a clean spoon to scoop.
Make The Aam Panna Drink
- Anytime you want to make the drink out of panna concentrate, add about ¼ cup of aam panna concentrate to a large cup and top with 8 to 10 oz water or unflavored sparkling water (I do so) . Add ice cubes, a sprig of fresh mint and serve chilled! I remember using a spoon at the end of drinking and eating the mango pulp at the bottom of the glass. Thats why I serve the panna with a spoon :)
Notes
3 ways to mash the Cooked Mangoes
- Add the liquid we saved from boiling, using your hands, mash the mango pulp. Many people blend the pulp too, however I don't. I saw my grandmother, mashing it with hands (to preserve the texture from strings found in the mango pulp). Aam panna is not supposed to be a blended drink, however if you wish so, you can process the mango pulp.
- Sieve the hand mashed mango pulp through a soup colander/sieve and press down the pulp using a wooden spoon to make it finer.
- If you want a really smooth pulp, you could blend the pulp in a blender jar. Do keep in mind that blending will completely change the texture of panna (will be thickish).
- Aam Panna Cocktail - Add a shot of vodka or tequila to spike the aam panna concentrate.
- Make Aam Panna Mocktail- Add pineapple juice, fresh citrus juices or berry syrups to make a variety of mocktails. Personally, I like pairing it with tropical fruit juices.
- Use Jaggery instead of sugar - The taste and color of aam panna with jaggery (gud) is different but so good. You could use jaggery powder (it will make the panna deep brown in color) or kolhapuri jaggery (it preserves the color quite a bit). Grate the jaggery block and stir until it dissolves. Jaggery also boosts the iron content of panna.
- Aam Panna With Soda - Simply pop open a can of club soda or sparkling water and use instead of regular water.
- Pudina Aam Panna- Blend the mango pulp with handful of fresh mint leaves. The color will become green and the taste of aam panna becomes minty.
- Aam Panna with ripe mangoes - For the real panna taste, it's best that you use green unripe mangoes. However I will direct you to recipe of this mango shikanji using ripe mangoes that is a perfect summer cooler!
- Preferably use tart unripe mangoes for the perfect taste.
- You could blend the boiled or roasted mango pulp if you wish.
- Keep in mind to adjust the sugar quantity depending on tartness and quantity of mango pulp that you get after discarding the seed.
- If your mangoes are sweetish, reduce the sugar quantity to keep the drink on the tangy side.
- Avoid adding lot of spices or mint. Panna needs to have a pronounced taste of the mangoes.
- Using my recipe, there will be pulp at the bottom of cup, serve a spoon on the side.
- Towards the end of green mango season, the mangoes that come in the market are quite stringy and fibrous with large hard shelled seeds inside, I would avoid using those.
Nutrition
Calories: 181kcalCarbohydrates: 46gProtein: 1gFat: 0.4gSaturated Fat: 0.1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.1gSodium: 587mgPotassium: 109mgFiber: 1gSugar: 45gVitamin A: 638IUVitamin C: 21mgCalcium: 15mgIron: 0.4mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!