Recipe By Sanjeev Kapoor from the book How to Cook Indian

This drink is an excellent digestive. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week. Dried dates and raisins impart natural sweetness to the drink, but if you wish to make it sweeter you can add 1 teaspoon sugar to each glass of adrak navratan.

Note from FIT: Using dried fruit for a sweetner cuts down on refined sugar, but if you are on a low sodium diet you should reduce or eliminate the salt.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 10 to 12 dried dates
• 1frac12; teaspoons julienned tender fresh ginger
• frac12; cup (90 grams) raisins
• 5 or 6 hot green chiles, stemmed and cut in half
• frac12; cup (100 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1½ teaspoons table salt
• 1 teaspoon black salty

Directions

1. Pit the dates and thinly slice them lengthwise.

2. Combine the dates, ginger, raisins, chiles, lemon juice, salt, black salt, and 1 cup (200 ml) water in a bowl and stir well. Transfer the mixture into a wide-mouthed glass jar. Shake well and set aside for 7 days or until the juice turns pink.

3. To serve, put 1 tablespoon of the juice and 1 tablespoon of the julienned dates and ginger in a glass. Fill the glass with cold water and serve.