Green Apple panna is a refreshing Indian summer cooler made out of green apples and seasoned with roasted cumin powder, black salt and mint leaves. This summer cooler is non-alcoholic and is frequently enjoyed during the summertime in India, because this fresh, chilled drink not only beats the heat but also helps to keep you hydrated and energized.
This green apple panna recipe is inspired by a very popular North Indian summer cooler known as “Aam Panna ,“ and the sweet and sour, tangy flavor of this homemade green apple panna is enjoyed by kids as well.
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Is Green Apple Panna Good for You?
Who doesn’t know the saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor away? Like any other variety of apple, green apples have a lot of health benefits to offer. They are packed with nutrients, fiber, minerals and vitamins that are good for your overall health.
Green apples are low in fat, high in fiber and extra rich in vitamin A and C. Apart from being an excellent source of various vitamins and minerals, green apples are quite rich in calcium content as well. Eating a green apple every day can help to strengthen bones and teeth as well.
Green apples are a little sour and sweet in taste, so this green apple panna recipe doesn’t require a lot of sweetener to balance out the flavor.
What is a Panna Drink?
Fresh green apple panna is a delicious sweet and tangy Indian summer cooler made with a tart fruit of your choice, fresh mint leaves, roasted cumin powder, black salt and sugar. It is very refreshing and has cooling properties, because it uses a significant amount of mint and black salt.
If you like this recipe, be sure to try my roasted plum juice, which uses roasted plums to caramelize the natural sugars in a plum to bring out its hidden flavor.
Tips For the Best Green Apple Panna
- Choose firm and fresh green apples without any bruises.
- This recipe uses four green apples and yields eight cups of drink. Approximately one apple yields two cups of apple panna, so that should be the consistency of the drink.
- You can also use other varieties of apples, but tartier apples make the drink taste so much better and are recommended for this recipe.
- If your green apples are on the sweeter side, you may not need to add any sweetener to the drink.
- If your green apple panna is not tangy enough, you can increase the quantity of lemon juice in the recipe.
- Apple panna stores well for a week in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
- For an even healthier version, I use crushed/powdered jaggery which blends easily when pulsed with the panna. If you don't have jaggery on hand, you can substitute it with sugar, coconut sugar, or any preferred sweetener you have on hand.
- You can also soak and seed dates.
FAQs About This Green Apple Panna Indian Summer Cooler
Yes, you can use other varieties of apples, but remember to use the tangy ones. Sweeter apples won't bring out the best flavors in this recipe.
Making roasted cumin powder is very easy. Just roast a handful of cumin seeds on low heat in a pan. Keep stirring and tossing for even browning and brown until you start getting a nice aroma and dark brown color. Then turn off the heat, let it cool down a bit, and then grind it into a powder using a spice grinder or a nutri-bullet blender. Store roasted cumin seeds in a clean, dry jar for later use.
Black rock salt or kala namak is available on Amazon, or if you have any Indian store nearby, you can also find it there.
Fresh mint can be easily dried and saved for later use when mint is not in season. When it is available, I always dry my mint leaves. To make dried mint leaves powder, sort the leaves and rinse them well. Then spread the leaves on a kitchen towel and allow them to dry somewhere where it is shady. Drying the leaves in the sun will cause them to turn black. It will take 3-4 days to completely dry the leaves. Once they are dry, they will become crisp. Rub the dried leaves between your palm to create a powder and then sieve the powdered mint leaves and store in an air tight spice jar for later use.
Recipe
Green Apple Panna: Delicious Indian Summer Cooler
Equipment
Ingredients
Produce:
- 600 gram Green Apples 4 medium size apples
- 28 gram Ginger 2 tablespoons grated
- 2 tablespoon Lime Juice juice of one lime
- 28 gram Fresh Mint Leaves one cup leaves
- 4 cup Water 2 + 2 divided
- 4 cup Ice
Spices:
- 28 gram Jaggery 2 tablespoon
- ½ teaspoon Salt adjust as per your taste
- ½ teaspoon Black Pepper Powder
- 2 teaspoon Black Rock Salt
- 2 teaspoon Cumin Seeds Roasted Powder
- ½ teaspoon Dry Mint Leaves Powder
Instructions
- To get rid of the wax coating, soak the green apples in hot water and vinegar solution (16:1) for 15-20 minutes. After 20 minutes give them a good rub and rinse them under tap water.
- Now Core and chop clean apples into cubes, no need to peel them. In video I have showed two ways of coring apples, you can do either way.
- Add the chopped green apples to the inner pot of Instant Pot. Add 2 cups of water to the apples.
- Put the lid on and pressure cook on high pressure for one minute. Make sure the venting knob is in the sealing position.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally. Once the pin drops, carefully open the Instant Pot. After the apples are boiled, they will lose their vibrant, rich green color and may not look pleasing, which is absolutely fine.
- Let the boiled apples cool down a bit before adding other ingredients to cooked apples.
- Once the apples are cold enough add grated ginger, lime or lemon juice, jaggery or your preferred sweetener you are using and green mint leaves.
- Blend everything together using an immersion blender. If you don’t happen to have immersion blender then transfer the boiled apples with other ingredients to a blender jar and blend until smooth.
- Once blend smooth, pass the pureed green apple panna through a fine-mesh strainer.
- Strain through the strainer, stirring and pressing to extract all the liquid into the bowl. Discard all the leftover fibers.
- Now add all the spices to strained apple puree. Black rock salt(check notes), black pepper, roasted cumin seeds powder (Check notes), bit of salt and powdered mint leaves (check notes) to the pureed apple Panna.
- Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Add more chilled water and ice to adjust the consistency of panna.
- You can also add few hand torned mint leaves and key lime slices and store the drink in refrigerator until ready to serve.
- Add few cubes of ice in a glass and fill the glass with this chilled panna and enjoy this refreshing drink.
Video
Equipment used in making this recipe:
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Sanjali says
Thank you for sharing, this recipe was a big hit with my family!!!
Shraddha Patil says
I made this today and loved it. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Mausam says
I had couple of really sour apples and I made this today. It was such a big hit in my home. Everyone liked it. It has quite similar taste of aam panna. Thank you Rupali for sharing this.
Rupali Agarwal says
Thank you for your feedback! Glad you enjoyed the recipe!