Finger Millet Juice (Nanchane Udha)

Finger millet juice is a very healthy traditional summer drink. It can be a saviour during hot summer days. And can be a delicious, nutritious, healthy drink during not so hot days of the year.

Beat the summer heat with a chilled, home made finger millet juice. It’s so easy to make. Finger millet is ground with just jaggery and cardamom to make a marvelous drink. Cardamom adds an amazing flavour and taste to this drink. Jaggery used as the sweetner makes this drink all the more healthy. A drink through which you'll get all the health benefits of finger millet  & finger millet in turn has cooling effects on your body too. 

Grinder makes awesome smooth textured juice. Mixie not so much yet you can still enjoy delicious drink. We at home make a big jug of these juices, chill them and gulp them down the whole day. You can store them in fridge and enjoy them for upto 2 days.

Instead of reaching out for some store bought juice with added sweetners, preservatives and additives, give this healthy drink a try. It’s the most healthy drink you can make for yourself. Replace the store bought juices with this drink and you’ll be doing yourself a favour. :-) Here’s the recipe for you:

In Konkani, nanchano means finger millet and udha means water. Finger millet in Kannada is called ragi. This juice has been around for centuries and has been had specially during summers. 

A few more traditional drinks you can make: Poppy seeds juice, Sesame juice, Green gram juice, Cantaloupe drink, Hibiscus Juice.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup finger millet
• 1/2 cup powdered jaggery
• 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom powder or 2-3 cardamoms
• water to dilute and grind

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 7-10 minutes

Preparation Method:

1. Transfer finger millet along with 1 cup of water, jaggery, cardamom pods peeled into a grinder or mixie and blend into a smooth paste.
2. Strain the mixture if needed and discard the residue, it’ll mainly contain finger millet husk. You can drink it without straining it too. 
3. Adjust the amount of jaggery you add according to your palate. You can use more cardamom powder if needed. 
4. Dilute the juice if required by adding more water. 
5. Serve as-is or chilled and enjoy!

Side Note:

1. Traditionally, whole finger millet are ground in a wet grinder for a very smooth texture and for an amazing taste. Please use a wet grinder, if not you can use a mixer/blender for sake of ease. But the texture of the juice may not be as smooth as the one obtained though in a wet grinder. Also, you'll have a lot of husk/residue leftout in the end if you use a blender/mixer. 
2. Refrigerate the juice to enjoy it for a day or two.
3. You can also heat up the finger millet for 1-2 minutes before you grind them to remove any raw flavours present.
4. Drink this juice without straining it to get all the good fibres.
5. If store bought finger millet isn’t clean, then give it a wash before grinding it and strain using a stariner to remove all the water.
6. You can make this juice using finger millet powder but it tastes best when finger millet is freshly ground.

Here are a few more traditional drinks: Poppy seeds juice, Sesame juice, Green gram juice, Cantaloupe drink, Hibiscus Juice.

Tags: Finger millet juice, nanchane udha, summer drink, healthy juice, Konkani cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani recipe, Konkani dish, rage juice.