Ragi Ki Raab: A Jodhpuri Summer Speciality Recipe

If the weather right now is anything to go by, hot summer days are clearly here to stay for a moment; but you can always keep yourself feeling cool and healthy by making small tweaks to your diet to ensure that common ailments like bloating, indigestion, acidity, skin breakouts and dehydration are at bay. Indian regional cuisine, which has always championed sustainable food practices, takes into account seasonality, the availability of produce and pre-empting possible health challenges to combat through food.

This ragi ki raab, an integral part to Jodhpuri meals during the summer season, is known to be an excellent probiotic and coolant. Made with toasted ragi flour and fermented buttermilk, this summer ‘drink’ is known to be beneficial in cooling the gut as well as shielding the body from a heatstroke. Depending on personal preference, the raab can be made thicker or thinner in consistency, and tastes best when eaten with stale rotis or khakhra, chopped onions and a scoop of fresh yoghurt.

When ragi flour, a nutritious millet-based ingredient, is combined with the probiotic rich fermented buttermilk, the raab has a tangy flavour with a nutty aftertaste. You could also skip the fermentation process and make the raab with fresh buttermilk, for an instant raab recipe. The raab can be drunk as is, for a cooling drink in the middle of the day, post lunch or just before bedtime, to aid smooth digestion as well as keep gastric issues at bay. Find an easy recipe to recreate at home, below.

Recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 4 tablespoons ragi flour
• 1.5 cups water
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 2 tablespoons fresh coriander
• Salt, to taste

Method

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• Add salt and mustard powder to the buttermilk and stir to combine. Allow the buttermilk to rest for 4-5 hours in a warm place and ferment.
• Meanwhile, toast the ragi flour in a dry pan and make a paste by adding a tiny bit of water to it. Boil the remaining water in a separate pot and add the paste to it. Whisk it thoroughly and cook further for 5-6 minutes, until it begins to thicken.
• Cool the thickened ragi mixture completely and add it to the fermented buttermilk. Mix well to combine before adding the cumin powder, coriander leaves and checking for seasoning to adjust, if necessary.
• Refrigerate the raab until it is ready to be consumed and serve with chopped onions, more fresh coriander, a dollop of yoghurt and cold chapatis.