How to Make Quick Jeera Soda

Refreshing Homemade Masala Soda

Let’s make a refreshing summer drink – jeera soda, or homemade masala soda, a cooling drink made with jeera or cumin seeds, spices, and lime juice. The step-by-step instructions will show you how to make this refreshing and quick jeera soda in three ways. You’ll also learn how you could enjoy jeera soda by making it using a homemade syrup or a sugar-free, dry pre-mix.

This masala soda recipe / easy jeera soda recipe exploits the ancient knowledge we have in India about the cooling and digestive properties of cumin seeds. Besides, it’s a ridiculously easy recipe for an awesome summer drink.

But no matter which of the three methods in this video you use, once you have a ready homemade jeera soda syrup or pre-mix, you’ll be able to quickly and easily enjoy chilled and delicious jeera soda all through this summer whenever you need quick relief from the heat. So do yourself and your family a favour and definitely give this lip-smacking recipe a shot.

If you have little children or you yourself would prefer a slightly sweeter drink, then increase the sugar content by about ¼ cup.

Another tasty and amazingly easy-to-make perfect recipe for the hot summer months is my recipe for malai and kesar pista kulfi. It includes two secret ingredients that help make these delicious kulfis in minutes.

Ingredients

For the syrup

¼ cup jeera (or cumin)

1 tsp black pepper corns

1 cup water

25 – 30 mint leaves, crushed

2 ½ tbsp finely grated / crushed ginger

1 cup sugar

2 tsp black salt

1 tbsp chaat masala

For the dry, sugar-free jeera soda pre-mix

¼ cup jeera

1 tsp black pepper corns

1 tbsp dry ginger powder

1 tbsp black salt

1 tbsp chaat masala

(Makes around ½ cup of pre-mix)

Procedure

Syrup

1. Dry roast the jeera and peppercorns in a pan on medium heat for 5 minutes. Don’t over -roast these. The cumin should change colour just a little bit. Let this mix cool for around 15 minutes and then grind it coarsely. It shouldn’t be a fine powder.
2. Crush the mint leaves using a pestle and mortar. You could increase the mint leaves content up to double the mentioned quantity, if you want a more prominent mint taste.
3. Then to the same pan, add 1 cup of water and bring it to a boil on high heat. Add in the jeera-peppercorns mix, the crushed mint leaves, and the grated ginger. Give the contents a quick stir and let the mixture boil on high heat for around 2 minutes.
4. Lower the heat to medium and stir in the sugar. Add an extra ¼ cup of sugar if you want a slightly sweeter jeera drink. Let the syrup boil for around 5 minutes till it’s slightly sticky to the touch. The syrup shouldn’t be too thick.
5. Finally, add in the chaat masala and the black salt. Let the syrup boil for another minute and then take it off the heat.
6. Let it cool slightly for around 5 minutes and then strain it through a sieve. Press down the residue in the sieve to extract all the syrup from it. Add 1 tbsp of boiling water to it and press it down again to extract a little more flavour from it. (The residue is quite tasty. So don’t discard it. You could use it in vegetable dishes, curries, and soups.)
7. Transfer the syrup to a clean dry bottle. The jeera soda syrup will stay good for around a month when stored at room temperature.

Sugar-free, dry jeera soda pre-mix

1. Like for the syrup, dry roast the jeera and peppercorns on medium heat for around 5 minutes. But this time, after cooling the mix, grind it to a very fine powder. You could also sift it to make sure there are no bits of unground jeera or peppercorns in it.
2. To the finely ground powder, add the dried ginger, chaat masala, and black salt.
3. Mix it well and then store this dry pre-mix in a clean dry bottle.
4. This jeera soda pre-mix too will stay good in the fridge for around a month.

To make the drink (using a 6-0z / 180 ml glass):

1.) 1 tbsp syrup / ¾ tsp pre-mix, 1 tsp lime juice, ice (optional), chilled club soda

2.) 1 tbsp syrup / ¾ tsp premix, 1 tsp lime juice, ice (optional), ½ tsp Eno, chilled water.

3.) 1 tbsp syrup / ¾ tsp premix, 1 tsp lime juice, ice (optional), chilled water (non-fizzy drink)

For taller glasses, use 1 ½ tbsp syrup /1 tsp dry premix + 1 ½ tsp lime juice + ice cubes (optional) + chilled water / chilled club soda / 1 tsp fruit salt + chilled water.

Enjoy!