Recipe
Tamarind water (nam makham)
- Herb:
- Tamarind Tamarindus indica
- Method:
- Culinary use
- Plant part:
- Fruit
About 15 minBeginnerRecipe science profile
Procedure
- Pour 300 ml of warm water over 100 g of tamarind pulp from a block and let it soften 10 minutes.
- Work the pulp with your hands so it comes free of the seeds and fibres.
- Strain through a sieve into a jug, pressing through as much pulp as possible, and top up with 700 ml of cold water.
- Sweeten with 3–4 tablespoons of sugar or honey, add a pinch of salt and serve over ice with mint.
Extraction
- Herb:
- 100 g of pulp from a block per 1 l of water
- Solvent:
- soak in warm water, knead by hand, strain
- Shelf life:
- 3 days in the fridge
- Target compounds:
- tartaric acid, sugars, pectin and pulp polyphenols enter the water; seeds and fibres remain in the strainer
Notes
A Thai and Mexican refresher (agua de tamarindo). The sweet-sour pulp holds a lot of sugar — this is a drink, not a medicine; larger amounts are mildly laxative.
Why it works
Tamarind pulp is 8–14 % tartaric acid and 30–40 % sugars, plus pectin and polyphenols — hence the sweet-sour taste and pleasant body of the drink. The review by Kuru 2014 summarises traditional laxative and 'cooling' uses and laboratory data on antioxidant and lipid-lowering activity, but clinical trials are few; tamarind water is food.
Literature
- Kuru P (2014): Tamarindus indica and its health related effects. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine 4(9):676–681 — Review of pulp composition and traditional uses; predominantly preclinical data.
Related
Tamarind — Herb card
Culinary use — Processing method detail