Something fast and sweet, Marcel’s idea, as summer should taste—

You’ll need—

1.5 kg watermelon flesh

6 teaspoons of sugar

1 lemon

How to make it?

Add the watermelon flesh pieces into the blender with the sugar and lemon juice.

Blend.

Savour.

Vegetarian here. Mongolia – not so (vegetarian). Our solution? A Turkish restaurant, the best in Ölgii. Browsing through the menu, ’sea buckthorn juice’ catches my eye. It seems like a Kazakh tradition to me, as my new Kazakh friend from Russian Altai tells me about its preparation process when I let her know on just how much of this juice I had drunk. Cold and hot.  

How to make it at home?

(makes 4 glasses)

170g sea buckthorn

60g sugar

400ml water

Wash the sea buckthorn – you can use the berries fresh or frozen; I don’t remove the tails –.

Juice the sea buckthorn berries.

Add the sugar and then the water.

If you don’t have a juicer, blend the sea buckthorn berries, sieve the obtained mixture and then add the sugar and the water.

The good part? Especially in winter – when we must take better care of us –, sea buckthorn juice is wonderful, this superfood containing 15 times more vitamin C than oranges. It isn’t surprising, then, that Mongolians hold sea buckthorn so dear especially during their long and freezing winters!

2 large glasses (2x 300ml)

4 (ripe) guavas

100ml water

3 tbsp of sugar

125ml milk

As I’ve mentioned in the previous recipe, we became fascinated by guava in Egypt. Two of the few people who got into my heart were the owners of Oonas Restaurant in Sharm, where we used to eat breakfast and dinner. They taught us how to make the juice and how to pick out the perfect fruit to take back home – and also from where.

The guava juice can be prepared in 2 ways, so here they are:

1) By using a juicer: wash the guavas, cut them into pieces, and add them into the juicer, pouring the water into the juicer as the guavas are juiced. Then, add the sugar and the milk, stir well, and savour.

2) By using a blender: wash the guavas, cut them into pieces, and add them into the blender, together with the water. Blend only for a few seconds (being careful not to crush the seeds), sieve the paste, and add milk and sugar, stirring well.

You will surely love it!

May you have a good end to this year and an even better start to the next one!