Watermelon Roohafza Popsicle

Apart from the daylight, what I love about the summers are the fruits. I love all the summer fruits, and every year I try experimenting with some fruit-based recipes. Yesterday, I shared watermelon ginger juice, and today it’s time for the watermelon popsicle. Fruit-based popsicles are very easy to make; they are oh-so-delicious as well. All good stuff, folks! This watermelon popsicle is one such recipe as well. With just three ingredients, you can make this popsicle in no time. The main ingredient is watermelon. As I discussed the health benefits of it yesterday, let me talk about Rooh Afza and basil seeds.

Rooh Afza-

Rooh Afza means soul refresher, and it is a concentrated squash drink quite popular in the Indian subcontinent. You can find these syrups in Asian stores and Indian groceries. During summer, along with nannari syrup, black currant syrup, and rose syrup, I like to stock up this one too. You can add it to your sharbat, rose milk, and also to your lemonade, etc. It is quite easy to whip up some quick non-alcoholic drinks with these syrups. Rooh Afza contains sugar already, so be careful while adding sugar. Instead of rooh afza, you can add plain rose syrup or skip these syrups entirely and add lemon/lime juice and honey.

Basil Seeds-

Basil seeds or sabja seeds are natural coolants, and you will find them in a lot of Indian sharbat like kulukki sarbath, falooda and I even used them in my jigarthanda. Please don’t confuse it with chia seeds. It’s not only a natural coolant, but it is a good source of minerals, fiber, and ALA omega-3 fat. You can find the comparative nutritional profile analysis with chia seeds on the Healthline website. Basil seeds are optional in this popsicle, but it adds a great texture. You can use chia seeds also. Like watermelon juice, the sky is the limit when it comes to the combinations. In fact, you can freeze the watermelon ginger juice and call it watermelon ginger juice popsicles, and you can relish this as a juice instead of freezing. All these popsicle recipes are more like a guideline and have fun mixing and matching the ingredients.

Watch me make the watermelon juice and popsicle here-

Prep-Work-

Soak the sabja seeds in ¼ to ½ cup of water for 30 minutes and let the seeds swell. After 30 minutes, drain if there is any water left and set it aside.

How to make the watermelon popsicles-

Add the watermelon and Rooh Afza in the blender and blend it thoroughly. I used my Blendtec and used the smoothie setting. After blending, add the drained basil seeds and mix them thoroughly. Now add this blended juice into the popsicle molds and freeze until solid. I usually freeze it overnight. Before serving, run the popsicle mold through running water or immerse it in a glass filled with water for 30 seconds or so and gently remove the popsicles from the mold. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes-

I usually don’t sieve my watermelon juice. We love it as is. But you can run the juice through a sieve and filter it and then add the basil seeds. Make sure you remove the seeds before blending. Also, if you are watermelon is not sweet enough, then add sugar. If you are using Rooh Afza, keep in mind that it has sugar already. Instead of Rooh Afza, you can add rose syrup or nannari syrup or honey and lemon/lime juice combination. Adjust the watermelon and Rooh Afza measure according to your preference. Basil seeds are optional. You can skip it or use chia seeds instead of basil seeds.

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