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LoginSol Kadhi, Amti Recipe And More: Maharashtrian Summer Cooking To Beat The Heat
10 min
26/05/202610 min26/05/2026
The amti recipe tradition and the overall summer food culture of Maharashtra are rooted in the simplicity of using the best of local ingredients known to cool down the body. Maharashtrian cuisine can be broadly classified into two regional styles of Konkan and Varadi, where the Konkani cuisine draws from Goan, Saraswat, and Malvani influences, and the Vidarbha region has a spicier approach. There are mangoes, kokum, spices, and loads of coconuts that help the body cool down.
Kicking it off with the breezy Konkan coastal belt in Maharashtra, with places like Ratnagiri and Palghar, this region is defined by fresh coconut and coconut milk. Then there is the hotter Vidarbha region, which is inland and away from the coast, with regions like Nagpur and Amaravati in it, which tend to use dry coconut and peanuts in their preparations. This geographic difference creates two different summer cooking styles, both Marathi, but genuinely different.
In Konkan, the coconut-tree-lined strip of land between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea running through Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, and into Goa, the sol kadhi recipe is an important part of Goan, Konkan, and Malvani cuisine, prized for its cooling and digestive properties, to counter the heavily spiced dishes of the western coastal region. Whichever the region, the state has a salad with every meal or koshimbir, made with cooling ingredients like yoghurt and cucumber.
In Vidarbha, where summers are famously brutal, and mercury can exceed 45°C in districts like Chandrapur and Nagpur, the pungency goes up, and you get hotter chutneys, like the famous chilli thecha, more tamarind, more raw onion. This might seem anti-climactic because spicy food triggers heat in the body, but by doing this, the body’s core temperature is forced to cool down. You also get kairi panha, buttermilk and the famous aamras from this region.
Kairichi amti recipe is a traditional Maharashtrian dal made with raw mangoes and lentils, with a fresh coconut masala, that is a beloved dish during summers in the Konkan regions of Maharashtra. This sweet and sour dal is a staple at Chaitra Gauri celebrations, wedding meals in the Konkan belt, and everyday summer lunches.
Ingredients for Kairichi Amti Recipe
Raw mango (kairi), peeled and chopped: 1 large
Toor dal or split chana dal: 1 cup
Fresh grated coconut: ½ cup
Dry red chillies: 2
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Coriander seeds: 1 tsp
Methi (fenugreek) seeds: ½ tsp
Garlic cloves: 3-4
Ginger: ½-inch piece
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Turmeric powder: ½ tsp
Jaggery (adjust to tartness of mango): 1-2 tsp
Salt: to taste
Oil: 1 tbsp
Curry leaves: a few
Fresh coriander: for garnish
Method for Kairichi Amti Recipe
Pressure cook dal with turmeric and salt until soft. Grind coconut, dry red chillies, cumin, coriander, garlic, ginger, and methi into a smooth paste. Heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves and raw mango. Add jaggery and cooked dal; simmer briefly. Stir in coconut masala, cook for 5 minutes, adjust salt, and serve hot with rice, koshimbir, and sol kadhi or kairi panha.
No summer meal in the Konkan coast is complete without sol kadhi, which is a kokum-based drink, made using kokum and coconut milk that is slightly pinkish (mauve-hued), with a mildly tart and sweet flavour. Sol kadhi is served as a drink or a side dish with meals, and is known for its cooling and digestive properties, perfect on a hot summer day or as a beverage with heavily spiced dishes of Maharashtra.
Ingredients for Sol Kadhi Recipe
Dried kokum petals: 8-10
Freshly grated coconut (for two extractions of milk): 1 cup
Green chillies, crushed: 1-2
Garlic cloves, crushed: 2-3
Black salt and regular salt: to taste
Roasted cumin powder (optional): ½ tsp
Fresh coriander: for garnish
Water: 1-1.5 cups
How to Make Sol Kadhi Recipe
Soak kokum in hot water for 30 minutes, mash well, and strain the extract. Blend coconut, ginger, green chilli, and water; strain twice to make coconut milk. Mix kokum extract with coconut milk, garlic, chillies, and salt. Strain again, garnish with coriander, and serve chilled.
Kokum sharbat recipe is the go-to summer drink across the Konkan belt because kokum has a natural cooling effect on the body. This is why you will find it in almost every Goan and Maharashtrian kitchen during summer. Known as ‘Vrikshamla’ in Ayurveda, it is considered one of the most cooling fruits, rich in antioxidants, flavonoids, and other nutrients. It is used as a souring ingredient in curries, dals, and other dishes across Maharashtrian, Gujarati, Konkani, and Goan cuisines.
Ingredients for Kokum Sharbat Recipe (Makes a 500ml concentrate)
Dried kokum rinds: about 2 cups
Sugar or jaggery: 1½ cups
Water (for soaking): 2 cups
Water (for syrup): 2 cups
Cumin powder: 1 tsp
Black salt: ½ tsp
Cardamom powder: ½ tsp
Black pepper: a pinch
How to Make Kokum Sharbat Recipe
Rinse and soak kokum in 2 cups of water for 2 hours, then blend into a smooth paste. Add the kokum mixture to hot sugar syrup with cumin, black salt, cardamom, and black pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. Cool completely, bottle, and refrigerate. To serve, mix 2-3 tbsp concentrate with cold water or soda and ice. Store in an airtight glass bottle for up to 6 months.
The third pillar of Maharashtra's summer drink heritage is kairi panha, which is the Marathi version of aam panna, a raw mango drink that is sweetened with jaggery. Kairicha panha is found in almost every house in Maharashtra during the hot summer months of March and April, when raw mangoes are readily available. Unlike the kokum sharbat recipe, which tends to be acidic, the raw mango in kairi panha provides Vitamin C and natural sugars that restore electrolytes lost through sweating.
Quick Recipe for Kairi Panha
Pressure-cook one large raw mango without water. Cool, peel, and extract the pulp. Mash the pulp with jaggery in a 1:1 ratio, adjusting based on the sourness of the mango. Flavour with crushed cardamom (grind with the peel for more flavour). Dilute with cold water, adjust sweetness, and serve over ice. Rock salt and black pepper powder can be added.
The staple meal of rural Maharashtra households was as simple as bajra bhakri accompanied by just a raw onion, a dry chutney, or a gram flour preparation like jhunka. The dense, slow-digesting millet flatbread paired with the pungent raw onion, all of which are deceptively simple, with both ingredients promoting the body to cool down via perspiration courtesy of the fibre and the compounds in the onion in this pairing.
That was the pungent duo with a simple fibre-rich flatbread, and when paired with the cooling sol kadhi recipe or a bowl of kairichi amti recipe, the combination becomes a balanced one. The garlic in the sol kadhi, green chilli in the panha, the sour kairi in the amti recipe are all pungent ingredients used in moderation, added to less pungent and cooling ingredients of coconut milk, jaggery, and kokum.
A. In summer, Maharashtra’s famous dishes include sol kadhi, kairichi amti, and pithla bhakri, known for balancing heat with cooling, tangy ingredients like kokum, raw mango, and buttermilk.
