Now that we know what panjeeri is and what the best times are to enjoy it, let us now delve deeper into the ingredients for panjeeri. Just like any other power food, its strength lies in what it is made of. There are numerous panjeeri ingredients that make it such a useful and powerful food supplement. Panjeeri mainly contains a mix of dry fruits crushed and mashed together into a delicious mix. Additives then give it its sweet, or not so sweet, taste. Let’s discuss all the panjeeri ingredients and what you can do to cook panjeeri fit for your taste buds.
Panjeeri Ingredients in a nutshell
Panjeeri constitutes a series of main ingredients that give it its distinctive taste, texture, and nutrients. Mainly, it contains a mix of dry fruits such as walnuts, almonds, pistachio, edible gum (goond), Kamarkas which is also known as flame of the forest. It also contains fox nuts (phool makhanay). What you use as panjeeri ingredients depends on personal taste preference and even the objective of consumption. There are some ingredients that are beneficial for postpartum recovery. Some help in general wellness, while some contribute to post-workout muscle growth and recovery. Well, you get the picture.
Let’s look at panjeeri ingredients in a little more detail.
Main Ingredients that make up the Panjeeri mix
We’ve looked at the ingredients used to make panjeeri from afar. Here’s a panjeeri ingredients list that, when added together, makes panjeeri such a potent food for so many reasons.
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Desi Ghee:
Desi ghee forms one-half of the base ingredient of Panjeeri. Desi ghee boosts digestion, regulates blood sugars, and improves the flow of breast milk.
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Suji (Semolina):
Suji forms the other half of the base ingredient of Panjeeri. It helps provide essential proteins and is rich in iron.
A mix of dried fruits: There are loads of dried fruits that we use to make our Panjeeri. Essential and everybody’s favorite dried fruits like badaam, pista, akhrot, kaaju, phool makhanay and kaju make up the mix. We also add chaaron maghaz, chaaron goondh, kishmish and khopra to the mix.
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Badaam (Almonds):
There’s a reason too many why he’s called the king of the house: Rich in Vitamin E, Badaam Baadshah brings to the table lots of anti-oxidants and hunger-fighting nutrients that lower cholesterol and blood sugar and of course, enhance brain functioning! When roasted and crushed, Badaam Baadshah becomes a vital ingredient of our Panjeeri!
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Cashew (Kaaju):
Kaaju chachu’s zindagi ka maqsad: taking care of our eyes, skin, and metabolism! Rich in copper, it eliminates free radicals from the body. Omega 3 fatty acids in it boost our bodily functions while a powerful antioxidant pigment called Zea Xanthin gets readily absorbed in the retina to protect it from harmful UV rays!
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Raisin (Kishmish):
Kishmish raani, bari siyani! Rich in potassium and soluble fibers, kishmish keeps high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and stomach issues at bay. It contains polyphenols, which are antioxidants that may protect the cells in the eyes from free radical damage.
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Coconut (Khopra):
He’s hip, he’s dandy, and the reason for the tropical notes in our Panjeeri! Besides a delightfully sweet and pleasant texture, Khopra Chokra (in its desiccated form) brings to the mix vitamin B6, iron, and minerals such as magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium-all the good stuff that makes you look young by preventing age spots, sagging skin, and wrinkles!
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Walnut (Akhrot):
Major Akhrot reporting for duty! With outstanding selfless commitment and loyalty, it serves to support excellent brain function, healthy aging, positive mental health, and reduced appetite. Additionally, it also becomes a rich source of Omega-3s in our Panjeeri and helps to fight oxidative stress and inflammation.
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Melon seeds (Chaaron Maghaz):
One’s a memory booster(enhances memory and retention), one is a nervine tonic(strengthens the various nerves within the body), the third is neuroprotective (protects the brain and nerves from damage), and the fourth is a nootropic (promotes learning, reasoning, and perception of new things). By coming together in our Panjeeri, the Chokannay Chaarmaghaz fight in reducing free radical damage in our bodies!
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Pistachio (Pista):
A little hard on the outside, but when you get to know what’s inside her, you’d agree that Pista Sista lights up our lives with unparalleled joy! In our Panjeeri, she not only blesses the concoction with Vitamin B6 and thiamine, but you can also trust her to keep your blood pressure and cholesterol in check as it promotes healthy blood vessel health! Nothing gets your motivation to look fit like a sista, so she also offers lots of nutrients and anti-oxidants to take care of that!
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Fox nuts (Phool makhana):
You know that member of the family you think is seemingly the cheekiest, but he/she has a significant role in the household? That’s what Makhana Dewaana is for Nutrition Nagar and our Panjeeri. It may be rolling around in the jar for the most part but Makhana Deewana is the only one who takes up the arduous task of taking care of the spleen: recycles the red blood cells that get deposited there! It’s rich in calcium, proteins, and fiber; it’s gluten-free but still high in protein and carbohydrate content. There is also a natural compound called kaempferol found in them that reduces inflammation in the body.
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Gums (Chaaron goondh):
Their health protection game is SO ON! Gamer Chaargoonds are constantly fighting radical chemicals with their anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects. In particular, they have a massive role in increasing probiotic bacteria in the gut, promoting satiety following meals, slowing down gastric emptying, and regulating hormone secretion, which helps manage appetite and weight. In doing so, they enhance the feeling of fullness and satiety!
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Sugar (Cheeni):
She enables our Panjeeri to hit the sweet spot just right On Wednesdays, she wears pink! She’s perhaps the reason why our desi delicacy becomes obsessively irresistible and Cheeni Meanie knows that really well! While you may avoid her as much as possible by opting for shakkar and brown sugar variants, she knows that she is indispensable to our classic Panjeeri recipe!
Variants and Add-ons of Panjeeri
If the above is not enough, you can also add other ingredients that each give out a distinctive taste and texture. For instance, adding sugar and/or brown sugar makes it sweet and perfect as a tea-time snack. Advocates of all things conventional can add shakkar to their mix. If you are diabetic, it is probably a good idea that you avoid sugar altogether and go for our sugar-free variant.
You can also include further add-ons because everybody likes their panjeeri to fit their own taste buds. Kamar kass, or flame of the forest, accentuates the taste and also brings its own set of benefits to the table.
Dried ginger powder, or suund, is another add-on to potentially use. Although, perhaps testing to see what it tastes like would be a good idea because it is not everybody’s cup of tea.
Pakistanis make Panjeeri in a wide variety of ways. Interestingly, pulses or daal is another base ingredient to use to make Panjeeri. We, at Panjeeri Online, are strong advocates of panjeeri made from suji and there are plenty of good reasons why that is the case.