Kanji

Kanji is a traditional North Indian lacto-fermented drink of deep purple-black colour, made by steeping black carrots (and sometimes beetroot) with ground mustard, salt, chilli and water and leaving the jar in the sun to sour over several days. Tangy, savoury and faintly pungent from the mustard, it is a probiotic beverage most closely associated with the North Indian spring — with Holi and the festival season — when the deep-red winter carrots are still in the markets. It is drunk cold as a digestive and a thirst-quencher, the carrot pieces often eaten as a soured pickle alongside.