Nimbu Pani (Limeade)

My family is Indian and my mom makes this with a mix of lemons and limes, along with salt, sugar, and a touch of cumin. It’s delicious! I would imagine every Indian family has their own recipe so let’s not rag on the one shared with us here.

My experience in visits to India is this is offered salty or sweet. This NYT recipe is (obviously) for salty. I always go with sweet, and it’s made with fresh lime juice, sugar syrup and soda (carbonated) water /- ice depending on availability. Most places serve it in a tall glass with the lime juice in the bottom and a small jug of syrup and a bottle of soda water on the side, and let the drinker mix the proportions to their personal taste. Add gin and you have a Tom Collins.

The amount of salt seems wrong to me. Anyway, you can put less salt (including black salt) and add more sugar. You can also use only one type of salt too. Sugar is definitely not optional in any version of this recipe (except if you, say, have diabetes). You can try putting stuff like monk fruit sweetener instead of sugar but I personally don't like the aftertaste of the substitute. The final taste should be less sweet than the American lemonade with a bit more pungency due to the black salt.