Narsharab pomegranate sauce benefits and harms.

Natural Narsharab is rich in substances and elements valuable for the body. Its calorie content is about 270 kcal per 100 g, which is explained by the high carbohydrate content - at least 67 g. Fats and proteins account for less than 1 g. The energy value may vary: it all depends on what ingredients the sauce is made from. Most often they use salt, a mixture of peppers, lemon juice and various aromatic seasonings.

The chemical composition of the pomegranate product is represented by the following elements:

• phytoncides, tannins,
• iron, potassium and magnesium,
• vitamins of group C, P, E,
• antioxidants,
• fruit acids (large amounts of citric and malic),
• anthocyanins.

The healthiest product is one made from natural juice with added sugar, spices and without substances that enhance the taste or help it last longer. Only such Narsharab can contain the maximum of useful substances.

Beneficial features

Due to its ability to increase the level of hemoglobin in the blood, the product is recommended for use by people suffering from pathologies of the urinary system, hypertension and anemia. Narsharab is valuable for expectant mothers and women who are planning a pregnancy. Due to the large amount of potassium in the sauce, regular use helps normalize the functioning of the heart and blood vessels. In addition, there are other useful properties:

• increasing immunity;
• improving the absorption of iron in the body;
• normalization of metabolic processes;
• improving the condition of the skin, reducing the visibility of age spots;
• strengthening the nervous system;
• replenishing the lack of vitamins and organic acids;
• prevention of the formation of malignant tumors.

Valuable sauce made from ripe wild pomegranates has tonic, anthelmintic, and antibacterial properties. It is recommended during a diet, as it not only speeds up metabolism, but also removes everything unnecessary from the body.

Use in cooking

Pomegranate juice sauce goes best with meat dishes. In Azerbaijan, the product is considered one of the symbols of national cuisine. It is also used as an excellent additive for fish. The wide distribution of Narsharab is explained by its unique taste and compatibility with a large list of products. Due to its ability to soften tough meat fibers in a short time, boiled sweet and sour juice acts as an excellent marinade for pork, chicken, lamb, beef or turkey. You can prepare meat for grilling over charcoal just a couple of hours after soaking.

Narsharab goes well not only with fish or meat. You can get amazing aroma and pleasant sourness in vegetable stew if you season the dish a little with it. It goes great with bean dishes. During a diet, it is tasty and healthy to replace the “vinegar + soy sauce” dressing for vegetable salads with saturated Narsharab in small quantities. Residents of Azerbaijan enjoy the delicacy by simply dipping a slice of bread into a bowl of thick pomegranate juice.

How to cook at home

You can find pomegranate sauce in almost every modern supermarket. However, it is difficult to buy the highest quality product. Manufacturers offer products with the addition of various chemicals: flavorings, preservatives, taste enhancers. If you can’t buy it, it’s best to cook it at home, but to do this you need to know a good recipe and take into account some nuances.

There are several cooking options. You can take ripe fruits or use ready-made juice from the store. In the first case, the product will be more useful and similar to the original. The only ingredients you will need are ripe pomegranate fruits in the amount of 6 pcs. The sequence of actions is as follows:

1. Peel the grains from films and skins, mash until pureed.
2. Using a colander, grind the mixture until only seeds without grain pulp remain in the bowl (you can use a pestle or juicer).
3. The juice should be poured into a saucepan and left to simmer over low heat until it thickens. As a result, no more than 30% of the original amount should remain.

If the sauce is prepared correctly using this method, its consistency should be similar to liquid sour cream. If you want to prepare a more rich Narsharab, you can include spices such as allspice, cloves, etc. in the recipe. The sequence of actions is similar to the above, but after obtaining the finished juice, spices are added and the mixture is boiled for a few more minutes.

Contraindications and possible harm

There are several restrictions on the use of Narsharab:

• increased stomach acidity;
• chronic gastrointestinal pathologies;
• different forms of gastritis;
• stomach ulcer;
• problems with stool in the form of constipation.

Consuming pomegranate sauce in excessive quantities can lead to the development of pancreatic pathologies (inflammation). Due to the excessive amount of acids in the composition, deterioration of the condition of tooth enamel is possible. In addition, pregnant women who have been diagnosed with health problems are advised to consult with their doctor about the possibility of including Narsharab in the menu.

How to select and store

When choosing, you should not save: a cheap product will disappoint with its taste and will not bring benefits to the body. The composition should not contain preservatives, ingredients identical to natural ones, and additives that enhance the aroma. Some manufacturers indicate on the label that the product is premium. It is this sauce that has the most similarities with the original Narsharab. It is best to choose jars or plastic bottles with boiled pomegranate juice made in the homeland of the product.

If stored properly, Narsharab can last for more than a year. The optimal temperature conditions for it are from 5 to 25 degrees above zero. The formation of natural sugar sediment is allowed; before use, the container with the sauce just needs to be shaken.

Boiled juice from wild pomegranate fruits with the addition of spices is a real find for a housewife who loves to pamper her loved ones with original meat, vegetable and fish dishes. A pronounced sweet and sour taste, a wealth of vitamins and antioxidants, a beneficial effect on the body - all these are the undeniable advantages of exquisite Narsharab.

Pomegranate sauce narsharab is an achievement of Azerbaijani cuisine. It is prepared from ripe pomegranates, squeezing the juice from the grains and boiling it about five times. Once the required consistency is reached, the base of the sauce is seasoned to taste with salt, sometimes sugar and spices are added. Among them, as a rule, are basil, coriander, cinnamon, all kinds of pepper and bay leaf.

Today we will talk about how to use narsharab pomegranate sauce and what to serve it with, as well as reveal the subtleties and secrets of its use in cooking.

How to use narsharab sauce?

Narsharab sauce goes well with meat. Moreover, they can simply complement ready-made dishes made from lamb, beef, pork, as well as fish or poultry, or use the sauce as a marinade for soaking raw meat shortly before heat treatment. Boiled pomegranate juice, which is the basis of narsharab, miraculously softens even the toughest meat fibers, and the spices present in it give the dish a special piquancy.

Due to its ability to have a positive effect on meat, better transforming its taste and texture, narsharab pomegranate sauce is often used for. This marinade is especially relevant if the base of the kebab needs to be prepared in a short time, because in just two to four hours the meat will be marinated and ready. But it is not recommended to keep lamb, pork or beef in the sauce for more than eight hours.

What should you serve narsharab sauce besides meat?

The use of narsharab pomegranate sauce is not limited to use for marinade or serving with meat. Where else does the product perform best?

Not only meat is transformed in combination with narsharab. Seasoning a little with this sauce will give it the missing sourness and become amazingly aromatic. Beans stewed with vegetables and complemented with narsharab turn out to be very tasty. Many cooks use it to season any vegetable salads instead of dressings based on vinegar and soy sauce. Azerbaijanis simply dip a slice of fresh bread into a bowl with sauce and enjoy this amazing delicacy.

Among the huge list of sauce recipes, there are many that are prepared on the basis of pomegranate narsharab. If the taste of the original sauce is too strong for you, then in combination with additional ingredients, which may include vegetable oil, fruit or vegetable juices, as well as a wide variety of spices.

Narsharab sauce is a gift to gourmets from Azerbaijani cuisine. Its name translates as “pomegranate wine,” although there is not a drop of alcohol in the sauce. But it contains a lot of pomegranates; it would be more accurate to say that it consists entirely of them, not counting spices and herbs. After all, in essence, narsharab sauce is pomegranate juice evaporated to the thickness of liquid sour cream. So this product is not only tasty, but also a healthy seasoning for meat. Narsharab is served with lamb, beef, and poultry. It is also suitable for barbecue.

Cooking features

Making narsharab sauce is a simple but rather tedious process. Even experienced housewives take about 3–3.5 hours to prepare 1.5 liters of sauce. True, if you cook it in smaller quantities, then it will take less time, since you only have to cook the sauce for 1.5–2.5 hours, the rest of the time is spent preparing the pomegranate juice itself, from which the sauce is made.

• The traditional technology for preparing narsharab sauce is somewhat complex, and hardly anyone would call its traditional recipe economical. The fact is that at one of the stages of cooking, the juice is poured into a fabric bag and suspended over the pan. The liquid that drains into the pan in the next 5–10 minutes is drunk or preserved, and only that part of the juice with pulp that remains in the bag is used for the sauce. The resulting sauce resembles a thick paste. Few housewives use this technology; it is better to choose a simplified recipe, which is also considered a classic.
• Narsharab sauce will be thicker, tastier and healthier from pomegranates, and not from store-bought juice. Despite the fact that the process of processing pomegranates to extract juice from its grains is quite labor-intensive, it is still better to do everything yourself. If you nevertheless decide to purchase juice for the sauce in the store, make sure that it is not diluted and give preference to products from trusted manufacturers.
• Pomegranate seeds for juice must be cleared of the white film inside the pomegranate. If you don’t know how to do this correctly, you can fiddle with it for a long time, crush the pomegranate seeds and stain everything in the kitchen with splashed juice. To prevent the preparation of pomegranate seeds from becoming a nightmare, there is no need to rush to cut it. Wash the pomegranate in warm water, cut off its “cap” in the area of ​​the “tail” in a circle. You will see white veins; cut the pomegranate skin along them, as if dividing it into slices. After this, turn the pomegranate over the bowl, separating the slices with your hands, then beat out the pomegranate seeds with a spoon. They need to be knocked out by knocking on the walls of the pomegranate, and not trying to remove it from it with your hands or cut it out with a knife.
• You also need to choose the right pomegranate. Usually the most delicious and ripe fruits have a pinkish skin, often even with spots of other shades. Large and bright pomegranates are often unripe and too sour. However, the most important thing is that there are no traces of mold on the pomegranate, since such fruits cannot be eaten: they are not only tasteless, but also harmful.
• Narshirab sauce recipes are simple in themselves and include a minimum of ingredients. They include pomegranates (or pomegranate juice), spices and spices, and salt. You should always add salt to the sauce at the end of cooking. If you do this right away, the finished product may be oversalted, as some of the juice will evaporate during cooking.

Narsharab sauce can be prepared for future use. In this case, it is poured hot into sterilized glass jars, sealed tightly and stored in the refrigerator. For better preservation, you can add a little sugar to it.

Classic recipe for narsharab sauce

Composition (per 1.5 l):

• pomegranates – 5 kg;
• salt, sugar, spices - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Wash the pomegranates thoroughly and pat dry with dry cloths. Using the method described above, extract the seeds from the pomegranates. Check that there is no film left on them.
• Place the grains in a saucepan with a thick bottom. Remember them with a wooden masher.
• Place the saucepan with the juice over low heat. Cook them until they turn light.
• Strain the juice and pour it back into the pan.
• Place the pomegranate seeds in parts into a sieve and carefully crush them with a wooden spoon to extract as much juice as possible. The juice should flow into the pan with the first batch of this drink, so it is best to place a sieve over it.
• Place the container with juice back on the stove. Cook it, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the consistency resembles liquid sour cream.
• Add spices, stir well.
• Add salt to the sauce and stir. After tasting it, adjust its taste by adding salt and sugar. At the same time, remember that it should not be sweet or salty, these ingredients should not be noticeable, they should only make the taste of the sauce itself more harmonious and familiar. In Azerbaijan, many housewives do not add these ingredients to narsharab sauce at all.

Narsharab sauce, prepared according to the classic recipe, will be an ideal complement to any type of meat. You shouldn’t add it in too much quantity, especially if you added quite a lot of hot seasonings to it during cooking.

A simple recipe for narsharab sauce

• natural pomegranate juice – 1 l;
• salt, spices - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Pour the juice into a thick-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 2 hours, until the volume of juice has reduced by about 20%.
• Add salt and season the sauce and cook for another 5-10 minutes. It is better to grind the spices in a special mill or coffee grinder before adding them to the sauce. If you use peppercorns, bay leaves and other similar ingredients, then it is better to wrap them in cheesecloth before adding them to the sauce, and take them out a minute before they are ready - they will add the desired aroma to the sauce, but will not spoil its consistency.

Narsharab sauce can be prepared from homemade or purchased juice all year round. At the same time, its taste will not differ in any way from that made according to the classic recipe, provided, of course, that you use high-quality pomegranate juice.

Pomegranate sauce narshirab is an unusual, but tasty and healthy addition to meat. This dish belongs to Azerbaijani cuisine. It is even healthier than pomegranate juice, but at the same time it is higher in calories.

Narsharab sauce, otherwise called seasoning, first appeared in Azerbaijan. Here its name is interpreted as “pomegranate wine.” Perhaps this name stuck due to the composition of the sauce, because Narsharab is condensed pomegranate juice flavored with sugar, salt and spices, among which basil, bay leaf, coriander, cinnamon and pepper are clearly visible.

The sauce became widespread in Turkey and throughout Central Asia, from where it reached us northerners.

In appearance, Narsharab is thick, viscous, dark ruby; the taste is rich, with sourness.

The sauce is eaten with poultry and meat, but it also goes well with fish or vegetable delicacies. The sauce is good with side dishes and even with bread, and for barbecue or grilled vegetables it is simply ideal. Moreover, you can not only pour the sauce over the meat, but also use it as a marinade.

You can eat pomegranate sauce without worrying about your figure - your shape will remain invariably beautiful, because its calorie content is only 52 kcal per 100 grams of finished sauce.

Effect on the body

Narsharab helps digestion, especially if chicken, pork or beef are frequent guests on your menu. It contains a lot of anthocyanins, vitamins and folic acid, therefore it is recommended as a means of improving blood count, strengthening the immune system and stimulating the reproductive system. Antioxidants in the sauce rejuvenate the body and restore natural beauty.

But not everyone can eat pomegranate sauce. So, if a person suffers from gastritis with high acidity or a stomach ulcer, then it is better not to abuse this sauce. The use of pomegranate sauce should be limited to pregnant women, and people with hemorrhoids, pancreatitis and sensitive tooth enamel.

There is only one conclusion from what has been said - eat Narsharab sauce for your health, but in moderation!

We prepare Narsharab ourselves!

Narsharab pomegranate sauce can be bought ready-made, but preservation still worsens its taste, and, I must say, its price is considerable. Therefore, gourmets, fine connoisseurs and thrifty people prefer to prepare the sauce at home.

There are several ways to get Narsharab. Let's look at the best of them. It is the most natural, since the sauce is prepared from fresh pomegranate seeds.

The sauce can also be prepared from store-bought juice in a glass bottle using the same technology below - by boiling (only omitting the processes of mashing the grains and filtering). However, when canning the juice, it contains preservatives, which will also end up in the sauce and your Narsharab pomegranate sauce will no longer be so natural.

However, remember that you can make sauce from juice, but not from nectar in a tetra pack!

Narsharab sauce: recipe

For 2.5 - 3 liters of sauce, prepare 10 kg of ripe pomegranate seeds (for 200-250 ml of sauce - 1 kg of grains) and, if desired, salt, spices and sugar. You can do without them, but the presence of sugar in the composition will extend the shelf life of the sauce by several weeks.

If you want the recipe to include spices, but don’t know which ones to choose, then we recommend using cloves, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, dried herbs for homemade sauce (you don’t have to use everything). Additionally, you can use basil, bay leaf, coriander. With them, your pomegranate sauce will be even more piquant.

Preparation:

1. Pour the grains into a stainless steel pan (other metals may react with the acid) and, placing it on the fire, begin the process of kneading the grains. This is done with a wooden pusher until all the grains are dispersed and the separated seeds become white.
2. Strain the juice, separating it from the seeds, and, returning to the heat, boil by about a third (or even half) of the original volume (about 1.5-2 hours). The sauce is ready when it (when cooled) thickens to the consistency of liquid sour cream. You can determine readiness by pouring part of the sauce (1 spoon) onto a plate and cooling it.
3. If desired, at the end of cooking, you can add spices to the sauce - cloves, nutmeg, allspice, etc. But this is not mandatory. If, after tasting a couple of drops of the chilled sauce, you realize that it is too sour for you, add a little sugar and try again. Sugar neutralizes the sour taste.
4. Ready Narsharab needs to be cooled, salt added (at the rate of 1 tsp per 2.5-3 liters of sauce), then poured into small jars.

This is a classic recipe, almost all women in the south cook it. It will steal a few hours of your time, but you will get more in return: you will enjoy its taste at any time... until the sauce runs out.

• Peeling a pomegranate is easy by making a few cuts on it, like cutting an orange into slices, and applying gentle pressure. Now the pomegranate will easily separate into pieces with red juicy grains;
• Salt, sugar and spices are added to pomegranate sauce only at the end of the cooking process, when the thickness of the sauce has already reached normal;
• When choosing pomegranate juice for sauce in the store, pay attention to its quality. It must be 100% juice - not diluted, not reconstituted, not nectar! By choosing the right juice, you can prepare sauce from it throughout the year;
• Before pouring the sauce into the jars, pour boiling water over them or hold them over steam and dry. The more sterile they are, the longer the sauce will last;
• Preparing for future use: during cooking, add at least a little sugar to Narsharab, which will act as a light preservative. It should be poured into sterilized glass jars and only when hot. Then you need to close with ground-in sterilized lids, cool and put in the refrigerator;
• The sauce must be stored hermetically sealed, and only in the refrigerator, in the heat it will quickly deteriorate, because there are no preservatives in it;
• To prepare pomegranate marinade, simply add 2-3 tablespoons of Narsharab to your regular marinade. It will add a piquant sourness to the meat and make it even more tender;
• To prepare grilled vegetables using Narsharab sauce you also don’t need much effort - just pour it over the vegetables when baking and your trip to nature will become enchanting.

The sauce from Azerbaijan is loved by many, and now they are preparing not only with it, but also from it, for example, as a dressing for vegetable salads.

Narsharab sauce dressing for salad leaves

The recipe for this dietary but incredibly tasty dish is designed for one serving. The total weight of the finished dressing is 165 grams, and the calorie content is only 92. This delicacy is prepared in no more than 3 minutes (or even less).

Prepare:

• Narsharab (can be bought from the store) – 10 grams;
• Soy sauce (preferably thick) – 10 grams;
• Grainy mustard – 10 grams;
• Olive oil – 10 grams;
• Lettuce leaves (Loppo or Iceberg) - 125 grams.

Preparation:

Combine the sauces, mustard and oil, mix until smooth and pour them over the torn lettuce leaves in a bowl. Stir lightly.

If desired, you can add a little other vegetables, such as bell pepper, to the lettuce leaves.

Narsharab sauce belongs to Azerbaijani cuisine and is made from pomegranate. The sauce is perfect for both meat and fish dishes. It’s amazing how you can get such an incredibly rich sauce in both color and taste from a completely minimal amount of ingredients. Now is the time for pomegranates, and you can make this sauce quite inexpensively and even stock up for future use.

We'll need grenades, lots of grenades. All other ingredients in this recipe are optional. You can add spices, salt, sugar, or not. There are a huge number of varieties of sauce, differing in additives. I will make my narsharab sauce with cinnamon, oregano and sugar and it will end up being very smooth.

First you need to break the pomegranates into halves, to do this you need to cut off the top and bottom of the fruit (peel) and make one longitudinal cut along the peel, then open the pomegranate with a little effort.

Then comes the monotonous process of extracting the grains from the fruit. After all the grains have been removed, be sure to remove any pieces of peel or film that may have accidentally gotten into the grains during the cleaning process.

Place the grains in a saucepan and place the saucepan on the fire.

Stir constantly with a wooden spatula. Moreover, we try to squeeze out the juice with a spoon, you can use a potato masher for this purpose, BUT it must be wooden.

Keep the grains on the fire until they turn white. Then pour the contents of the pan into a colander, having previously placed a bowl under the colander to collect the juice.

Grind the grains very persistently in a colander until all the juice is extracted. Pour the finished juice back into the pan, add sugar and spices and evaporate over low heat for 1-1.5 hours.

This is the kind of beautiful sauce we should have. The color depends on the original color of the pomegranate grains and the degree of evaporation. The consistency of narsharab sauce will be similar to liquid sour cream. I got 200 ml of sauce from 1 kg of grains.

Pour the sauce into a jar and close the lid, store in the refrigerator.

This sauce is very good for meat and fish. We love topping it with sauce.