Asian Pennywort Juice Drink
Nam Bai Bua Bok
Sweetened Asian pennywort juice, blended and strained until smooth
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 5 min
- Serves
- 4
- Heat
- mild
Long before pennywort showed up on juice bar menus abroad, it was already a staple in Thai cooking, eaten raw in salads and stir-fries as well as blended into this deep green juice. The plain herb has a strong, grassy flavor that most people find too intense on its own, so a separately prepared sugar syrup gets stirred in to soften it into something more approachable and genuinely refreshing. Strained until smooth and served ice-cold over crushed ice, it's a drink built around one very simple idea: dilute a powerful herb just enough to make it enjoyable without losing its character entirely.
Ingredients
- 1 lb Asiatic pennywort (stems and leaves, washed, any dead or brown pieces removed)
- 2 liters Water (divided)
- 1 cup Sugar (to taste)
Directions
- Heat half the water to boiling, stir in the sugar until dissolved, and let cool completely.
- Wash the pennywort well, removing any dead or brown leaves and foreign matter.
- Put the remaining water in a blender and pack in as much of the herb as will fit.
- Blend on high until the herb is fully pulverized into a frothy green mixture with very small fibrous bits.
- Pour through a cloth or very fine mesh strainer, squeezing out all the juice until just a few fibers remain.
- Make sure the sugar water has fully cooled, then stir it into the strained juice.
- Transfer to a pitcher, bottle, or other lidded container. The drink should be dark green and slightly opaque. Refrigerate until very cold.
- Serve in a tall glass over crushed ice, garnished with a few fresh pennywort leaves.
Notes
Let the sugar water cool completely before mixing it with the blended juice — adding it hot can dull the fresh, grassy flavor of the pennywort.
Substitutions
Reduce or omit the sugar for a more herbal, less sweet version, though the plain juice has a strong grassy flavor that most people prefer softened.