Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Aradaib (Tamarind Drink)
A dark, sweet-and-sour tamarind drink soaked from pressed cakes and chilled, a Ramadan and everyday favorite along the Nile.
South Sudanese · easy · serves 6
prep 20 min · cook 0 min
~99 cal · 0g protein · 26g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 26g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Aradaib is a drink of South Sudan and Sudan, the sour pulp of the pod steeped in water, sweetened, and served cold. grows across the region and lends its distinctive sweet-sour flavor to this popular refresher.
The drink balances 's puckering tartness with sugar into a cooling beverage, especially popular for breaking the fast during Ramadan. is valued for both flavor and its reputed cooling, digestive qualities.
Enjoyed across Juba and the wider region, aradaib is a cheap, wholesome refresher.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1.5 cups (pressed cake or pulp)
3 cups warm water
4 cups cold water
3/4 cup sugar
Instructions
1
Break up the tamarind and soak it in the warm water for 20 minutes until softened.
2
Work the pulp with your hands and strain out the seeds and fibers.
3
Mix the tamarind extract with the cold water and sugar until dissolved.
4
Chill well and serve over ice, adjusting sweetness to taste.
✎ Chef’s note
Aradaib is simply the Arabic name for tamarind, and it belongs to a whole family of Sudanese and South Sudanese fruit drinks: tabaldi from the baobab, karkadai from hibiscus, guddaim from the little red grewia berry. They come out in force during Ramadan, alongside hilumur, which is made from corn flour and spices.
South Sudanese Nile-valley tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Juba. The Nile runs through the country and supplies much of the protein, dried and salted as often as fresh. Peanut paste thickens the stews, okra does the same job by another route, and greens are simmered until they are very soft rather than cooked briefly, which is the opposite instinct to most European cooking.
🗺️
South Sudan. Cattle here are wealth, dowry and identity before they are meat, so milk and soured milk do more everyday work than beef does. Between the Nile and its tributaries the fish is abundant, dried and smoked as well as fresh, and the wetlands of the Sudd shape both the cattle year and what can be grown around it.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from South Sudan
WalwalThe Nilotic staple: sorghum or millet flour rolled by hand into couscous-like granules and boiled into a thick porridge, eaten with milk or thin yoghurt.
ComboSouth Sudanese greens in peanut sauce: leafy greens simmered with tomato and groundnut paste into a rich, creamy relish, eaten with rice.
KajaikFresh Nile fish simmered in a light tomato and onion stew, a staple lunch along South Sudan's rivers.
Browse all South Sudan recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a South Sudan meal
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Aradaib (Tamarind Drink)?
A dark, sweet-and-sour tamarind drink soaked from pressed cakes and chilled, a Ramadan and everyday favorite along the Nile.
Where does Aradaib (Tamarind Drink) come from?
Aradaib (Tamarind Drink) is a South Sudanese dish from Juba, South Sudan.
Can Aradaib (Tamarind Drink) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Aradaib (Tamarind Drink) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Aradaib (Tamarind Drink) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Aradaib (Tamarind Drink) take to make?
About 20 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 0 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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