Soaked Dates (Khajoor) and Dates Water: Method and the Ghee Trend

“Slit it, take the guthli out, then soak.” That old kitchen instruction is still the right one. Soaked dates (khajoor) need 2 to 4 hours in water if soft, overnight if they’re firm, and chuhara need longer or a quick simmer. The soaking water becomes a sweet, fruity liquid for sharbat and cooking. The viral ghee-soaked dates jar is a tasty, calorie-dense sweet, not a strength tonic. Here’s the method, the calorie maths and who should count every date, starting with the one step most people skip. Pitting.

Why soak dates at all?

Three honest reasons. Soaked dates blend smoothly into shakes, chutneys and laddoo without wrecking a blender, they’re softer on the teeth of older family members who struggle with a chewy Aseel, and the water they leave behind is lovely, sweet and slightly caramel, useful wherever you’d otherwise reach for the sugar pot.

What soaking doesn’t do is make a date into something new. The sugar, fibre and potassium are the same whether it’s soaked, dry or eaten straight from the box at iftar; a little of the sugar and minerals moves into the water, and the fibre stays put. Any “soaked dates benefits” list promising more is selling something.

For varieties (Aseel, Ajwa, Medjool, Kalmi) and how to buy a good box, see our dates guide; this article, filed under Desi Remedies, sticks to what happens in the bowl.

How to soak khajoor and chuhara, step by step

1. Pit first. Slit each date lengthwise with a small knife and lift out the seed. Soaked dates are slippery and much harder to pit later, and a hidden seed is a broken tooth waiting to happen.
2. Rinse the pitted dates in a sieve under running water for 20 seconds. Dates are sticky and pick up dust at the market.
3. Put 5 to 6 dates in a bowl with 150 ml of drinking water, enough to cover them by a finger’s width.
4. Soft dates: leave 2 to 4 hours. Firm dates: 8 to 10 hours, covered. Above about 30 °C room temperature, soak in the fridge.
5. Chuhara (dry dates): cover with 200 ml of water and soak 10 to 12 hours in the fridge, or bring to a simmer for 15 minutes and let them cool in the water.
6. Lift the dates out with a clean spoon. Use the water the same day.

Water or milk?

Water. Milk left out overnight turns sour and is a real food-safety risk in a desi summer. If you want milk-soaked dates, soak them in the fridge, or warm them in milk for 10 minutes just before drinking. The winter chuhara-in-milk recipe is written up properly in our chuhara milk guide, so it isn’t repeated here.

Dates water: what it’s good for

Think of dates water as a gentle, homemade sweetener. After a soak the water tastes of the fruit, and if you blend the soaked dates back into it you get a thin, spoonable date paste that stands in for sugar in sharbat, dalia, kheer, a mango lassi or a baby’s porridge from 6 months. Simple.

A dates-water sharbat (serves 2)

1. Soak 6 pitted dates in 150 ml of water for 4 hours.
2. Blend the dates with their water until smooth, about 30 seconds.
3. Add 300 ml of cold water, the juice of half a lemon and a pinch of roasted jeera powder.
4. Strain if you want it thin, stir, and pour over ice. No sugar needed.

Each glass carries the sugar of three dates, roughly 12 to 15 g. Less than most bottled sharbat. Still sugar.

Dates water for babies

Under 6 months: nothing but breast milk or formula.

From 6 months, a little soaked date, pitted, peeled if the skin is tough and mashed smooth, can go into porridge or yoghurt now and then as a food, but dates water in a bottle is a different matter, because a sweet drink sipped through the day coats new teeth and fills a small stomach that needs milk and proper solid food instead. Under 1 year, no honey, and no added sugar, salt or gur in weaning food. Up to age 5, dates should be pitted and chopped small or mashed, never given whole. For the rest of a baby’s first foods, see our weaning plan by month.

The ghee-soaked dates jar, honestly

The trend: fill a jar with pitted dates, pour melted desi ghee over them until covered, sometimes with cardamom or saffron, and eat one or two a day “for strength”, glowing skin or fertility.

It tastes wonderful. That’s the honest part.

Now the calorie maths, because a medium date is about 20 to 25 kcal and picks up roughly half a teaspoon of ghee (another 20 to 25 kcal), which puts each ghee date at around 45 to 50 kcal, while a big Medjool dipped the same way can pass 100, so two a day add up to a small roti with a smear of butter. Fine as a sweet. Not a health food.

Myth: ghee dates build strength and fertility

No food builds “strength” on its own, and no date-and-ghee jar has been shown to help fertility in men or women; the habit comes from a time when calorie-dense food was precious for thin, overworked people in a hard winter, which made sense then. Today it’s dessert. If you’re trying to conceive and it’s taking longer than a year (six months if you’re over 35), see a doctor; a jar won’t answer that question.

Make the jar safely

1. Use dry dates, never water-soaked ones. Wet fruit sealed under fat is a botulism risk, the same reason garlic in oil is dangerous.
2. Pit them, wipe them clean and dry, and pack about 10 into a small, clean, dry glass jar.
3. Pour over 4 to 5 tablespoons of melted, slightly cooled ghee, enough to cover.
4. Always use a dry spoon. Keep it in the fridge in summer, and finish it within 2 weeks.
5. Throw it out if you see mould, fizz or a sour smell.

Soaked dates for diabetes: counting each one

A medium date holds about 5 g of sugar. Soaking doesn’t reduce it. Two dates eaten with a meal, rather than on an empty stomach or blended into a drink, is where many people with diabetes start, checking the meter two hours later to see how their own body handles it, and ghee dates add fat and calories without making the sugar any “safer”. Our diabetes and dry fruit portions guide sets out how dates fit into iftar and daily meals.

With kidney disease, dates are high in potassium, so a potassium-restricted diet may limit them; ask your renal team. Watching weight? Two plain dates, about 45 kcal, beat most mithai.

Soaked dates: common questions