{"id":171998,"date":"2025-05-14T14:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T09:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/?p=171998"},"modified":"2025-05-14T14:55:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T09:25:14","slug":"kola-khar-traditional-assamese-alkaline-food-additive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/kola-khar-traditional-assamese-alkaline-food-additive\/","title":{"rendered":"Kola Khar: Traditional Assamese Alkaline Food Additive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&#8220;Kola Khar&#8221; is a traditional Assamese food additive that\u2019s made from the ashes of dried banana plant parts, especially the peels and trunk. It\u2019s commonly used in a variety of dishes and even serves as a traditional remedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Key Points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Kola Khar is an alkaline solution made by taking dried parts of the banana plant\u2014like peels and trunks\u2014burning them, and then mixing the ash with water. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>After burning the banana plant parts, the ash is collected and combined with water. This mixture is filtered to create the alkaline liquid known as kola khar.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Traditional Uses:<\/strong><br><strong>Food Additive:<\/strong>\u00a0It&#8217;s a common ingredient in Assamese cuisine, used in various dishes, especially fish, meat, and vegetable curries.\u00a0<br><strong>Medicinal Properties:<\/strong>\u00a0Traditionally, it&#8217;s believed to have digestive benefits and help balance pH levels.\u00a0<br><strong>Other Uses:<\/strong>\u00a0In the past, it was also used as a soap and detergent for washing clothes and shampooing hair.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The banana variety that\u2019s typically used to make Kola Khar is called Musa balbisiana, and it\u2019s often referred to locally as &#8220;Bhimkol&#8221; or &#8220;Athiyakol.&#8221; <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kola Khar is a key ingredient in Assamese cuisine and is widely used as a food additive in Assam and other regions of North-East India. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Usually, Kola Khar is served before the main meal to help awaken the taste buds for the flavors to come. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This unique dish is packed with minerals such as potassium, sodium, iron, cobalt, manganese, nickel, zinc, and copper.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Kola Khar&#8221; is a traditional Assamese food additive that\u2019s made from the ashes of dried banana plant parts, especially the peels and trunk. It\u2019s commonly used in a variety of dishes and even serves as a traditional remedy. Key Points: Traditional Uses:Food Additive:\u00a0It&#8217;s a common ingredient in Assamese cuisine, used in various dishes, especially fish, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":171999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5369],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-awareness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172000,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171998\/revisions\/172000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}