Thandai - Holi Special

BM #73 Week 1 Day 1 -

This week I have opted to showcase some recipes relevant to the festival of colors, Holi.

Today's recipe, Thandai, is traditionally associated with the festival of Holi. It acts as a coolant and is served in summer. There are various versions of this beverage with rose water and melon seeds and some more exotic ingredients.

But I loved the simplicity of these ingredients and tried it out at home. The kids felt the taste of saunf as the dominant flavor and asked me if I could reduce that flavor. Other than that, the beverage was rich, creamy and flavorful.

PS  - Don't skip the chilling time as the flavors need to blend in, rather soak in. But the straining part is optional. My personal preference is the smoother drink.

Recipe Source here
Ingredients - 

Milk, Preferably Full fat 2 cups
Sugar Powdered 2 Tbsp
Saffron a pinch
Pistachios crushed , crushed pepper for garnish
To Powder - 
Almonds handful
Poppy Seeds 1 Tbsp
Saunf/Fennel Seeds 1 Tbsp
Cardamom Seeds 1/4 tsp
Peppercorns 10

Method Of Preparation -


Boil and cool the milk.

Powder the ingredients listed under 'To Powder'.

Blend the powder into the milk.  

I didn't separately powder the ingredients. I used a high power blender (Vitamix) to directly blend the ingredients with milk.

Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Strain the milk and mix in the powdered sugar and saffron.

Serve with a garnish of crushed pistachios and crushed pepper. 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#73.

Preparation Time 5 minutes + Chilling time 2 hours
Serves 2