Thandai Drink
with nuts and saffron
a drink recipe
by Jayalakshmi Rangarajan
I'm Jayalakshmi Rangarajan, a software engineer by profession and a food photographer by passion. I'm currently based out of Memphis, Tennessee. A winner of 16 international food photography awards, I enjoy styling and photographing food and produce. I've worked with leading brands to create images and videos that convey a food story.
Check out my Instagram handle at
@kitchenmusingsbyjay
Thandai is a flavored drink made with milk, nuts, seeds and spices, and enhanced with saffron strands and rose petals. It is consumed in India during summer, particularly during the festival ‘Holi’. As the ingredients have cooling properties, the beverage is perfect for consumption during summer. A blend of nuts & spices are ground to a fine powder or to a paste and is mixed with milk and consumed warm or cold. If made as a powder, it can be stored up to 2 months. The addition of Saffron gives a nice color to the drink, in addition to the flavor.
TIME (ACTIVE) | 10 M
TIME (INACTIVE) | 4 H
TOTAL | 4 H 10 M
2 SERVINGS
| 2 cups
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Powder method:
- Mix all the nuts, seeds, spices and rose petals.
- Add them to a spice jar and grind to a fine powder.
- The Thandai powder is ready.
- Boil 2 cups of whole milk. When the milk comes to a boil, take about 4 tbsp of milk and soak the saffron threads into it. Soaking saffron in hot milk extracts the flavor.
- Add sugar to the milk, dissolve it.
- Add the prepared Thandai powder and saffron extract to the milk and give a good stir.
The saffron extract gives a nice color to the drink.
- Turn off the heat and let the flavors seep in.
- After about an hour, strain the milk and consume.
- Can be enjoyed either warm or cold.
Paste method:
- Soak all the nuts, spices and seeds for about 4 hours.
- Boil 2 cups of whole milk. When the milk comes to a boil, take about 4 tbsp of milk and soak the saffron threads into it. Soaking saffron in hot milk extracts the flavor.
- Peel the almonds.
- Grind everything to a fine paste, by adding water or milk, little by little.
- The Thandai paste is ready.
- Boil milk.
- Once the milk comes to a boil, add sugar, Thandai paste, soaked saffron, rose petals.
- Give everything a good stir, turn off the heat and let the flavors seep in.
- Strain and serve warm/cold.
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