Thandai Recipe | Festive Holiday Drink

one hand picking up a glass of thandai from a tray

Thandai Recipe | Festive Holiday Drink

Sweet, nutty, and spicy Thandai is a chilled Indian festive drink recipe made with homemade Thandai powder. It's mainly served during Holi and is a crowd favorite. It can be made ahead of time and in less than 30 minutes!

Course Dessert, Drinks

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Total Time 25

Servings people

Calories 442.04kcal

Author Priya Lakshminarayan

Equipment

Ingredients

To Make the Thandai Powder

10 cashews
10 almonds
7 pistachios
15 peppercorns
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 teaspoon saffron
2 tablespoon dried rose petals

To make Thandai

1 teaspoon saffron
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups whole milk
3 tablespoon thandai powder
⅓ cup sugar
2 tablespoon rose water
2 tablespoon dried rose petals
2 tablespoon chopped pistachios

Instructions

To Make the Thandai Masala

Arrange all the spices and nuts that you will need in their exact proportions, on a plate.
Transfer them all to the blender and grind them to a powder consistency. Store this Thandai powder in an airtight container.

To make Thandai

Add 4 tablespoons of milk to a small bowl and warm it up in the microwave. Soak saffron in it for 10 minutes. This is called blooming the saffron.
To a thick bottomed pan, add milk and heavy cream.
Then add Thandai masala and sugar. Cook over a medium flame and bring to a boil. Simmer the milk mixture for 12-15 minutes.
Take it off the flame and add the saffron milk along with rose water and dried rose petals. Mix it all together.
Cover and let it steep for an hour on the kitchen counter.
Strain the mixture if you prefer thandai to be clear of all the small particles.
Then chill this drink in the refrigerator till it's time to serve. Pour in serving glasses, garnish it with saffron and sliced almonds. Serve.

Notes

If you don't have melon seeds, use dried seeds of any fruit from the melon family preferably cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, and pumpkin or pumpkin seeds. Wash and sun-dry them, then roasted them in the oven for 15 mins at 300 F. If certain other spices or nuts are not available to you, you may swap them with the closest ingredient or choose to skip them altogether. This will however alter the final flavors.

When making thandai masala, do not grind it for long else it will become like a paste. The powder should be of coarse consistency. In place of heavy cream, you can also use half & half, condensed milk, or evaporated milk to get that creamy texture in this Thandai recipe. In case you find the thandai very thick, add some ice cubes or water to thin it.

Important to note - Nutritional facts include nuts but remember that some of these values will be lower, including the total calorie count, because a lot of the solid matter of the nuts is strained out and not consumed. Also, just 1-2 tablespoons of masala are what is used.

Nutrition