Discover the most popular traditional Indian hot and cold drink and make them at home with our recipes.
1. Lassi Meethi (Recipe)
Lassi meethi is a deliciously refreshing drink to which you can add any fruit of your choice. It has a light texture with fruity notes, the more ice, the better. To make your lassi fruity, you need to add about 50 grams of fruit, or if making the mango variant, you will need between 1-2 whole mangoes for mango lassi. You can use any fruit for your choice, but the best is mango. To make it into a purée, blend the fruit, add it to the drink.
Fruity lassis are best served in the summer months to accompany a curry as a non-alcoholic party drink or dessert. Despite its sugar content, the drink is very healthy due to the calcium and vitamins present in the milk and mango. Serve yours in a fancy cocktail glass or as an appetiser in a shot glass. If you follow a low-fat diet, you can swap the full-fat yoghurt for a fat-free alternative. If you are following the vegan diet, you can swap the regular milk for plant-based, and if you are health conscious, you can remove the sugar from the recipe.
It doesn't have to be just a drink; it can be a great light breakfast to start your day. It will be easier on the stomach than on that morning smoothie. The lassi slightly varies from the traditional salty lassi served in north India but is similar to the Turkish savoury yoghurt-based drink called Ayran. Try serving the Indian yoghurt drink with a pinch of ground cardamom for freshness. Rosewater is probably the most difficult ingredient to find and so if you can't get hold of any, don't worry because there are plenty of substitutes that will work in its place. Instead of rose water, you can use; rose essence, Jamaican flower water, orange flower water, vanilla extract, or almond extract. To make it look more like mango simply add turmeric to the recipe for colour.
To make Lassi Meethi combine 300ml of plain yoghurt, 300ml of milk, 600ml of water, 4 drops of rosewater, and three teaspoons of sugar to the blender and blend for about 1 minute. If using fruit, add it to the blender as well. Add crushed ice to a glass and serve.
2. Masala Tea Recipe
Masala tea is popular throughout India and Thailand. It can be purchased in the store and typically contains clove, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, black tea and other spices. This spiced chai tea can taste sour if it doesn’t contain any sugar. A small serving of 120ml of masala tea contains approximately 40mg of caffeine. Compared to coffee, it usually has the same amount of caffeine for the same amount of liquid.
The tea itself is very fragrant in terms of flavour. The natural ingredients used to prepare can give many health benefits such as improving heart health, reduced blood sugar levels, improved digestion, and studies suggest that it could even help with weight loss. The recipe below will serve two people so if you are intending to make masala tea for more people feel free to double or triple the recipe. When it comes to choosing the milk for masala tea you can use whole cows milk or if you’d prefer to go for a vegan option, you could use soy milk, oat milk, or almond milk. You may need to adjust the recipe if using a plant based milk. For sugar, you can use regular table sugar which is the traditional choice, or can opt for honey or maple syrup. If you like your masala tea more sour, simply use less sugar.
Ingredients for Masala Tea
- Green cardamom (5)
- Whole cloves (3)
- Star anise (2)
- Peppercorns (5)
- Water (1 cup)
- Thumb sized piece of ginger (1 inch)
- Cinnamon stick (1/2)
- Teabag (1 or 2)
- Milk (1 cup)
- Sugar (2 tsp)
How to make masala tea
Start by crushing the cardamom pods, star anise, peppercorns and cloves. Then place them in a small saucepan with 1 cup of hot water. After that, add the ginger, cinnamon stick and tea bags. Boil the tea and then turn off the heat to avoid it becoming bitter.
Traditional masala tea is left to steep for about 10 minutes after boiling. The longer you leave it, the better the flavour. Add the milk of your choice and then simmer again to heat it to your preferred temperature. Remove the masala tea from the heat and add in your choice of sweetener to taste. Finally, strain the tea into a cup to drink and enjoy.
