Thandhai (spiced milk cooler)

Name: Thandhai (spiced milk cooler)
Prep time: 20 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: Indian recipes
Ingredients: 60g caster sugar; 1½ tbsp ground almonds; ½ tbsp melon seeds (see tips); ¾ tsp fennel seeds; ¾ tsp white poppy seeds (see tips); ¼ tsp black peppercorns; 8g edible dried rose petals (see tips); 125ml whole milk; ¼ tsp ground cardamom; ¼ tsp rosewater (see tips); You’ll also need; Blender (or a pestle and mortar)

By: Vivek Singh

Published: 7 Mar 22
Updated: 25 Mar 24

Test kitchen approved

Vivek Singh shares his recipe for thandai, a traditional Indian cold drink made with almonds, milk and spices and often drunk during Holi.

You might also like our creamy saffron and cardamom lassi.

Serves 8
Hands-on time 20 min, plus 2 hours infusing

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Ingredients

60g caster sugar
1½ tbsp ground almonds
½ tbsp melon seeds (see tips)
¾ tsp fennel seeds
¾ tsp white poppy seeds (see tips)
¼ tsp black peppercorns
8g edible dried rose petals (see tips)
125ml whole milk
¼ tsp ground cardamom
¼ tsp rosewater (see tips)

You’ll also need

Blender (or a pestle and mortar)

Method

Dissolve the sugar in 250ml boiling water. Set aside. Combine all the other ingredients, except the milk, cardamom and rosewater, with 250ml water. Set aside to soak for 2 hours.
Grind all the soaked ingredients to a very fine paste in a blender (or use a pestle and mortar).
Add another 250ml water to the paste, then pass it through a fine sieve into a jug to extract all the liquid (discard what’s left in the sieve). Add the sugar solution, milk, cardamom and rosewater to the liquid. Keep refrigerated and serve in small measures over cubes of ice.

Recipe from March 2020 Issue

Nutrition

Nutrition: per serving

Calories: 61kcals
Fat: 2.4g (0.5g saturated)
Protein: 1.4g
Carbohydrates: 8.4g (8.3g sugars)
Fibre: no fibre
Salt: trace

delicious. tips

Find melon seeds and white poppy seeds on Amazon or at theasiancookshop.co.uk. For a stronger rose flavour, add a little more rosewater. Buy bags of edible dried rose petals on Amazon
Make the drink at least 2 hours ahead or up to a day before serving.

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Thandhai (spiced milk cooler)

Ingredients

Method

Nutrition

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Thandhai (spiced milk cooler)

Ingredients

Method

Nutrition

delicious. tips

Or, how about...?

Frozen thandai semifreddo meringue cake

Sweet saffron lassi

More to discover