Rose Thandai Recipe: Indian Summer and Festival Drink

Author:

Rajan loves cooking dishes from his native Indian cuisine. He likes to share his favourite recipes with his online readers.

Cooling Summertime Beverage

Thandai is a popular Indian drink prepared with body-cooling herbs, spices, milk, dried nuts and sugar. It is consumed during the hot summer months for its cooling benefits, and it is also a traditional festival beverage for Holi and Mahashivratri, both of which occur during the summer season.

In the recipe below, we have added rose flavour by adding gulkand (rose petal preserves) and rose syrup, but you can omit these ingredients to make a plain thandai, if you prefer. Just add sugar to taste.

Try it and share your experience.

Cook Time


Prep time	Cook time	Ready in	Yields
2 hours	30 min	2 hours 30 min	2 servings

Ingredients

500 ml + a little extra full cream milk (the extra is for grinding the gulkand)
10 badam (almonds), soaked in water for 2 hours, skins removed and water discarded
10 kaju (cashew nuts), soaked in water for 2 hours and water discarded
1 tbsp kharbuje ke beej (melon seeds), soaked in water for 2 hours and water discarded
1 tbsp + 1 tsp khuskhus (poppy seeds), soaked in water for 2 hours and water discarded
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
pinch kesar (saffron)
2 tbsp gulkand (rose petal preserves)
2 tbsp rose syrup

Instructions

In a grinder jar, add the almonds, cashew nuts, melon seeds and khuskhus. Add just enough milk to help grind the ingredients to a fine paste.
In a pot or wok, add the milk, nut paste (from step 1), cardamom powder, black pepper powder and saffron. Heat it until it comes to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until it thickens, about 5 minutes.
While the thandai mixture is simmering, grind the gulkand with just enough milk to make a fine puree. Strain out the gulkand milk and set aside.
When the thandai mixture has thickened a bit, strain through a sieve and let cool completely.
Blend the thandai mixture with the rose syrup and the gulkand milk for a few seconds. Then chill the thandai in the fridge for a few hours before serving.