Masala Lassi

  • 2 cups curd – cold and fresh (yogurt)
  • ½ teaspoon Simba Mbili cardamom powder
  • ¼ teaspoon Simba Mbili black pepper
  •  1 to 2 pinches grated nutmeg or ground nutmeg
  • 2 tablespoons chopped almonds or cashews or pistachios
  • 10 to 12 saffron strands – optional
  • 5 to 6 tablespoons chopped palm sugar (palm jaggery) or jaggery or sugar
  •  ⅓ to ½ cup water – cold or at room temperature, add as required

Making masala lassi

  • In a blender take the curd, crushed seeds of the green cardamoms, crushed black pepper, grated nutmeg, chopped almonds or cashews or pistachios or a mix of all three nuts.
  • Add the saffron strands and chopped palm jaggery (palm sugar) or jaggery or sugar. Add water.
  • Blend until smooth and frothy. Check the taste and add more palm sugar if needed and blend again. Serve straight away topped with a few saffron strands or chopped nuts.

Serving suggestions

  • Serve lassi as a refreshing drink during the daytime or serve it as drink it after any indian meal.
  • While serving sweet lassi, garnish with some chopped nuts like pistachios or almonds.
  • Salted lassi can be topped with fresh mint or coriander leaves and a light sprinkling of roasted cumin powder, red chilli powder (cayenne pepper) or chaat masala.

Storage

  • Store your leftover lassi it in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days. No need to add ice cubes if you plan to store.

Notes

  • Scaling: all the three lassi recipes can be doubled or tripled to make a large batch.
  • Freshness: for the best lassi experience, make sure to use curd that has not gone sour. The curd or yogurt should be fresh, cold and not rancid. I always make lassi with freshly set homemade curd and keep it the fridge for a couple of hours to make it cold.
  • Flavourings for sweet lassi: for the sweet lassi recipe, you can add either cardamom powder or rose water, or even adding both these flavourings work well. You could also choose to skip or include saffron in your sweet lassi recipe. Omit adding any of the flavoring ingredients if you don’t have them.
  • Consistency: the consistency of all the three lassi recipe is neither thick nor thin. For a thinner consistency, add slightly more water but do not add plenty of water as this will dilute the flavours and the sweetness or saltiness. For a thicker lassi, add less water or do not add water at all.
  • Sweeteners: for sweet lassi, sugar is the preferred choice of sweetener. But you can opt to add palm sugar (as i have done in the masala lassi) or coconut sugar or jaggery.