Thandai- Traditional Holi Recipe

As Holi is just round the corner I decided to post some recipes to get into festival spirit. If you don't know what Holi is, then let me explain. It's a religious spring harvest season festival celebrated on Indian Subcontinent. Even though it's a Hindu festival, other religions believers participate in it equally. It's all about colour, joy, dancing and, like every Indian festival, about some amazing food you can consume wherever you go.

Thandai is refreshing, healthful drink traditionally associated with Holi. India runs on this spicy beverage during energetic festival celebrations. After a fun-filled game of colours, people consume Holi thandai to get refreshed and even more charged up. So if you wanna feel the festival spirit in your home, don’t hesitate and try this recipe.

Ingredients:

½ cup ground almonds

1 ½ cup Milk

4 Tbsp Sugar

 1 ½ tsp whole black pepper

1 Tbsp fennel seeds

2 Tbsp poppy seeds- soaked

4 green cardamom pods

2 tsp rosewater

2 cups water, adjust as needed

1.      Grind black pepper, fennel seeds, poppy seeds, and cardamom.

2.      Using a blender, blend the grinded spices with almonds. Add just enough milk to let the mixture blend into a paste. Blend until creamy.

3.      Add 1 cup of water and sugar blend until sugar dissolve.

4.      Strain the mix through the fine strainer or cheesecloth. Squeeze all the milk out of the nuts by tightening the cloth by wringing it.

5.      Return the left over ground paste to the blender with rest of the water.

6.      Blend again and extract the liquid once more.

7.      You may use the remaining nut pulp for thickening Indian curries or in baking or just discard it.

8.      Mix the almond liquid, milk, and rose water.

9.      Thandai is ready serve over the crush ice.

Enjoy! Happy Holi!

Even more popular drink consumed during Holi is Bhang Ki Thandai. This version of traditional Thandai contains crushed leaves and flowers of female Cannabis plant. In Hinduism it’s associated with Lord Shiva. Bhang has now become synonymous with Holi.