ramyaramesh3007These indulgent but healthy dairy free drinks will add to the fun during the festive season – make an easy strawberry lassi, authentic chai and a sweet pistachio kulfi milkshake!
There’s NOTHING more festive than deepavali in my household and I’m always finding ways to make it more fun with delicious food and drinks – my family loves treating themselves to an indulgent drink once in a while so this year I decided to experiment with drinks they already love but with a twist.
Strawberry Lassi
As a lassi lover, my vegan self missed the combined taste of fresh fruits blended with yogurt. My family loves mango lassi but I wanted to try something different by combining fresh sweet strawberries with yogurt.
I got my hands on Alpro’s Greek Yogurt (in my opinion, this is the closest to real dairy yogurt). You can get it for yourself on Redmart, Lazada if you live in Singapore. Otherwise, this brand is pretty popular in the UK. If you live in the US, some of my favourite brands are Kitehill, Forager, and Cocojune.
It’s also really important to use fresh strawberries! Frozen strawberries will not make your lassi look pink enough! For the sweetener, I like to keep my recipes refined-sugar free so maple syrup, agave, coconut nectar are the best options.
Strawberry Lassi
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups fresh diced strawberries
- 1/4 cup chopped strawberries
- 1.5 cups plant based yogurt I used soy
- 1/2 cup unsweetened oat milk
- 1/4 cup maple syrup add more accordingly
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 2-3 ice cubes optional
Instructions
- In a high speed blender, combine the ingredients to blend. Blend until smooth and creamy.
- Adjust sweetness as needed. If you prefer a chilled drink, add ice cubes and blend again.
- Serve in glasses, garnished with a few strawberry slices or chopped strawberries.
Notes
Rose & Cardamom Chai
If you love chai, you would absolutely ADORE this rose & cardamom chai. The flavours of rose and whole spices are pronounced in this recipe so it has an unique flavour compared to regular chai.
Preferably, you would use fresh whole spices to make this chai – any other instant versions wouldn’t work as well. For the rose petals, I used dried ones. It’s also important to use a creamy but neutral milk in this recipe, so a barista grade oat milk would work the best.
Tea pulling is also done to aerate and enhance the flavour of tea. This involves pouring the tea back and forth between two containers from a height, creating a frothy texture. The process not only improves the taste by mixing air into the tea but also helps to cool it down slightly, making it more enjoyable to drink – there’s a bit of a theatrical flair to this way of serving as well!
Rose & Cardamom Chai
Equipment
- tea strainer
- 2 metal cups for tea pulling
- pot for boiling tea
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 5 green cardamom pods slightly crushed
- 2 cloves
- 3 slices fresh ginger
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 star anise
- 4 tbsp dried rose petals
- 1 tbsp loose leaf black tea or use 2 black tea bags
- 1.5 tbsp jaggery / coconut sugar / palm sugar add more if you like your chai extra sweet
- 1 cup unsweetened barista oat milk
Instructions
- In a saucepan, bring water to a boil and add the tea leaves, cardamom, ginger, fennel seeds, cloves, star anise and 1.5 tbsp rose petals.
- Simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Add the dairy-free milk, 1.5 tbsp rose petals and sweetener, then bring to a boil again.
- Lower the heat as soon as the mixture bubbles to the top.
- Strain the chai into a metal cup and pull the tea back and forth with another cup a few times until it becomes frothy.
- Pour into cups, top with more dried rose petals and serve!
Pistachio Kulfi Milkshake
Ever had kulfi ice cream topped with pistachios? Kulfi is a popular indian frozen ice cream-like dessert that’s rich and creamy. Traditionally made with milk and flavoured with ingredients like cardamom, saffron, and various nuts including pistachios, kulfi is usually served on a stick or in small cups.
It happens to be what my mum grew up having in Bangalore, India. She always reminisced the times she had a stick of kulfi ice cream on the street – despite it being quite sweet, the treat always reminded her of her young and carefree times.
I wanted to combine the flavours of kulfi ice cream into an easy to drink milkshake, perfect for the festive season or for serving guests. I use my homemade pistachio butter for this recipe.
Pistachio Kulfi Milkshake
Ingredients
- 9-10 oat milk ice cubes
- 1 cup unsweetened oat milk
- 2 scoops vegan vanilla ice cream (you can skip this)
- 2 tbsp pistachio butter
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 2 tbsp sweetener (maple syrup / agave) if necessary
Rim / Garnish
- 3 tbsp crushed pistachios
- 2 tbsp pistachio butter
Instructions
- The night before, freeze oat milk in ice mould trays until frozen.
- In a blender, combine the oat milk ice cubes, oat milk, vanilla ice cream, pistachio butter, cardamom and sweetener. Blend until smooth and creamy.
- If you prefer a thicker texture, you can add more oat milk ice cubes or regular ice cubes. It would give you more of a 'frappe' like texture.
- Spread some pistachio butter on the rims of the glasses. Chop pistachios and coat the rims with crushed pistachios.
- Pour the milkshake into tall glasses. Serve immediately and enjoy!