Instant Thandai recipe| How to make Thandai Powder & Thandai Paste | No soak, No sugar Thandai | Summer Drink | Holi Special

How to make Instant Thandai | How to make Thandai Powder & Thandai Paste | No soak, No sugar Thandai recipe | Summer Drink | Holi Special with detailed snaps and step-by-step procedure.

The easier recipes are what the busy-go world always looks for, isn't it? The Instant Thandai is one such easiest recipe that is equally healthy & tasty without costing much time.

Thandai - a flavoursome and energizing summer drink most popular in the northern states of India. Thandai is a refreshing festive beverage prepared during the season of Holi and Mahashivratri. Hurray! Holi festival'22 is around the corner, and it's time to welcome the most colourful festival with the most flavourful Thandai drink.

What is Thandai?

Thandai is a milk-based drink infused with dry fruits and whole spices. The power-packed Dry fruits like Almonds, Cashews, Pistachios & Melon seeds along with the flavour-lending spices like cardamom, fennel seeds, poppy seeds & black peppercorns would go into the milk to make the magical drink Thandai.

Authentic Thandai Recipe: (using Thandai Paste)

All the dry fruits (mainly almonds!) and the whole spices should be allowed to soak overnight if we pursue the authentic Thandai making procedure.

The soaked almonds would then be peeled off and blended with the other soaked ingredients like cashews, pistachios, cardamom, fennel seeds, black pepper, poppy seeds, and melon seeds to make the most exotic Thandai paste. 

The freshly prepared Thandai paste would be cooked in the saffron-infused sweetened milk for a while, and then chilled in the refrigerator until the serving period.

Thandai drink using Thandai Powder:

This omits the soaking process and effectively reduces the time since the ingredients are transformed to powder form. Yup! The dry fruits and spices are blended together to make a flavourful Thandai powder. The Thandai powder is then cooked in the sweetened saffron-infused milk and chilled up.

What's Special in my version of Instant Thandai?

No Soak:

No ingredients need to get soaked for the Instant Thandai recipe. No soak, No late! Yes, the Thandai can be prepared instantly.

No Refined Sugar:

Instead of refined sugar, I use palm candy & Honey Gulkand to sweeten my Thandai drink. Both Palm candy and Honey are wellness-lending sweetening agents holding high healing properties. 

Dry-Roasted Spices:

After experimenting, I feel like the dry-roasted spices add loads of flavour to the Thandai drink. The fennel seeds, black peppercorns, cardamom, and poppy seeds are dry-roasted to perfection. This takes less than 2 minutes, and you would be ended with the most delightful drink!

An extra Ingredient for an extra Punch:

Along with the usual ingredients, I add a little dry ginger powder that gives the right heat to the Thandai drink. Just like the black peppercorns, dry ginger works great giving the right punch & great taste to the Thandai drink.

I also add a little turmeric powder along with the saffron strands to fade away the whitish show of the Thandai drink. 

Chilled Milk (or Warm Milk):

Instead of cooking up the Thandai masala in the milk & then refrigerating, I choose to mix chilled up milk with the prepared Thandai paste. This makes the Instant Thandai drink that can be enjoyed immediately. Most often, I add warm milk and it tastes great even with the warm milk.

So, if you are in a jiffy, my instant version of Thandai is ready to give a full refreshment with very little effort and time. Also, I have shown the way to prepare Instant Thandai powder and Instant Thandai Paste. The Thandai powder can be refrigerated for up to 2 months, and can be used to prepare Thandai anytime. 

Flavour-up the Thandai:

The classic Thandai can be flavoured up, and transformed into any fruit-based, herb-based or any flavour-based Thandai. Rose Thandai, Mango Thandai, Paan Thandai, and Chocolate Thandai are the most common flavour-ups in the Thandai drink.

Add a few fresh mango pieces along with the Thandai powder or Thandai paste, and blend along with the milk to get the Mango Thandai. A few Betel leaves added would transform the drink into Paan Thandai. Add a few chocolate chips or chocolate syrup to the Thandai to make it a Chocolate Thandai. You could choose to flavour up your Thandai with whatever fruit, floral or herb as per your desire, and true to say, the flavour options are endless.

Health Benefits of Thandai:

• Best Energizer
• Excellent Body Coolant
• Stress Reliever
• 100% Nutrient-packed beverage
  

Coming from the health perspective, Thandai wins the race. Each ingredient in the Thandai has its health benefits. The poppy seeds and Gulkand makes the body cool from inside which in turn makes the Thandai drink a very excellent body coolant. The immunity-building fennel seeds, stress-relieving poppy seeds, throat-soothing black peppercorns, flavour-lending cardamom pods, and the nutrient-packed nuts like almonds, cashews, pistachios, melon seeds & pumpkin seeds turn Thandai into an unusually superb health drink. Addedly, my version of Instant Thandai uses dry ginger & turmeric, and both of them are well known medicinal roots.

Furthermore, I use cow's milk for making Thandai. The dry fruits used help to make the rich & creamy Thandai denying the need of using full-fat milk. The taste of the Thandai just sticks to the mouth giving perfect sweetness, perfect flavour, and perfect heat on each sip. Come, let's do the easiest and Instant Thandai recipe.

If you are interested in some more beverages, please visit

Instant Nuts Milkshake - Kids special

Pink Tea

Kashmiri Kahwa

Hibiscus Tea & Sharbat

Dry Drumstick Leaves Tea

Paan Syrup - for Paan Sharbat

Rose Syrup - for Rose milk & Rose Sharbat

Ginger Mint Lemonade - Refreshment & Immunity drink

Gooseberry Juice - Immunity builder

Have you tried this recipe?

If so, take a snap & tag '@packthesnack_' on Instagram. 

⏲ Preparation Time: 15 minutes 

🍴  Servings: 3 to 4

 Instant Thandai recipe

---

The very flavourful, body cooling, milk-based summer drink blended with dry fruits, saffron, and other ingredients like fennel seeds, poppy seeds & black peppercorns.

 

What do you need? [1 cup = 240ml]

• Fennel seeds - 1 tbsp
• Poppy seeds - 1 tbsp
• Cardamom pods - 6
• Black peppercorns - 1/2 tsp
• Dry ginger powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
  
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
  
• Palm candy - 1/4 cup
• Almonds - 12
• Cashews - 12
• Pistachios - 1 tbsp
• Melon seeds - 1 tbsp
• Pumpkin seeds - 1 tbsp (optional)
  
• Water - 2 tbsp
• Gulkand - 2 tbsp
• Milk - 3 cups
• Saffron strands - a few

Steps Involved:

• Dry roast fennel seeds, poppy seeds, black peppercorns, and cardamom pods until they turn flavourful. Transfer to a mixer jar.
• Add dry ginger powder, turmeric powder, saffron strands, and palm candy to the mixer jar.
• Grind to get a very fine powder.
• To the ground powder, add almonds, cashews, pistachios, melon seeds, and pumpkin seeds.
• Grind to get the flavourful Instant Thandai Powder.
• Add water, gulkand, and blend again to get the Instant Thandai paste.
• For each cup of chilled milk, add 2 tablespoons of Thandai paste and mix thoroughly.
• Strain out, top with some chopped nuts & saffron strands, and serve chilled.
  

Visual Treat: 

 Video link for "Instant Thandai recipe" post:

https://youtu.be/1moV-vZXdV8

 

Subscribe to our YouTube channel (packthesnack)!
Stay Connected on YouTube, Facebook & Instagram(@packthesnack_)!

For comforting the easy understandability of the recipe, the step by step, detailed procedure, along with the picture is shown below:

Step-by-Step Procedure with Pictures

---

How to Make?

Instant Thandai Powder:

• Add 1 tablespoon of fennel seeds, 1 tablespoon of poppy seeds, 1/2 teaspoon of black peppercorns, and 6 cardamom pods to a pan.

• Dry roast until the ingredients turn flavourful.

• Transfer to a mixer jar.

• Add 1/4 teaspoon of dry ginger powder.

• Also, add 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric powder.

• Add a few saffron strands as well. 

• Now add 1/4 cup of palm candy. 

• Grind everything together to get a very fine powder.

• Now, add 12 almonds to the mixer jar.

• Add 12 cashews.

• Add a tablespoon of pistachios.

• Add a tablespoon of melon seeds.

• Add a tablespoon of pumpkin seeds.

• Grind to get a flavourful Thandai powder.

Instant Thandai:

• Add 2 tablespoons of water to the Thandai powder.

• Add 2 tablespoons of Gulkand.

• Grind well to get the Instant Thandai paste.

• Add the Thandai paste to a big bowl. For each cup of milk, add 2 tablespoons of Thandai paste. I have added 6 tablespoons of Thandai paste.
  

• Add 3 cups of boiled & chilled milk to the Thandai paste. You can add warm milk as well.

• Mix very well until well combined. If doing a small batch, Add chilled milk along with the Thandai paste, and blend well in a blender.

• Strain out to get rid of the residue. The residue may hinder the heavenly Thandai drinking experience. So, filter out the residue, and enjoy!
  

• Top the Thandai drink with chopped nuts and saffron strands.

• Serve Instant Thandai hot or cold.

Tips:

• Dry roasting the spices would turn the Thandai drink very flavoursome.
• You can add more palm candy or more honey gulkand to add more sweetness to the Thandai drink. 
  
• Thandai powder can be prepared and stored in the refrigerator for 2 months.
• The prepared Thandai powder makes 1 litre of Thandai drink.
• I use cow's milk for making Thandai. For a more rich & creamy Thandai drink, you can use full-fat milk.

Healthy! Yummy! Flavoursome!