Mango Lassi with Cardamom
INDIAN · INDIA

Mango Lassi with Cardamom

आम की लस्सीDessert

Thick, ice-cold and perfumed with green cardamom — the Punjabi dhaba classic done properly. Sweet ripe mango, tangy curd and a hit of cardamom that keeps every sip alive.

Total
10 min
Heat
0/5
Serves
4

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Flavour profile

Heat
Funk
Acid
Richness
Umami
  • Fresh
  • Sour
  • Sweet

The real deal

Region
Punjab, north India — lassi country, where sweet lassi is churned from fresh dahi and served in tall steel glasses.
Technique
Whipping full-fat curd smooth with ripe mango, then chilling hard so it drinks thick — never watery.
We kept
Real whole-milk dahi and fresh green cardamom ground from the pod; no ice cream and no added cream, which would flatten the tang.

Ingredients

4 Serves

Ingredients

  • 600 g · ripe, Alphonso or Kesar if you can get them
  • 400 g · full-fat, cold, well set
  • 2 tbsp · warmed
  • 150 ml · ice cold
  • 6 · pods, seeds only
  • 1 tbsp · optional · only if the mango is shy on sweetness
  • 1 pinch · optional
  • 15 g · optional · blanched, unsalted
  • 50 g · kept in the freezer to chill the glasses
  • 150 g · ice cubes — or freeze the mango chunks instead

Method

  1. Put four tall glasses in the freezer. Everything that goes into a lassi must be colder than cold, or it drinks thin and foamy. Crack 6 under the flat of a knife and pick out the black seeds; throw the husks away. Grind the seeds to a fine powder. Crush 15 g with the side of a knife — you want rubble, not dust, so it stays crunchy on top.

    Warm glasses ruin a lassi faster than a bad mango.

  2. Crumble 1 pinch into a small bowl with a spoonful of warm milk and leave it to bleed gold while you blitz the lassi.

    If you skip this, the saffron stays a red thread and gives nothing.

  3. Whisk 400 g on its own until it's glossy and lump-free. Do this before the mango goes in — lumps of curd in a lassi are unforgivable. Peel and chunk the , cut away any fibrous core, and blitz the flesh to a completely smooth purée. Tinned or frozen pulp works in a pinch, but fresh ripe mango tastes like a different drink.

  4. Blitz whipped curd with mango purée, the rest of the , the ground cardamom and the saffron milk. Taste: it should be sweet enough to feel generous but still sharp. Add 1 tbsp only if the mango is flat — a good ripe mango needs none.

    Sour mangoes must be fixed with sugar, never with more cream.

  5. Drop in 150 g and blitz on high until the drink is frothy and thick enough to coat a spoon. Pour immediately — a lassi left standing separates and dies.

    Ice in the blender makes it cold and airy; ice added after pouring just dilutes it.

  6. Pull the glasses from the freezer, pour in the frothy lassi and finish with the crushed pistachios and a last pinch of ground cardamom over the top. Drink at once, with a spoon for the foam.

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