Thandai Powder is an aromatic, flavorful blend of nuts, seeds, and spices. Thandai Powder is a versatile masala powder that you easily make at home.
With the flavors of cardamom, saffron, rose and loaded with nuts, this powder is great to flavor your milk or use in desserts!
Ingredients
- Nuts – I have used almonds and cashew nuts. You can use pistachios and walnuts too.
- Spices – Green cardamom (hair elaichi) add a beautiful flavor, whereas black peppercorns (kali mirch) give a hint of heat to thandai.
- Seeds – You will need melon seeds (magaj), white poppy seeds (posta dana), and fennel seeds (saunf). These seeds are readily available at Indian grocery stores. If poppy seeds are unavailable where you live, you can skip adding them to the recipe.
- Saffron – Saffron strands add richness and also a hint of yellow color. It is optional, though.
- Dry Rose Petals – This is optional.
½ cup whole almonds
½ cup whole cashew nuts
25-30 whole black peppercorns
20-25 whole green cardamom
2 tablespoon white poppy seeds
2 tablespoon fennel seeds
2 tablespoon melon seeds
15-20 strands of saffron
2 tablespoon dried rose petals
How to make Thandai powder:
- Mix ingredients to the medium grinder or food processor jar and grind to make a fine powder.
- Note – You can also dry roast the ingredients on low flame for 3-4 minutes before grinding to enhance their flavor even more.
- Do not over-grind; otherwise, the nuts will release their oil, and the powder will become sticky. Just pulse a few times. Then let the mixture cool down for 5 minutes. Pulse again and keep cooling the mixture in between. Pulse until a powder is made.
- Store the powder in an airtight jar at room temperature for up to a week.
To make Thandai using homemade Thandai powder, heat full-fat milk in a pan over medium heat.
Once the milk comes to a boil, add 1 tablespoon of Thandai masala powder per cup and cook for 2-3 minutes for the flavors to seep into the milk.
Add sugar to taste and cook for another minute for it to dissolve.
Refrigerate the milk for 1-2 hours or until chilled. Strain it using a fine-mesh strainer, nut milk bag, or a muslin cloth
