Mango Lassi

This thick, creamy, delicious Indian mango lassi will quickly become your new go-to. So from now on, you will not miss your Indian restaurant favorite. Because you can make it at home in under 10 minutes.

What Is Mango Lassi?

Lassi is a yogurt-based Indian beverage with a smoothie-like consistency that originated in Punjab. 

Traditionally, Lassi is made by hand-churning homemade yogurt with sugar (or salt & spices to make salted lassi) and water until it is smooth and frothy.

Over time, flavored lassis become popular like this mango lassi, rose lassi, strawberry lassi, etc. 

Mango lassi is a refreshing, cooling beverage made from sweet, ripe mangoes, yogurt, milk, and sugar. It is flavored with cardamom powder and sometimes with rose water. It is often garnished with saffron and pistachios. This is the perfect beverage to beat the summer heat.  

Mango lassi is more popular here in the USA (in Indian restaurants) than in India. 

In India, it usually gets really hot during the summer season. If you are staying out for a long time under the sun, you might be hit with heat stroke (aka lu lagna). To beat this kind of heat stroke, yogurt and other cooling ingredients (like cucumber, and mint) help a lot.

So, most Indians consume yogurt every day during the summer season. It can be in beverage form (lassi, chaas, mint juice) or it can be raita or kadhi.

❤️ You’ll Love This Recipe

• Taste & Texture: Smooth, creamy, thick yet pourable consistency with the right balance of sweetness from mangoes and tartness from the yogurt
• Same as your favorite Indian restaurant: Trust me, follow the ingredient proportion as mentioned and you’ll have the best mango lassi recipe ever. And it might taste even better than the restaurant one. 
• Quick to make: Making homemade mango lassi from fresh mangoes takes just 10 minutes (that includes peeling, chopping mangoes to blending into a blender).
• Easy to make: The method is super simple just like any smoothie recipe, add everything into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into the glass and enjoy.

🧾 Ingredient Notes

You’ll need 5 main ingredients. Plus, 2 garnishing ingredients which are optional. 

Yogurt: 

• Most Indians make yogurt at home, this fresh yogurt is not sour and makes the best lassi. Though you can use store-bought yogurt as well. 
• Highly recommend using full-fat yogurt to get the best creamy texture. However, you can use fat-free or low-fat yogurt but you’ll see the texture difference.
• Always use chilled yogurt right from the fridge.

Mangoes:

• Fresh: I highly recommend using fresh and perfectly ripe, sweet mangoes for making lassi. Slightly unripe or slightly sour mango doesn’t taste good in lassi. So make sure to use ripe mangoes.
  • In India, Alphonso mango (hapus keri) is the best choice. Since it is a little expensive fruit, the next best choice is Kesar. You can mix both as well.
  • Here in the USA, Ataulpho mango (a Mexican fruit) is a good variety to make lassi.
• Frozen: You’ll find the packet of frozen Alphonso mango pulp or chopped mangoes in the freezer section in your nearby Indian grocery stores. You can use that as well. 
• Canned pulp: Or simply use canned mango pulp that is easily available in Indian grocery stores.

Milk: Full-fat whole milk is recommended for a creamy texture. However, you can use low-fat or fat-free milk.

Sugar: A small amount of sugar is needed to make mango lassi perfectly sweet.

Cardamom powder: Take green cardamoms, open the pods, and remove the seeds. Crush these cardamom seeds into a powder using a mortar and pestle. 

Saffron and Pistachios: It is used as a garnishing for a photography purpose, you can easily skip them. 

👩‍🍳 How To Make Mango Lassi? (Pics)

1) Take yogurt, milk, chopped mangoes, sugar, and cardamom powder in a blender.

2) Blend it until smooth.

3, 4) Pour into serving glasses.

5) Garnish with chopped pistachios and saffron. Serve right away. 

💭 Tips To Make BEST Mango Lassi Recipe

The color of mango lassi: The color of the lassi is purely dependent on the variety of mango you used. If using canned mango pulp then you will get a brighter color than mine. Just so you know, I have used ripe Ataulfo mangoes (aka Champagne mangoes) here.

Variations:

• Slightly rose-scented: Add 2 teaspoons of rose water.
• Saffron-flavored: Warm up the milk, add 4-5 crushed saffron stands, and mix. This way saffron will release its color and maximum flavor. Chill this milk in the fridge. Use this saffron-flavored milk while making lassi. 
• Vanilla-flavored: Skip the cardamom powder and add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.
• Cinnamon: Add around ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

🥣 Storage Instructions

• Mango lassi should be consumed fresh (meaning within an hour after making it). As you store, lassi will change its color due to the oxidization of mangoes. 
• However, mango lassi made from canned pulp can be stored in the refrigerator for around 1-2 days.
• Freeze leftovers: Freeze into popsicle molds and you’ll have delicious mango yogurt popsicles ready once frozen. 

Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a review in the comment section below.