Friday, July 24, 2009

Strawberry Basil Lassi

A few weeks ago my family attended a wedding/PhD graduation party for a friend from my husband's department at school. She and her husband are from India, so they had Indian food catered for us party goers to enjoy. One of our new Indian discoveries is lassi (pronounced LU-see). It is a smoothie-type drink that is made of watered down yogurt with any combination of fruit, vegetables, or nuts. At this party we had mango lassi and nut lassi. I think my 4-year-old drank about a gallon of the mango lassi. When I googled "basil recipes" I found a lassi recipe that included basil, so that is my recipe for the week. Here it goes:

Strawberry Basil Lassi
from aartilla the fun

Lassi base:
1/2 cup yogurt
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cup water
pinch of salt

For the strawberry part, add:
1 cup strawberries (fresh or frozen, thawed)
2 large basil leaves, torn
1/4 teaspoon or so black pepper

The website I got this recipe from doesn't really have instructions, but it does have a video. I watched the video and this is pretty much what the video says to do: Puree the strawberries in a food processor, then add everything else (start with less water and add more if needed) and mix (still in the food processor). Then enjoy! It shouldn't be too thick. You should be able to drink it through a straw.

The combinations for this are endless. Just start with the yogurt base and you can add anything that you want. I thought the combination of strawberries and basil was going to be gross or weird, but they actually compliment each other pretty well.

I would give this 5 stars. This is cheap and easy to make and I think it would be a hit at a dinner party.

1 comment:

Janelle said...

This sounds good, even though it's one of those combinations I would never think to make. Just now, I found a recipe in on of my food blogs for Strawberry-Basil Sorbet, and immediately thought of your recipe!